Until last week, the possibility that my 5 year-old might lose his school could not have been farther from my mind.
That was before I became aware of a move by the Orange County School system that may result in a merger between the district's highest performing elementary school - Hillsborough Elementary School (HES) and its lowest performing elementary school - Central Elementary School (CES).
This move appears to have come about as the school district is searching for an answer to its recent failure to avoid Title I District Improvement under the No Child Left Behind law.
For those who do not know, Hillsborough Elementary School is a district-wide magnet school built around a year-round academic calendar. This school has consistently excelled on its NC School Report Cards - earning the "Honor School of Excellence" for 5 consecutive years.
As a magnet school with a non-traditional calendar and limited bus service, HES has attracted very involved parents which feel a great deal of ownership of their children's education and of their school. Needless to say, many of these parents are worried about the impact a merger with CES will have on their children's educational opportunities.
This blog has been set up to provide HES parents a place to share information and coordinate activities aimed at saving HES.
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2 comments:
I am a Grandparent of an HES student and have done some volunteer work at HES and seen first hand the excellent surrounding geared at the highest educational standards for these students. I would be really disappointed if the Orange County School Board decided the best avenue would be to merge this school of excellence with another school just to "fix" the other school's problems. To me that would be the "avenue of least resistance" when the Board should be concentrating on the other school and what could be done to bring that school up to the standard of excellence at HES. ALL ORANGE COUNTY STUDENTS deserve the very best education we can offer, but not at the expense of the students currently enrolled at HES. It is obvious that the problems at Central have been around for quite a while which makes me wonder why it has taken the Board so long to address them. Please consider ALL THE STUDENTS in your decision and not just the Central students.
I have been doing some research about children's success in school and what that looks like. This article references some of my chief concerns surrounding transitions for children and parent involvement. See http://readyweb.crc.uiuc.edu/library/1994/sreb-gsr/stratsuc.html
Please call all HES parents you know and get them to the meeting on Tuesday evening!
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