South End Board of Education Forum on Redistricting
Conducted on Monday July 8th
Town Notification filed on June 26th, Facebook Notification Monday, July 8th
Board of Education website notification and agenda listing: None
Editor’s Note: Forum sparsely attended following short notice from Board of Education following a push from Democratic Board of Education Members to hold a public forum for South End residents.
Alex Rodriguez: As a former Board of Education member and a current educator I understand firsthand the complexities involved in making decisions that impact our district and our students. It is with this perspective that I’m here today. We are one of the families impacted by the proposed redistricting plan. Our child has been an integral part of their current School Community since kindergarten and with only one year left before transitioning to the next stage of their education, we firmly believe that continuity in their educational environment and track is crucial for their well-being and academic success. I am aware that in other districts students have been grandfathered into their current schools when facing a similar situation. This policy acknowledges the significant impact that changing schools can have on students, especially after they have spent many years establishing relationships with peers and teachers in their current environment. I respectfully request that the board consider implementing a grandfathering clause for students who are affected by the proposed redistricting plan. This approach would not only prioritize the best interests of our children, but also uphold the values of stability and community that are essential to their educational journey. I appreciate your dedication to serving our district and ensuring that decisions made reflect the needs of all students. I am confident that together we can find a solution that supports our children during this critical time of their transition.
Robert Benet: My son will be one of the ones impacted by this redistricting plan. He encountered a very traumatic experience at a very young age, and he’s been attending Eli Whitney for a long time now and his counselors are aware, everybody in the school is aware of it, and they’ve been very supportive. His counselor has been incredible with understanding everything that he’s gone through, and so while I’m not saying anything about you, the staff at Chapel. I don’t know. Maybe things would be fine, but the thing is everybody is aware of the situation right now. So I agree with Alex Rodriguez in that grandfathering in students would be a really good idea. And especially, he’s going going to fourth grade, so socially it would be very difficult for him to just start over new. I mean we’ve been at our address since 2008, and choosing that location was paramount due to the school district. I’ve been a taxpayer here for 42 years, my entire life, and I have nothing negative to say about Stratford. This has been a fantastic place to live my entire life, but this is the first time I’ve ever attended anything to do with the town just because it would impact my son so greatly. I really would think something like grandfathering students would really help us.
Christina Walsh: “I’m not sure you’ll be able to answer my question, but since I just walked in, listening about the whole redistricting thing, and rumors, and things that are being said, I just wanted to know how does that affect the children that are waivered into High School? This is affecting me personally, and other children that we are family and friends with. We were Stratford Academy kids and were affected. You were our principal for the first year when we were waivered into Second Hill Lane, and being there was an experience for us. We were more concerned of what would happen if she went into middle school, high school, keeping the friends that she had, not having to start over again. My daughter has high anxiety, most children now have a lot of anxiety. Obviously we do seek help for that, but my concern is the change again. She is a sophomore in high school so hopefully it won’t affect her, but I do know that the amount of change that has happened in her little life of 15 years has been enough that has caused some trauma, and it’s a constant work that we’re doing at our home and at school. Thank God they have amazing help at school and it’s just been really great, but I’m really hoping you’ll take how the change can really affect these kids, and moving forward, if you are going to be doing that, what more help are you going to offer? I did see the email that there is money to providing more help for children with anxiety, but that’s all I read. I don’t know how to access it and I don’t know when I can access that information and how to get the help.
Colleen Hargo: “It’s very unfortunate that after five meetings in an open forum that this is the solution we’ve met with. There are parents who have come forward and forced concerns or even offered suggestions, and their words have fallen on deaf ears. But what else is new with the Board of Ed and Stratford? We also have parents who have openly rejected the thought of our children in their schools, as if a child’s right to a public education corresponds with how much they paid for their house. And we expect our children to feel safe and accepted in these other schools. Do better, Stratford. I personally do not believe that this decision will make the impact we’re hoping for, and that we’ll unfortunately still have overcrowded underfunded schools and nobody else suffers more from it than our children, and especially the Johnson House students. This is trauma over and over again for Johnson House. It’s clear everywhere that Johnson House families are not first, but are always last in this town and is BOE really that far detached from its neighbors? Keep doing great work Stratford BOE — you’re killing it – literally!!!!!
