Why would they start now?

I received a message earlier today from an HES parent who was frustrated that the Orange County Board of Education does not appear to be listening to parents with concerns about the planned changes to HES.

Dr. Alex Freemerman from Duke sent the following letter to every member of the Board, dropped off hard copies at the District office and sent a version to the News of Orange for publication. While the News of Orange seems to ignore its length limits for members of the Board, Dr. Freemerman's submission was cut down to fit a 250 word limit.

I promised to publish his entire letter here for the community to read.

Dear School Board Member,

I hope that you saw my letter to the editor in this week’s News of Orange County. That letter was limited to 250 words, but I have a few more points I’d like to make regarding the new enrollment policy at HES. And in case you missed the newspaper, I completely disagree with the strategy the BOE has decided to pursue to increase the percentage of low SES children attending HES.

First, when we enrolled our daughter at HES last year, we were told, and this was in writing, that every child enrolled at HES would be given a slot in the next year’s class. This is a critical policy element of a year-round school. As a family, we need this certainty to plan our vacations and summer schedule a year in advance. For the BOE to change this policy mid-year for only rising first and second graders and then to leave those families hanging until March is simply unacceptable. The BOE has asked for community support in this endeavor, but the BOE will receive no support until they prove that the promises and commitments they make will, in fact, be honored. I am hopeful that the BOE can understand how critically important it is to be viewed as trustworthy by the entire community as the Board moves forward with changes to other schools. Certainly, recent promises made by the Board regarding programs and funding will be evaluated by the community based on the Board’s decision whether or not to honor its existing commitments.

Second, the BOE has decided that the percentage of students receiving free/reduced lunch (FRL) at HES is too low compared to other schools. I don’t believe anybody has argued against this point, however, the strategy to achieve this goal is unwise and unfair. The Board’s plan to increase that percentage, not by recruiting low-income families to HES, but by restricting enrollment and expelling students not receiving FRL from HES is both discriminatory and divisive. Let us not mince words, that is exactly what this policy does. Since when is it ever okay to discriminate against children based on their socio-economic status? Since when is it ever okay to expel a child from a school because that child does not match some predetermined profile? The answer is that it is NEVER okay to do those things. If a higher percentage of low wealth students is the goal at HES, then the only correct way to pursue that is to recruit those children and families to HES.

Third, I need to point out the inconsistent nature of this new policy. You have guaranteed re-admission to rising first and second graders that transferred to HES due to the Title I improvement status of Central and Efland-Cheeks. Those transfers missed the first 6 weeks of school. Our family knew beforehand that Central, our districted school, would not make AYP and be placed into Title I improvement and that students would be allowed to transfer. I knew HES would be offered as a transfer school option because I attended your meetings. Instead of waiting for our child to miss 6 weeks of school, we enrolled her at HES. Thus, we opted out of Central, but now we are likely going to be forced back into Central, and only because we were proactive in enrolling our daughter at HES so that she would not miss her first six weeks of school. Not only is this not fair, but it clearly runs counter to the express purpose of giving parents the choice of leaving a school not making AYP.

Forth, the end result of this policy will be to increase class size at Central and Efland-Cheeks. This runs counter to your proposal of maintaining the current small class size at those schools.

Fifth, due to the guaranteed re-admission of a number of students groups, only a handful of first and second graders will be forcibly transferred from HES back to Central and Efland-Cheeks. Because of the small number of children involved, this policy, if enacted, will not appreciably change the SES balance at HES, Central, or Efland-Cheeks. Thus, if a policy does not achieve its stated goal and that same policy inflicts significant harm on those families impacted by that policy, then, surely, that is the definition of bad policy and it should never be implemented.

For all the above stated reasons, I believe that the BOE must re-address this policy and, at a minimum, needs to honor the commitments made to HES families and grandfather in all grades at HES and then commit to recruiting a diverse entering Kindergarten class. Surely, every Board member should be able to see the real damage that will be caused to the families and children impacted this new enrollment policy at HES should you allow it to remain in place.

Alex Freemerman, Ph.D.