En Garde

Interesting letter in the Falls News this week. I guess the attempts to deceive the public will never cease. What he forgot to tell you is that while some open enrollment at Silver Lake are Cuyahoga Falls children, they still cost more to educate in Silver Lake than at their home school. To make it simple for those of you that are confused- if you belong at Lincoln you would cost us $3000 less to educate you than it does at Silver Lake. No matter how you try to shake it down, 47% of Silver Lake elementary is open enrolled and it costs the people of Cuyahoga Falls more than it needs to. Way more.

He also forgot to tell you that the morning kindergarten is just as small as the afternoon kindergarten, and please take note that he left Dewitt out of the stats. He also failed to mention that while he was throwing out averages, there are many CF classrooms at 26-28 students and there none close to that large at Silver Lake. The biggy is this- if we would stop accepting open enrollment Silver Lake elementary would have one classroom in grades K-5. And still have the low average class size. That’s 5.5 extra teachers and one expensive building they want us to support.

Why am I making such a big deal about it? Because we are now faced with making cuts and facing levy threats again. When I look at our priorities, I am appalled. I am looking at this letter two days after paying my property taxes to the county and I have to say to myself, am I getting my moneys worth?

I guess the letter writer would have the people of Cuyahoga Falls support the curtailment plan which calls for gifted programming, auto technology, industrial arts, and foreign language cuts, reduce text book purchases, cutting teachers, and eliminating after school activities and field trips, so that the district can afford to keep his neighborhood school open.

I am still waiting for clarification on why my proposal is expensive and unrealistic. I will say this again- A majority of Summit County districts educate children in the same manner as I propose. They do it efficiently and effectively, and they score better on Ohio standards tests. Only Akron, Barberton and Cuyahoga Falls cling to the neighborhood schools concept which is proving to be a dinosaur in the world of education. It has put buildings in each of these districts at risk of parent choice programs. What that means is that if a particular building in a district performs poorly 3 years in a row, the school district must offer the child their choice of a school within a district at district expense. If the poor performance continues the child qualifies for a voucher to attend the private school of his/her choice. This IS where we’re heading ladies and gentlemen.

The district can set goals and form 15 more committees but they will not begin to make progress for this district as a whole until they face the real problem. The academic, socio/economic, and class size disparities will not go away on their own. We cannot achieve the “Excellent” rating doing it like we’ve done since the 1800’s.