[Editor’s Note: Throughout the School District community, Robert Gray is regarded as one of the most ardent and best informed activists. He opens with a note to the newspaper.]
I've been writing e-mails to parents and residents concerning our schools.
Below is actually a chain that contains a few of the e-mails I sent out/wrote. Some are in response to parents’ responses, some are actually the parents’ responses themselves. (I took off names when I forwarded e-mails I received from parents.
—– Original Message —–
From: Robert Gray
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 6:37 PM
Subject: A Parent's Response – CCUSD Enrollment (Go to the Candidate Forums!)
I've received many e-mails in response to the ones I've sent recently. Some very informative and enlightening. Almost all supportive. Below is a sobering email from a parent. My response is that these are our schools. School District personnel work at our pleasure through our School Board whom we elect. We shouldn't be losing any students. We have a great Middle School and high school. They shouldn't be pushed to their enrollment limits with new permits at the secondary level.
Robert Gray
Hi –
I think we're definitely past the point where we are beginning to lose local families in Middle School and high school. When our oldest child was in K or first grade, about four or five years ago, I was astounded to hear parents of his classmates casually talking about which private middle schools they were considering for their kids.
They didn't even give a first thought, let alone a second thought, to Culver City Middle School. For them, Culver City schooling naturally ends at fifth grade.
I have even heard of one case where a child left the School District after fourth grade because there is less competition for fifth grade slots than sixth grade slots (when, apparently, proportionally more people flee public schools) at the target K-8 private school.
As long as the School District keeps back-filling with permit students, there is no incentive for the establishment to change anything, or to even question the status quo. They make their enrollment numbers. They get their state money. Life goes on… And kids continue to leave.
Also, the education establishment has long considered money and quality the flip sides of the same what-is-best-for-kids coin.
So there should be no surprise that the School District chases down every last Average Daily Attendance dollar. I don't realistically see that changing any time soon.
[Undisclosed Parent]
—– Original Message —–
From: Robert Gray
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 11:43 AM
Subject: Response to Culver City Parent – CCHA School Board Candidates Forum
Below is roughly the reply I sent to a former parent leader at one of our elementary schools, a strong believer in public education. In a subsequent response to my email below, he volunteered that while his children started at Culver City schools, he had moved them to private schools to complete their education and noted it was sad.
Dear Parent
I think you misunderstand my position toward permits.
I usually go out of my way to explain I'm pro-permit (just not so many new ones). To be clear, I'm not anti-permit nor do I have negative perceptions about permits. I've always advocated that anything we do should benefit permit and resident students equally.
We have great permits families at Farragut. One of our best friends is a permit parent. She was Farragut's Parent of the Year last year.
Contributions made by her and her husband put my wife and me to shame. But, the fact is, we have been adding hundreds of new permits (permit students who did not attend our elementary schools) at our secondary level schools in recent years — and this has dramatically increased their enrollments.
Our School Board hasn't engaged parents and the community in a discussion of whether this should have been done. They just did it and hid the details about how many permits we've been taking.
As I'm sure you are aware, two years ago we took so many new permits at the Middle School that we had to make an emergency purchase of portable classrooms, which still sit on the playground (over 1,740 students that year). Our secondary enrollments are extremely high, both on an absolute basis and historically.
I've done my own research and spoken to experts about school size (former superintendents, college professors who specialize in elementary education).
No one I've found thinks running diverse secondary schools as large as ours are a good thing. The experts I spoke to think they should be much smaller, but still big enough to offer the range of desirable classes. One educator described a middle school in the 1,700-student range as unhealthy.
It seems like common sense to me the benefits of smaller enrollments at our Middle School and high school.
I confirmed this with people who should know. The argument about our secondary enrollments is not that permit students are bad. It’s that our enrollments are too high, and we have a choice without negatively affecting any existing permit family.
Every student would benefit if we can make lower secondary enrollments work financially.
If we simply let our existing elementary students matriculate to our secondary schools without adding hundreds of new permit students, I believe our schools would be much better off. They certainly would be much smaller.
The question in my mind comes down to, do we focus on chasing every last ADA dollar? Or do we focus on what's best for our students? The interpretation has apparently been they are the same thing, because the School District has been striving to raise and/or maintain very high enrollment levels in recent years.
This is only one election issue of course. A smaller size alone does not make a good school.
But this is an issue where the candidates do differ and where the public needs to be involved.
Like other active parents, I'm sensing Culver City schools are beginning to lose local families. While many still love our Middle School and high school, and feel they provide a great education, many others have some apprehension about sending their children to our secondary schools. Some are opting out.
For my part, I'll feel much better sending my boys to the Middle School if its enrollment is allowed to drop back down.
I don't want to see a trend of local residents opting out of our schools continue or accelerate.
Some of us are trying to find ways to get parents more involved in the Middle School, and are seeking ways to improve it. At the same time, we are trying to get its enrollment down. We believe this will help with some of the issues the Middle School is facing.
Sincerely,
Robert Gray
(Parent response deleted)
—– Original Message —–
From: Robert Gray [mailto:rgray@beitler.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 11:06 AM
Subject: CCHA School Board Candidates Forum
School Board elections are almost here. This is the time for Culver City voters to make known what we want for our city's schools.
Do we want to continue running our Middle School and high school at very high enrollment levels with hundreds of new permits students from outside of Culver City?
Do we want to merge our District with Ladera Heights or some other area?
Do we want to continue to try to maintain our peak enrollment levels with ever increasing numbers of permit students? Or, do we want to focus on keeping our resident students in our school system and run smaller, more optimally sized secondary schools?
I encourage everyone who can to attend the Candidate Forum on Thursday night at 7:30 at the Raintree complex.
