Monday, October 15, 2007
Don't Forget: School Board Meeting Tues. at 6pm!
Don't forget the School Board meeting scheduled for 6pm tomorrow night (Tuesday the 16th) at the Government Services building in Bunnell. Agenda Item 8.04 is "Uniforms" so please be there to comment on uniforms for ESE students especially if you want the board to hear your opinion on this matter. The correct time to make this statement will be when the board asks near the beginning of the meeting for public comment on agenda items, since uniforms are on the agenda.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
The Promise
A clip from the end of Supt. Delbrugge's presentation at the July 11th town hall meeting in which he describes the plans to get parent input at all the schools, plus to hold "two or three" additional town hall meetings. (To my knowledge they have not held even one town hall meeting, unless you count the workshop on Monday which was not centered on getting public input.)
Empty Promises
Board Member Evie Shellenberger's comments at the July 11th town meeting, where she refers to the board's promise to get input from parents on the uniform code's design and responds to my earlier comments with a verbal head pat that the board will "take care of" the ESE students. Why do I have a hard time believing they know what is best for my child based on their recent track record?
Broken Promises
Once again the issue of impending school uniforms for Flagler Schools was in the News-Journal yesterday. And once again, the story told by the newspaper is of the school board breaking promises to parents about getting input from them regarding what the uniform code will be.
First, the school board scheduled a town hall meeting to get public input on whether there should be uniforms in Flagler Schools - and then went ahead and voted on the matter anyway before the meeting, denying parents their right to have input on the issue. Then they promised at that July 11th town hall meeting that before the uniform code itself was written, they would "take the show on the road" to each of the district's schools to solicit input from parents, students and teachers on the content of the actual uniform.
To my knowledge no single member of the school board has shown up at my daughter's elementary school to ask for input on the issue, and neither has the board held a public meeting at the school for parents to attend to discuss the issue. And yet somehow on Monday night the board felt it was time to write the uniform code in preparation for the first of two procedural votes on it to take place at the November board meeting. Apparently the board has once again developed group amnesia about the promises they made to get parent, teacher and student input at each of the schools.
I guess I am not really surprised. Our elected school board seems to have forgotten who they work for, and who they should answer to. They are behaving like dictators, making the rules up as they go along and changing them whenever they want.
The only recourse that we have is at the ballot box in Nov. 2008. I suggest everyone who is upset with them over the way they have treated parents regarding this issue let the school board members know that they plan to express their displeasure the next time the board members come up for election. Perhaps the threat of losing the power they seem to enjoy wielding so much would remind them who they work for.
First, the school board scheduled a town hall meeting to get public input on whether there should be uniforms in Flagler Schools - and then went ahead and voted on the matter anyway before the meeting, denying parents their right to have input on the issue. Then they promised at that July 11th town hall meeting that before the uniform code itself was written, they would "take the show on the road" to each of the district's schools to solicit input from parents, students and teachers on the content of the actual uniform.
To my knowledge no single member of the school board has shown up at my daughter's elementary school to ask for input on the issue, and neither has the board held a public meeting at the school for parents to attend to discuss the issue. And yet somehow on Monday night the board felt it was time to write the uniform code in preparation for the first of two procedural votes on it to take place at the November board meeting. Apparently the board has once again developed group amnesia about the promises they made to get parent, teacher and student input at each of the schools.
I guess I am not really surprised. Our elected school board seems to have forgotten who they work for, and who they should answer to. They are behaving like dictators, making the rules up as they go along and changing them whenever they want.
The only recourse that we have is at the ballot box in Nov. 2008. I suggest everyone who is upset with them over the way they have treated parents regarding this issue let the school board members know that they plan to express their displeasure the next time the board members come up for election. Perhaps the threat of losing the power they seem to enjoy wielding so much would remind them who they work for.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Lies and Statistics
The Daytona Beach News-Journal ran a story this morning about how much Flagler County parents spend on average per child for back-to-school clothes. This of course included a discussion about the upcoming school uniform policy.
The problem with the article (and the numbers that it contains) is that those numbers are just statistics. No reasoning is given behind those numbers. Why are Flagler parents spending an average of $361 per child per year on clothes, more than almost any other district in the study? It is not like Palm Coast has designer stores on every corner to supply us with the latest designer fashions. We have Walmart and Beall's.
What the statistics don't tell us is how much of that number was discretionary spending and how much of that number was mandatory spending by the families. How much of that money was money that had to be spent and how much of it was money that was spent because someone wanted to?
The study noted that the top geographic areas for clothing spending all shared a common demographic of having high concentrations of seniors. This might account for some of the amount of clothing expenditure being given by doting grandparents as gifts. I know in our family that is certainly the case.
How much of that amount was simply spent because the parents could afford to spend more? That's up to those parents to decide what they want to spend. That is why it is called discretionary spending. People can use their discretion to make their own decisions.
How much of that amount was spent because parents refused to stand up to their kids and draw a line about what was appropriate spending on the child's wardrobe for the family's financial situation and the child's age? That is a more problematic question and possibly at the root of some parents' support for the school uniform policy. Are some parents, unwilling to draw a line of their own with their kids about what they will spend on clothing, looking instead to the school system to do it in the form of a uniform policy? If so, that is sad. Kids need to be taught responsibility by their parents, not see that responsibility abdicated to a school administration. That doesn't teach them anything except how to avoid standing up to kids for their own good.
Schools are here to educate our children. We expect stellar FCAT scores from our schools while also expecting them to take on more and more responsibility for teaching things like responsibility. They can't do it all. They shouldn't have to.
We should do our jobs as parents and teach our children responsibility at home, and leave the schools to educate our kids about math, science and reading. That's their job - not teaching a child what is appropriate to wear to school.
The problem with the article (and the numbers that it contains) is that those numbers are just statistics. No reasoning is given behind those numbers. Why are Flagler parents spending an average of $361 per child per year on clothes, more than almost any other district in the study? It is not like Palm Coast has designer stores on every corner to supply us with the latest designer fashions. We have Walmart and Beall's.
What the statistics don't tell us is how much of that number was discretionary spending and how much of that number was mandatory spending by the families. How much of that money was money that had to be spent and how much of it was money that was spent because someone wanted to?
The study noted that the top geographic areas for clothing spending all shared a common demographic of having high concentrations of seniors. This might account for some of the amount of clothing expenditure being given by doting grandparents as gifts. I know in our family that is certainly the case.
How much of that amount was simply spent because the parents could afford to spend more? That's up to those parents to decide what they want to spend. That is why it is called discretionary spending. People can use their discretion to make their own decisions.
How much of that amount was spent because parents refused to stand up to their kids and draw a line about what was appropriate spending on the child's wardrobe for the family's financial situation and the child's age? That is a more problematic question and possibly at the root of some parents' support for the school uniform policy. Are some parents, unwilling to draw a line of their own with their kids about what they will spend on clothing, looking instead to the school system to do it in the form of a uniform policy? If so, that is sad. Kids need to be taught responsibility by their parents, not see that responsibility abdicated to a school administration. That doesn't teach them anything except how to avoid standing up to kids for their own good.
Schools are here to educate our children. We expect stellar FCAT scores from our schools while also expecting them to take on more and more responsibility for teaching things like responsibility. They can't do it all. They shouldn't have to.
We should do our jobs as parents and teach our children responsibility at home, and leave the schools to educate our kids about math, science and reading. That's their job - not teaching a child what is appropriate to wear to school.
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