Manson, WA - The attendance at Wednesday evening's school board meeting at Manson Elementary was high as over 100 concerned parents listened and asked questions about the policies, procedures and future direction of the school. Superintendent Steve McKenna directed an excersise he called the Delta Plus, where attendees could write their veiws about what could be changed (delta) and what is currently good in the system (plus). The attendees were provided yellow sticky notes that could be placed on the Delta or Plus boards located at the front of the meeting.
Britt Hawkins gave a presentation on behalf of concerned parents that covered the following: (from the original letter to the board)
Enrichments:
1 - Spanish. We are in agreement that Spanish should be an optional enrichment, not a required, core class.
2 - Special education. We are in agreement that there is not enough contact time between special needs students and certified teachers.
3 - Leveling in Math. We want Math to be leveled in the same manner as Reading so no one is left behind and yet no one is bored.
4 - Expectations of students are too low. All students suffer when the core teaching is designed/aimed for the failing student(s).
Longer school day for students:
1 - Students are not provided with adequate time to eat their lunch in a healthy manner.
2 - We are extremely displeased with the limited recess time.
3 - Non-compliance with the state requirements for PE (100 minutes per week) is unacceptable.
4 - “Late start” begins too late in the day to be desirable, and we dislike the regular start time of 8:50.
Recess:
1 - We strongly believe a morning recess is needed, rather than students sitting on the stage, waiting for peers to eat breakfast.
2 - We want more regularly scheduled breaks from learning, as we believe this would be beneficial to both students and teachers.
Class Size:
1 - Class size is especially frustrating given the low WASL scores.
2 - Students are currently not being challenged with a reasonable amount of homework to adequately be prepared for higher-level education We believe our certified teachers are not being effectively utilized.
School Atmosphere:
1 - The level of disrespect given to Teachers & Staff in the building is unacceptable.
2 - The general frustration, resulting from the above issues, is transferring to the children.
3 - If nothing changes, we will continue to lose great students . . . and then great teachers.
Britt Hawkin's presentation was followed up by Steve McKenna with some clarification of the meaning of WASL scoring and some pitfalls encountered when comparing the scores to other schools.
Click here for a video of Britt Hawkins presentation
Dow Jones
