Thank you to Richmond parent Jennifer Gingrich for attending the SACET meeting on 11/4/14 and reporting back to our community; her meeting summary is below. You can read the PTA’s response to the SACET recommendations here.
Meeting Summary:
- The superintendent was very pleased with the Report and the work of the SACET. She commended the group for its efforts, which required tackling very tough issues. She provided overall feedback that SACET had developed thoughtful recommendations.
- The superintendent said that staff will consider the recommendations and reflect on school impacts on Thursday, with participation by focus option schools on Friday.
- There was a lot of positive feedback provided at the meeting to the SACET members that the recommendations were very courageous. There was positive feedback at how well the SACET did at talking to / getting information from targeted groups.
- The superintendent reminded the SACET members that their role was to advise her directly, which is why they were able to have some private meetings.
- There were a number of Q&As, many of which were either clarifying or got at how SACET came up with its recommendations. There were some concerns expressed about how the proposals will work in implementation and how families and schools will be prepared for the transition. Questions related to implementation (such as transportation, funding, messaging to families) were beyond SACET’s scope. When asked if the members had considered grandfathering, the members said that they had talked about it but it was not an area of focus. Throughout their work SACET members had identified many parking lot issues.
- The superintendent said that the next question is to consider what is needed for implementation. She said that the SACET members may need to regroup after the Board meeting.
Informal Discussions with Meeting Participants:
I got a few takeaways from my informal discussions after the meeting. First, one underlying goal of the SACET members is to force the discussion about why we have focus option schools. For example, if a focus option school is intended to meet a particular child’s unique educational requirements—such as a focus in math or the arts—why is that focus option prioritized for a sibling that may not have the same educational needs as opposed to being open to other children?
I asked what type of feedback would be helpful from interested parents and was told that feedback on the policy was less helpful but that parents should provide concrete solutions about what they think their family would need if the recommendations are adopted. Additionally, I was told that schools like Richmond should be asking themselves how they could be part of the solution. So, an important principle for Richmond parents to raise to the superintendent and Board is to communicate that Richmond would like to be engaged in a dialogue on these issues so that we can support SACET’s objectives (and more specifically support the success of the students SACET seeks to place in Richmond) in a way that would also do as little harm as possible to families and the school.
Please attend the school board meeting on Monday, November 10th, 6:30pm at BESC!