My notes and thoughts on the WPS restructuring meeting Doherty Quadrant 4/12

Superintendent Dr. Boone said she is "truly listening."

"There are no actions in my hip pocket or in my purse that are going to be sprung on you in September," according to Boone. "I am not here to reconfigure your schools. [This] doesn't mean we are ready to implement, that we have a preference."


IF that is all true, than it certainly is a relief to me and many of my fellow Westsiders who have children in the public schools and are NOT in favor of extended days and reconfigured grade levels. A couple of things that went on in the meeting led me to have my doubts as to the Administration's transparency, however. There were no microphones available, so one could barely hear the public comments and questions. Comments and suggestions were directed to be put in writing on the input pages that were distributed...a paper that had very little blank space and no section for comments. On the "survey" each attendee was directed to register their opinions on a 1 to 5 scale. All statements were written in a manner like this: I am in favor of extending the school day. A 1 was low, a five was 5. That doesn't seem like a survey designed to see if parents are in favor of something to me. They actually didn't provide a method of registering that you are not in favor of the plan.


I wrote in "no," and I understand that at least one other table put zeros in. My husband tells me this will actually probably just serve to invalidate our results when they score it. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the way this survey was designed was to show some level of approval from parents for these proposals, not actually gather their input. What about all the people who may have written 1 to register their disagreement, not realizing that technically it registers a low level of agreement?


One of the saddest moments of this meeting for me was when Dr. Boone said, "One of the things I struggle with is that we have no elementary librarians." Now here is an education administrator coming into our district from a southern urban district who is basically horrified that Worcester doesn't even have school librarians. People in Worcester become so accustomed to things just being the way it is even if you KNOW something isn't right. As a library volunteer at my own children's school and a parent who has instilled in my own children a love of books and reading, I just cannot imagine how politicians and city and school administrators can't see any connection between denying children access to books and the fact that they can't read. If you can't read, you are not going to be able to perform well on standardized tests or succeed in school as far as I can tell. Just saying.