Friday, July 13, 2007

Recent Changes As A Result Of The Year-Round Conversions

SPECIALS TEACHERS ARE BEING STRETCHED TO THE LIMIT:  We now only have 1 PE teacher, 1 Art teacher, 1 Music teacher, and our Dance and Drama program has been cancelled.  (before the conversion we had 2 PE teachers, 2 art teachers, and 2 music teachers)  Now, the remaining specials teachers are going to be teaching the entire year without a summer vacation or other breaks during the year except during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring Break.  When some students are “tracked out”, others will be “tracked in” so the specialists have now become 12 month employees without teaching assistants or breaks.  This appears to be a situation that could lead to FAST burnout.  Is anyone else in a similar situation?
PROGRAMS HAVE ALREADY BEEN CANCELLED:  Our 4th graders take an annual overnight trip to the beach and participate in the “Sound to Sea” program.  The entire grade has a long unit on barrier island habitat, and then in November they take an overnight bus trip to The Trinity Center for a great learning experience.  The students get to interact outside the classroom setting, and the practical learning that takes place is wonderful.  Unfortunately, we found out today that due to several factors associated with the year-round schedule and the cost of the trip, we will not be taking the overnight trip this year.  This is something that the fourth graders have been looking forward to for as long as they’ve known about it, and finding out that it won’t happen this fall is very disappointing.  We will be taking a day trip to the beach instead, but to my 4th grader who has been anticipating this overnight trip for the past 5 years, it’s not the same. 
CLASSES HAVE BEEN BROKEN APART AND STUDENTS REASSIGNED TO OTHER CLASSES AND TRACKS:  Due to the low enrollment numbers, we have already had to “cancel” one 2nd grade class on track 2.  I’ve been told that these students will be either put into the other 2nd grade class on track 2 or moved to another track.  I’m not sure what will happen to the teacher assigned to this class, but sadly I don’t think this is the only group of students and their teacher who will be forced to do something different than expected this school year.
Have any of the other schools recently converted to Year-Round had similar things going on this week?

This is very sad to read all of this!  With all of the recent information I am hearing in regards to our converted school, I have yet to hear one positive consequence of converting to the year round schedule!  Has there been even one?  Classes more crowded than last year, teachers and families having to scramble now that tracks are being changed, lunches still at 10:30 and 1:35, special trips cancelled, what’s next?  Seems like our school has not gained very much by this conversion. I honestly do hope to hear at least some benefit to our school by making this “necessary” conversion!

I am sorry to hear that specialists are being spread so thin at your school, but my only thought is - welcome to the working world of the rest of us.  I’m not trying to be nasty, but I work year round with only holidays as breaks and have since graduating college.  They will adjust, along with everyone else making this change.

Hi Lisa,

I’m sorry that all of this is happening to your school.  I haven’t had any of these problems at Rand Road as far as I know.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that your school isn’t as crowded as other schools that have been converted.  We do have the Rand Road Run yearly around Oct that is basically a large field day for the entire school that also serves as a fund raiser for the school.  I’m not sure how they will pull this off with only 3/4 of the kids in the school at all times. 

My childrens’ lunches are spread out with the earliest at 10:35 and the latest at 12:25.  The class sizes are right on track with approx 20 in each class which is just a tad smaller than last year.  Maybe Leesville didn’t really need to convert but at least now there is room to grow.  Just a thought.

Actually Sheryl, Rand Road closed the 4th grade track 3.  Students had to pick another track at the last minute.  It also affected their siblings from other grades.
Beside that I haven’t heard of anything else yet.

Certain classes at Olive Chapel Elementary (converted to mandatory year round) are staying in the same mobile unit all year because there is no need to move them for space reasons.  What happened to the capacity crisis?  The absolute, incontrovertible influx that caused the need for all these conversions?

All the problems we are having go back to the Board’s decision to tell people what to do, rather than work with them on what they want to do.  There was more demand for year-round than supply, yet rather than use that, they just forced it on some.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.  And now our children are paying the price.

Hi Lisa,
I’ve read several of these blogs and feel bad that Leesville is having a tough time with the conversion.  We are at Pleasant Union (also a converted school) and this has been the easiest, quietest first week of school.  Our staff has a positive attitude and I haven’t heard anything about classes/tracks being collapsed.  I think some of these issues at Leesville could perhaps be fixed at the school level.  PUE has hired part-time (20%) teachers to fill in for the specialists so that they don’t have to work 12 months.  I don’t know if that is an option for all schools but that’s what we’ve had happen.  Sorry about drama, we haven’t even had that in at least the 3 years we’ve been here. 

