Parent Comments to the Board

With thanks to Melissa West, here are short overviews of the parent comments made at last night's OCSB meeting.

Public Comments:

Ross Jackson: Is an HES parent and wanted to address the questioning of the leadership of the school. What is driving the issue: hidden agenda or the best interest of the school?

Marcus Morrow: Is an HES parent and wanted to address HES leadership. He wanted to see consistency, which is best for HES. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

Kylie Snyder: Is an HES parent and addressed the merger proposal. She discussed the merger would be using the HES scores to average out CES scores. A merger would be disruptive and may create an exodus of students from HES. If that happens, the overall scores for the merger would drop. She recommends that one of the two schools need to remain a magnet school, otherwise the merger would create a need for redistricting. The Board needs to examine the root cause of CES problems. They need to create a committee to help the children succeed. Our responsibility as a community is to the children.

Steve Snyder: Is an HES parent and addressed the merger proposal. He stated that the merger is based on statistics and is not beneficial to the children and families involved. The merger would be extremely disruptive. He stated that combining the schools would bring the scores to at best barely meeting the requirements.

Allan Scott: Is an HES parent and addressed the data regarding the merger as flawed. The combined numbers are on the assumption that both schools would have 100% retention of current students. He says that will not happen. Many parents may opt to go to their districted schools if merger is approved. He recommends not using numbers to decide on the merger as a whole. He suggested that the board use interventions now instead of putting us through all the disruption and heartache.

Gretchen Lanier: Is an HES parent and addressed the issues of HES as a family and community. She stated that a merger based on scores is only "cooking the books" and will not help CES. It will only disguise the problem. She suggested HES be used as a model and/or a sister school to CES. CES should have an open door policy and welcome help and volunteers from the community. Churches should adopt classes at CES. We need to work with the families of the CES students. She stated that any student in the CES district is allowed to apply to HES if they wish to attend. This merger will add to the problem, not solve it. A merger will have a disruptive effect on HES as a whole.

Jackie Mignosa: HES PTA president. Stated that the merger is putting all the pressure on HES to solve the problems of CES. It needs to be a county-wide effort. Give CES parents a choice of where they want to send their children. She compared the proposed merger to a saving a drowning victim. If you do it alone, you risk drowning yourself. You have to have the strength of the group to succeed. All schools need to work together to solve the problem. If parents pull their children out of HES, it will definitely change the dynamics of the school. If a merger is approved, we need to welcome the CES students.

Steve Bream: Is an HES parent and stated that the students are the issue, not the schools. The board needs to look at the following: What does the CES students need? What can we do to help them succeed? How can the community address the lack of support for the students at CES?