Sasha lanzi: I’ve been in Stratford for over 18 years now. Both my children attended Stratford Academy, my son attended both, before and after the last redistricting that was done. With all the changes I’ve seen firsthand, what happens during this? I was very involved in the school, I watched as the magnet label, regardless of how you feel about it, was taken away. I saw the people with the loudest voices about that redistricting not impacted by it. And some of the people making the decisions tonight, unfortunately your children, if you have them, will be impacted by it. And some, if you don’t have children in the district—and it’s very frustrating for some of the parents to watch as their children have decisions made for them in this manner—that they’re going to uproot them. Everyone says children are resilient. I was in this school after the redistricting. I saw that these children were not as resilient as all the adults hoped they would be, and some of these children suffered, so I hope that this will be done with great care. But I must admit, I was almost pleased to see the article that came out about how the board really wanted to hear from the South End parents, and how they really wanted to hear what we all had to say, and you wanted our take and our thoughts, and I thought…. finally the Johnson House parents, the Franklin parents, the Lordship parents — all of us could be heard. And then before this meeting, you’d already voted on it, you already made a decision, you’ve already thought that you knew better than all the parents of the children in the school. This school is woefully over packed with kids. Stratford lost our magnet program, Stratford lost their ALPs program, Stratford’s ALPHA is going away, too. How much do we keep taking away and taking away, and then say well, why are we an Alliance District? Why are we struggling? There’s no consistency. Stratford Academy hasn’t had a consistent principle in years. Y’all stripped away the superintendent, the head guy who was supposed to be consistent. Took him away, and none of the parents know why, because it’s all a big secret, right? Our voices aren’t heard and it’s disappointing because parents voted you in, taxpayers voted you in, and yet you don’t want to hear what we have to say. This is all for show, and I think we all know that you got to do better! Just do better!!
Jill D’Angelo-Powers (D), Board of Education Member: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. I am on the BOE, but I am a parent of two students here at Stratford Academy Johnson House. I’ve been involved in this with the Board of Ed ever since they moved the Victoria Soto kids over to Johnson House a few years ago. That’s when I started to get involved, and ever since then I’ve been seeing a lot of inequities, particularly with this school. And it’s inspired me to speak out and start running for the Board of Ed, and trying to represent the families here at Stratford Academy because they really need representation. Throughout this process we’ve been hearing over and over how they don’t want the Stratford Academy kids to go to their school. What does that do to our students that are going to eventually go there? I just want you to keep that in mind. Are they going to feel safe in the new school they go to? And it’s pretty hurtful when you feel like they’re not welcome there. I would like to say that also, not every District in Stratford has a neighborhood school. So if we’re doing neighborhood school model, then where do the neighborhoods that don’t have a school go? That’s part of the reason that Johnson House is overcrowded. When Center School closed, all the kids from Center School were fed into the Johnson Community. But that’s actually the historic district and doesn’t have a neighborhood school. So I think we need to consider that. I don’t think that we need to rush this through. If we’re not really fixing the racial imbalance problems that we currently have, what are we really doing? We’re moving kids again, and traumatizing them over and over. Someone else already talked about the instability. Well, my daughter’s going into third grade. She’s already moved schools once, now she’s going to move schools again. Each time these students move schools, they have more trauma, more inconsistency. Since Stratford Academy was magnetized they’ve seen how many principles? Five principles in the past six years. We had one principle for two years in a row, and now that person is gone. These are all inconsistencies, and as the inconsistencies happen, behavioral issues start to rise. I believe there’s a correlation between those inconsistencies. So I just want to highlight those things and as someone did say – I am affected, I am on the board, I am affected by this, but I’ve been trying to take out my personal feelings on it because I am a board member. But I also want to bring to light that we need to listen to our community. If they’re telling us that this isn’t going to work for them, we need to actually listen to them and not just put a face to it, okay? Because there’s not one of us that can be re-elected right now. We ran, there’s no re-election, so what is in it for everybody? We need to really think about our students. That’s what we’re here for—the students.
Rebecca Cardoo: The thing I wanted to bring up today is just the fact that as someone whose daughter has been in the school system—she was at Stratford Academy and then moved to Johnson Academy—I have been hearing and listening and watching. The fact is that it seems like more and more the students at this school, particularly, are having things taken from them, and that there is absolutely no support for my daughter or for any of the kids here. The resources are constantly being taken, the funding is constantly being changed, and now all of a sudden the kids are being forced to move. Sure, it’s not happening this coming year, but it is happening for the following year, and the problem is that all of these bonds that these kids are making are not being able to be solidified. I think the fact is that there hasn’t really been a conversation, it has just been a decision that’s been made, and then, all of a sudden arbitrarily, you guys have thought to ask what the parents have thought. Is it going to be detrimental to these kids and to my kid, because all of a sudden she’s going to find, and it seems like it’s the pattern, that things are just going to constantly keep repeating. Yes, some kids struggle with that, and some kids flourish with that, but we need to be able to support everybody across the board, and I think it’s something that the Board of Ed really needs to take into consideration. The fact that something solid and a solid plan that is discussed between you, the teachers, the schools, and the parents, need to be figured out so that we stop tearing these kids away from their friends, away from the places that they know, and we really do come up with a solution, because right now it just seems like our town and our schools are starting to suffer, and they’re suffering more and more, and it’s just getting worse and worse, and these solutions that you’re coming up with are not really solutions. They’re just forced decisions upon us the parents, the teachers, and the kids. There is really no progress happening, so I would strongly urge and hope that you, as the Board of Education, really take into consideration, put away any political ideologies and just realize the fact that it is the kids who will be our future. Who, you know, as cheesy as it sounds, they are the ones that we will be relying upon in the future. We need to do better by them, and you better by the parents, and have it being an open conversation and not just decisions thrown at us and trying to scramble at the last minute to make it happen.