As for the special programs, etc. I think that must also be a school issue.  We are still planning the overnight field trip to Asheville for our 4th grade and the Washington DC trip for the 5th grade.

Good luck to Leesville & all the other converted schools.  I think that we all need to remember that this year will be a learning experience.  We’re all new at this, that includes the kids, parents, teachers, and most staff.  Let’s try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt that most do have the best interest of the students in mind.  It should be an interesting year!

Hi everyone,

This is a different Beth. My kids attend Turner Creek and we have yet to start school since we are on track 4. I’m not sure what’s going on yet but I do know we are not at capacity and that our enrollment number keeps changing. Many of the new TCE students who used to attend schools like Olive Chapel and Baucom were swapped with our old Turner Creek students. How senseless! Students could have stayed where they are, with transfer status at the very least, instead of simply being swapped for other kids who didn’t want to leave their school either. I was certain younger siblings of grandfathered students would be granted transfers, but no.

As some of you may have heard, TCE lost up to 68 percent of its student body this year due to the current reassignment plan. There have been many, many transfer requests form TCE families that have been denied. I will paste below and email exchange with Chuck Dulaney regarding a question I recently posed to him about capacity number changes at TCE and the transfer prospects for students wanting back into TCE. Here it is, in order of the earliest to latest email.

Hi Mr. Dulaney,

I’ve just looked over the changes made to Turner Creek in the reassignment plan, and it appears that Turner Creek was projected to have 752 students next year, but now it appears the population is estimated to be 907, even though no changes were made to Turner Creek in the final published plan. Can you explain this difference in numbers?

Thanks,
Beth Shugg (TCE parent)

On Jul 9, 2007, at 5:09 PM, Charles Dulaney wrote:

Please forgive the slow response to your email. I have been on vacation for the past three weeks and returned to the office today. I’m copying my reply to Jan Hargrove in case I miss something.
Projecting enrollment for the coming year has been a dynamic process, to say the least. I’ll try to outline the reasoning behind the different numbers.
The estimates used in the assignment planning software in December assumed that current students would age forward, students in new year-round schools would leave, new base areas would be added, and no new transfers would be approved. That generated the 752 figure.
The grade level totals of the assignment projections were compared to our districtwide projections developed with the County Planning Department for budgeting purposes and school totals were proportionately adjusted so that school totals would add up to the projected districtwide totals. This raised the Turner Creek number to 791.
When preliminary teacher allotment projections were generated, we estimated the impact of potential “grandfather” transfer applications and took into consideration the applications for year-round, magnet, and traditional calendar options that were submitted in February and approved in March. This raised the Turner Creek number to 907.
Subsequently we have revised our projections to take into consideration the 25 students who were assigned as base students to Turner Creek but requested a traditional calendar option after Judge Manning’s ruling. That lowered our most recent projection to about 880.
The Board of Education has been very conservative in approving transfer applications into Turner Creek in anticipation of growth in the base area as new homes are completed. We may wind up starting the school year at Turner Creek in the 830-850 range, but anticipate adding students throughout the school year.
I hope this answers your question.

Chuck Dulaney
Assistant Superintendent for Growth and Planning
919-850-1900

Mr. Dulaney,

Thanks for responding. That leads to another question: since TCE may only begin the school year in the 830-850 range now but WCPSS expects to add more students throughout the year, does this rule out possible transfer requests back to TCE from some of the families at newly converted year-round schools in Apex who didn’t want to leave TCE in the first place? Also, it’s highly possible that some of the students reassigned to TCE from other schools like OCE, Baucom and Salem may request transfers out of TCE back to their school, which could further affect TCE’s enrollment numbers. There are rumors floating around that these types of transfer requests could happen, and I just want to separate fact from fiction, and hope from reality.

