Last year I had the great honor of serving with a group of parents working toward attaining equitable resources at Hugh Cole Elementary, here in Warren. It was this group -- a group of dedicated, involved parents -- that was the catalyst for staffing improvements at Hugh Cole, not the Warren members of the School Committee. Here is what happened. During the 2013-14 school year, the student population at Hugh Cole, which has been rising for the last few years, swelled to roughly 680. In reaction to this population swell and to keep the student-teacher ratio in check, the School Committee decided to add classes. Sounds good. EXCEPT that the committee failed to take into account the specialists at the school, which include the Library, Physical Education, Music, and Art teachers. So, while the classroom teachers’ class populations did not grow, the specialists’ classes did, significantly, resulting in an inadequate match of specialists to students. That is how our Parent Advisory Group, as it came to be known, was born. Since most of the parents in the group volunteer in the school on a weekly basis, we were already aware that there was a problem. Many of us, including myself, were volunteering in areas, such as the library, that were the hardest hit. Our job was not easy, even after it was acknowledged that what happened with the specialists was an oversight and that the School Committee inadvertently overlooked them when finding a way to solve the population swell issue. The process took almost an entire school year, during which our group heard little of any steps being taken to remedy the situation. We continued to request and attend meetings with the Superintendent and the School Committee for progress reports, and held them accountable until improvements were made. I want you to know that if I am elected to the School Committee, I will push for these kinds of issues to be addressed with urgency. Neither our children nor our teachers should have to pay the price of oversight and inaction.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 19:11:31 +0000
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