Jill Wright: My son goes to Eli Whitney. He will be affected by this scenario. I feel like I should be emailing everything, I feel like I’m not going to touch on everything, but I feel like if I don’t get up here and say something, I’m doing a disservice to my child. So I want to point out that I feel like there was a difference in the way that we were notified in regards to upcoming forums, meetings, in the, I guess it’s the Stratford newsletter, School newsletter, that we get in our emails versus the way we were notified about this particular meeting this time around, after the decision was made. I actually pointed that out to a few other parents and they had noticed that as well. So I feel like if I can get a text from the school or the school system that says we’re closing at 12:30 today for early dismissal, or something last minute for heat, or anything like that that, you know that the school system sends out to us to let us know, I feel like this is a big thing—what’s happening, it’s a very big thing, and I feel like I don’t think that all the people that have been here have been to both forums. I just feel like there’s more people that would be speaking up. I don’t feel like they’ve been notified properly. I guess you know there’s probably a lot of parents that maybe aren’t on Facebook, maybe aren’t on their kids Facebook, School Facebook page, which was the way we were notified about a lot of things. A lot of parents, as you know, probably just don’t check their email on a regular basis here, for the notification for things. You did give an opportunity for people to come and speak and voice their questions. I don’t feel like this is it. I know that you had said that you didn’t get a lot of questions from people or push back or anything like that, which I guess may have helped you make the decision on throwing together a last minute meeting to vote on a scenario. But I don’t think this is it, and I think there’s a reason for that, and I think it has something to do with Board of Education notifications to the school system. My son will be moved in his fifth grade year, we’ve made tons of friends, he’ll make tons of friends wherever he goes. I honestly have no doubt that he will do well wherever he goes. You know it’s the greater good that we’re all searching for at every single school. We want every child to have the same opportunities and everything else. I just hope you consider the fact that some of these kids have been in the school and this is their last year. It could really be detrimental for them, so I hope you consider grandfathering. There’s so much more to say, I’ll send an email. I realize it’s a tough decision and that this is a position where you’re not going to make everyone happy, but I just really hope you consider every single option, possibility, everything, even maybe calling in families who are going to be affected and get their individual input on it. Why not? I don’t think this is it. I don’t think we are the only ones that are concerned, and I think they need you to look at why there’s a low turnout.
Closing Comments by BOE Chairman Mike Hendrick:
I guess our next steps that we’re going to be looking at is how we implement this change. There are a number of different factors. What age groups are we beginning at? Are we going to grandfather? Will there be waivers? How do we deal with the busing? How do we deal with families who are in the same school? The grandfathering of certain age groups – there’s a lot of variables in this and we’re going to spend part of the summer and probably the beginning of the next school year going through that. Put some committees together. We’ll do our best to keep you guys notified as how we’re doing it, when those meetings are, how you can get the information. If you’ve got some suggestions on a better way to get out the information, let us know and we’ll we’ll try to do it. It was our intent to let as many people know and create as many opportunities as possible for people to come and speak, and we do listen, so whether you believe it or not, we do, and we’re all impacted. We all have different ways of looking at things so we’re going to continue the process and as I think the last speaker said, we’re not going to make everybody happy but we’re going to do our best to take in consideration the needs of all the students and see what’s best. That being said we’re going to adjourn this meeting, hope everybody enjoys the summer stay tuned because there obviously be more to follow. I want to thank you for coming out and voicing your opinion.
Editor’s Note: The following letter is from Acting Superintendent of Stratford Schools Heather Borges, dated Thursday, July 11th. The Stratford Crier would like to request that any parent of students in the Stratford Schools System that reaches out to the Board of Education please cc [email protected] so that we may track the responsiveness of the BOE. Thank you.