Thanks,
Beth Shugg

Beth,
The Board of Education has approved very few transfer requests into Turner Creek from other year-round schools and the transfer application period is now complete except for families moving into the county. No new transfer requests would be approved by staff or the Board unless the circumstances were unusual and compelling.
Our interests involve fully utilizing our year-round capacity and avoiding overcrowding conditions in the remaining traditional calendar schools, and since Tracks 1, 2, and 3 have already begun, transfer opportunities from traditional calendar to year-round will be very limited. As I stated above, transfer requests from Turner Creek into other year-round schools will not be approved.
Thank you for helping us provide accurate information to the public and addressing rumors.
Chuck Dulaney
Assistant Superintendent for Growth and Planning
919-850-1900

I responded with additional questions but have not heard back from Mr. Dulaney yet.

Lisa, Just curious about where you are getting your info?  As of yesterday there were still two second grade classes on track two.  Also the PE teacher told me the other one left to take a full-time job, since he’s been part-time at LES.  Every school has some shuffling around at the beginning of the year - let’s not blame everything on year-round just because you are unhappy with it. 

As for some classes being bigger than others, it’s pretty obvious that’s due to administrative decisions at LES, isn’t it?  The tracks could be evenly populated if the administration at Leesville had wanted it that way.  Keep that in mind please when you are grousing about classes being merged, etc.

Hi Susie:

While it’s true that I’m not happy with the YR conversion because it splits my family, we are moving forward because it was the best of the 2 options.  (in my opinion, the only “real” option considering what we were presented, but that’s something that is old news) 

I am not “blaming everything on YR”, but I’m trying to show in a straightforward way what has been happening at our school because of the school being forced to convert.

I appreciate others sounding in on their own situations.  While I’ve received MANY e-mails outside the blog, I hope people will share their experiences here ON the blog too so that others can read what is going on at the other 21 schools.

All 3 specials teachers (PE, Art, Music) have lost their assistants, so it’s just not the PE teacher who has lost his.  It’s true that the assistant from last year now has a fulltime job,  but he was going to stay at LES in his current position if we hadn’t converted to YR.  As for the other specials “assistants”, they were not offered positions either, and the school is not planning to replace them.  I won’t pass along information that was shared with me in confidence, but I think we can all figure out that the situation is not what any of the special teachers would have chosen.

As for my information on the “Sound To Sea” trip, it was cancelled last week and a letter was sent to all 4th grade parents.

Regarding classes being cancelled, I just heard that we’re also losing a kindergarten class on track 2.  I haven’t confirmed that one, but I did hear it from 3 different people last night and they’re pretty reliable.

If you feel I’m “grousing”, I’m sorry you see it that way.  I am doing my best to be honest, fair, and diplomatic with a situation that in the first 8 days of school has hurt many people and shown some “less than desirable” outcomes.

We’re very fortunate to have such a wonderful principal and wonderful teachers at our school.  My children are at a place we all want to be, and for that I’m very happy.

Yes it’s true the K teacher left, but her leaving had nothing to do with LES being YR. 

And yes it does seem to me that everything anyone is unhappy with is blamed on year-round.  I’m afraid it’s an easy out for the school admin too.  You said that the field trip was cancelled due to factors including cost and year-round schedule.  Exactly what were those factors?  Is it possible that cost was a bigger factor? Surely if Wake County has been operating year-round schools for more than 15 years LES can figure out how to have a field trip? 

BTW, I understand that many schools are cutting field trips for cost and safety reasons - maybe that’s what really behind this?

Susie, at Turner Creek, a year-round elementary school that began as a voluntary school, we have did not have an overnight field trip in 4th grade. Not sure about 5th yet as we are just beginning the school year in a few weeks on track 4. However, this would imply but not prove that overnight field trips are not feasible in a year-round school.

It’s my understanding that the teachers and TAs who are leaving won’t be replaced now because our numbers are so low.  The kids/families will be shuffled around, and most of them can’t be accommodated on their existing tracks, so there will be more frustrations experienced by those families.

I’ll dig up the actual letter describing why we aren’t able to do the overnight field trip, but I’ll also share some info given by some teacher and TA friends who are “in the know”.

As stated before, our numbers are VERY LOW and there is a feeling of paranoia amongst the teachers and TAs.  I was just told today by Chuck Dulaney that “No staff member is in danger of losing their job or being transferred to another school because of low enrollment.“

In hopes of calming some nerves I mentioned that exact comment to some teacher friends.  Unfortunately, the general responses were “we’ve been lied to so many times it’s hard to know what to belive at this point”.  Obviously my attempts to help people feel settled didn’t work.

