Trailwood - Traditional vs Charter Public schools

Greetings all,

I jump into the echo chamber with some reservation, but on the chance that somebody who actually is looking for information happens to stumble upon this thread I want to clarify some things.

First there was no committee related to the Trailwood site. There were a couple of different meetings that all members of the community were invited to. There were a couple of people that were new to the discussions, but otherwise it was the meeting regulars. The intent of the meetings were to get an idea about areas of academic focus that community members would like to see for the next school (i.e. should it be focused on the arts, should it work to address the tactile learners, one of personal favorites was actually put forward by Tom related to a Business type focus). Trailwood was the focus for a couple of reasons, a.) because BLR was going to build the building regardless of choices that we made, and b.) it would allow us to have a school that was centrally located to relieve pressure from schools that are overcrowded, but also schools that will become overcrowded when building starts back up.

Next understand that “developers" don’t want to hire teachers or principals, operate Charter Public Schools or any other for that matter. What they want is to sell houses and schools that are overcrowded do NOT help sell house. Having schools nearby is also a strong selling point. In an area that truly can NOT build all of the schools that are needed (let alone the difficulties associated with actually passing a bond or Mill Levy increase in this part of El Paso county), Charter Public Schools allow us to NOT have year round schools, to NOT stuff more kids in modulars, and allow parents a chance to target the specific learning style of their child. Since our Bonding capacity (the total amount of money that a District can issue debt for, similar to a credit limit) is only about 75% of the total needed to build all of the facilities we need for all of the district students, we need other ways to keep class sizes low. While we as a District cannot raise all of the funds necessary to build for all of our needs we can Lease additional space. The Trailwood facility would allow for the District to have a centrally located facility to reduce overcrowding and the developers would have a school nearby to help sell homes, as Covey would suggest a WIN-WIN solution.

Finally the issue related to ‘charter schools take money from public education’. I have to admit that I continue to be amazed at this line of reasoning. The money follows the student. I don’t see anyone expressing a displeasure with the fact that students can go to another school District, the result is the same for parents who choose to send their child to a Charter Public School, the money follows the child. The difference is that in addition to the 3% of Per Pupil Operating Revenue (PPOR) the District retains, when we accept a Charter Public Shool in D-49 we have a contract to which we can hold them accountable. I know that this will be twisted and used out of context, but one of the beauties of Charter Public Schools is actually their ability to fail. If parents STOP sending their child to these schools, if the rigor is not up to the standard that a parent wants, or for any other reason that the operation becomes unsustainable they have to close. How long were schools in D-11 left open when their operations became unsustainable? If they are successful they flourish, if not they close.

Understand that when people want to criticize Charter Public Schools in D-49, they are advocating for larger class sizes, year round school, and/ or they don’t trust the decisions that parents make for their children. Are Charter Public Schools any better than the traditional system? For some yes, for others no (just like any of our schools). Granted most of the distaste for Charter Public Schools comes from the fact that most of them are not Unionized and therefore the teachers rarely get tenure or the state mandated equivalent for teachers in a system over 3 years. This leaves teachers more overtly accountable for their results. Some teachers are more comfortable with this situation than others. Additionally if we were to try and do without the Charter Public Schools we would need to find over 50 classrooms to house the students. We could just try and add them into the classes that we already have but that is 5 kids per elementary class (where the majority of Charter Public Schools student populations currently exist).

FYI If I keep up with this discussion any further, it will be sporadic at best. Therefore if you have any questions that I can answer or assist with, please feel free to email me at kent@kentclawson.com.

Respectfully Submited,

Kent

kent@kentclawson.com
http://www.kentclawson.com

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