A Reader's Community Engagement: Melissa Loose

Melissa Loose has a child in school in South Carolina where she resides.  Her school district is threatening to increase class sizes due to apparent budget cuts.   Melissa has strong objections to this tactic to save money.  So she wrote a letter to present in person at her local school board’s meeting.  What I like about the letter is that before she cites her concerns, she first acknowledges the hard work that teachers and school administrators have done to educate her son (which reflects well on the school board).  In addition, instead of simply complaining, she asks very specific questions that are embedded with very specific suggestions of how the school board might go about solving the fiscal crisis in a different manner.    Melissa definitely goes beyond the facile “handwringing” and voices complaint as well as constructive suggestions.    We’ll hopefully hear from Melissa in a comment about what how things turned out for her at the school board meeting.

 

Post a comment about your experiences with engaging in your community, or, if you have a written document of something you did, email it to me and I’ll feature it as a blog entry. bussehome@comcast.net

 

Melissa’s Letter

Dear [School] Board Members,

 

I am a deeply concerned parent of an elementary school student at North Augusta Elementary.  Due to the hard work and countless unseen hours contributed by both his teachers and administrators, my son is receiving an education comparable to that of many of my friends’ children living in other, higher-ranking states.  However, all of that is about to change overnight, especially if classroom size increases and many of these same teachers and administrators are forced to leave. 

 

I request your diligent consideration and response to the following questions asked honestly as means to further the discussion about our current educational crisis.  I realize that our funds are limited, especially now that we are tied to a low-cap on property taxes and the use of sales tax for major educational income sources. 

 

• Considering the good of the whole student population and not just the current, blessed situations of a few, will you have the courage to reconsider the viable need for low-enrollment schools operating with full staffs in our district and the apparent cost implications for continuing their use as they are now constituted?    

 

• At a moment when we are looking at losing valuable resources like our retired S.C. teachers who have come back to the classroom, why are we not more closely scrutinizing the need for and the performance of retirees from other states who are protected by contract and continuing to work in our system – including our own top retiree, Dr. Beth Everitt, who has retired from at least one other system outside of our state?  As so many large corporate entities fall, we are seeing the heads of those same entities fall and be held accountable.  Why are we not doing the same for our school district, a large fiscal entity that is also financially failing?  What measures are being taken to re-evaluate the performance of high-ranking responsible parties who have led us in the direction of desperately low funding reserves?

 

• If given the autonomy to do so through Joint Resolution H.3352 now in the state senate, are you prepared to renegotiate salaries with the at-risk, at-will retirees?  As a short-term measure, will you consider your proposed autonomy through this legislative measure to furlough both teachers and administrators?  Will the District take the time to utilize basic technologies, like e-mail distribution lists, and poll teachers, administrators, and staff to get their general preferences on whether or not they’d consider participating in such a solution that would potentially help them maintain their current classroom sizes for the short-term while other solutions are sought?

 

• There are other districts in our state who are not having to take such drastic measures as increasing classroom size and cutting programs like IB.  What are they doing better than we are doing?  Have you compared notes with those districts and looked at options that they are exercising that we might not be doing at the present, including changes to maintenance and transportation schedules?

 

• What measures are being taken to expand virtual instruction opportunities and reduce classroom-usage costs?

 

Please openly consider these questions and the answers that they may bring. Please do not continue to hide behind executive sessions and discuss the why’s and why not’s solely in those meetings.  With that said, I respect your need for some of these sessions, due to possible security needs and a disgruntled audience.  However, the citizens of our county elected you, and we deserve to hear your voices on our behalf.  So, I ask that you consider holding public forums to discuss your philosophies and reasoning behind the hard decisions you are having to make.  Perhaps these could be held in the various areas of our districts with local school board members and responsible legislators.   

 

As a parent, I beg you to reconsider your proposed solution of classroom size increases. It has taken so many years to reduce this and make our district attractive for growth – the very same growth that we are now only allowed to tie funding outlet increases to.  Please consider all other options, present these to the public, and listen for our responding voices in this matter.

 

Respectfully,

Melissa P. Loose

 

Comments

[Melissa Loose]

Margaret, thank you for having the confidence in me to post my letter! This piece became just the first of my contributions to a large, still-unsolved puzzle. The positions have been cut, and wonderful teachers and administrators are being forced to leave. Our monetary deficit is still present and, in fact, seems to be increasing, despite efforts to halt it, including that of increased classroom size. Many in the community have hailed the stimulus monies as our answer; however those same optimists quickly turn out to be uninformed citizens, if investigated at all, since the monies sent to our state are ear-marked for extemely specific causes -- none of which address our issues of funding salaries and paying for basic expenses. Another entire story of a different day, perhaps. . .

So, were my efforts worth it, despite the fact that nothing I requested has been moved on in a concrete, measurable manner? ABSOLUTELY! Why? Simply put: we invited and engaged people in this conversation who had no idea what was going on. One of my favorite examples is a lady I'll call Sherry, for a name's sake,who overheard me talking about this matter with someone else in the gym's dressing room. As I was about to leave, she asked me where she could get more information; she had heard something that caused her to rethink what she thought were the issues at hand. I invited her to a community meeting we were having (as a result of the above letter). Her response to me at the time was, "Oh! My husband takes care of those things." I responded, "Well, we'd still love to see you!" and quickly headed out the door. Later that evening at the meeting, in walked Sherry by herself -- no husband -- and she even stood at the microphone to express her comments and opinions.

We truly never know the effects of the causes we try to create, pursue, and/or continue. I feel this everyday in my parenting, in my community service, in my spiritual endeavors. This experience of leaping with faith and launching a small pebble has taught me that the resulting ripples are worth it. My 6-year-old son still boasts with pride that his mom is "going to save our school." I just smile and hope to be, in some small way, the superhero that he needs. Ultimately, though, our schoolrooms are our lives, and our experiences through our voices or the voices of those in the classrooms with us teach us great lessons. We just have to open our ears and have the faith to apply them in our daily conversations. That's education's value, and it's definitely worth the fights!

[Joel Wright]

Ms. Loose,

Your efforts to change a highly unionized system are unlikely to create any lasting change. I would suggest starting a public charter school with parents who have values similar to yours, which will allow you to allocate resources as you see best.

I previously served on the State Charter School Board here in Utah. We have seen almost 70 public charter schools created in less than 10 years, and most are highly successful. Once schools become directly accountable to a parent governed board, it is amazing how much more "student centered" the school becomes, and how much more satisfied the parents (and students) are with the education.

Best Wishes,
Joel Wright