I asked for “the story behind the story” regarding the Sound to Sea field trip.  From what I can gather (just opinions), with so much uncertainty hanging over our heads, they just couldn’t commit to this right now.  The cost HAS gone up a little bit, but a major reason was that we need to confirm space RIGHT NOW for a November trip.  Since things still feel so unsettled, they just didn’t want to make the final commitment to the trip right now with so many other issues that need to be addressed.

I do think that we could make the overnight trip work on a YR schedule, and all it would take is to do 2 different trips—-1 for kids on 2 of the tracks when they’re tracked in together, and 1 for kids on the other 2 tracks when they’re both tracked in.

Regardless, the trip has been cancelled for this year, and once I find the letter I’ll be happy to share the exact reasons given on this blog.

I guess I’m having a hard time understanding that reasoning.  I’m not trying to be obtuse, but the inside scoop you are presenting doesn’t really make sense to me.  Because of a bit of uncertainly now - and some people feeling “unsettled” - they are canceling a trip that was to take place FOUR months from now?  What about the kids who were looking forward to it?  Doesn’t this strike you as somewhat unprofessional?

I’m not sure how I’d classify it (unprofessional, confusing,???), since I don’t know what went into making the decision and exactly who was involved.

I will say it’s very FRUSTRATING to many of us.  I talked to 3 parents of track 4 students today, and they had no idea it had been cancelled.  I guess they wouldn’t be finding out until they track in late August.  2 of these families who were looking at private schools decided to stay at Leesville, and one of the big reasons they decided to stay was because of the great experiences their older children had on the Sound To Sea trip.

I do know that our AG teacher has already put a LOT of time and energy into the planning of this trip, and as you can imagine, she was extremely upset when she was told it couldn’t take place.

I still haven’t located the letter with exact explanations.  If I can’t find mine I can get another copy.

Lisa,

I too am disappointed in the cancelled trip and that just adds to my general disappointment so far as we are about to finish 2 weeks…regarding the Sound to Sea trip, this is the letter that was sent home to parents:

“July 13, 2007

Dear Parents of LES 4th Graders,

After discussions with staff members in light of procedural changes implemented by the Sound to Sea program and our new school calendar, I have decided to cancel our overnight Sound to Sea field trip and pursue a one-day trip to the coast that would provide our students with similar hands-on experiences.  Listed below are key points that were considered.

1. The trip has become very expensive.  We are looking at a cost of $130 per person to attend this year.  That is a significant cost for many families, and even more so if a parent wants to attend as a chaperone and must also pay.

2. The Sound to Sea program is requiring that we give them a final number of students and chaperones by July 22nd.  All changes after that date will result in financial penalties.  That is simply too early on any school calendar for me to know definite numbers and to expensive of a penalty to pay.

3. We were locked into the November dates of Sunday through Tuesday of Thanksgiving week.  That falls in the middle of a track out time for track two students and right before a major holiday.  Sound to Sea had no other dates available for us and no other times where we could add a second trip to provide the same opportunity for those students who are t4racked out.

4. We have received information from a number of schools that do a one-day trip to the coast where the students are involved in similar hands-on activities.  Such a trip would be much more cost efficient and also allow us to schedule two sessions so that all of our students could participate during times when they are in school.

I wanted to make you aware of this situation early on.  i know the loss of the overnight trip will be a disappointment to many but do believe that the overall situation warranted a change to multiple one-day trips to the coast.  We will keep you informed of plans for the alternative field trips as we investigate the best options for our students.  Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Edward Gainor
Principal, Leesville Elementary”

I’d like to issue a correction to an earlier post.

As of today, July 21, Leesville has only collapsed one kindergarten class on track 2.  There are still 2 2nd grade classes on track 2. 

It is my intention to only provide accurate information, and with all of the other uncertainty going around I certainly don’t want to cause undue stress to the 2nd grade teachers on track 2 at Leesville. I do NOT claim to know more than the staff knows, and evidently it was strictly a rumor that was passed on and on until it appeared to be true.  Since it came to me from so many different sources I took it to be fact, but it is NOT!

I apologize for the misinformation.

Lisa,
I see that much of the information that you are posting seems to be based on your “reliable sources” who are “in the know” at LES.  Although you say your intent is to present factual information, it really just seems as if you are a disgruntal opposer to the year-round conversion who is seeking any type of negative information from friends, families, and employees at Leesville in order to make your opposition valid. It’s already been noted by several employees that much of your information presented is misleading and based on views, perceptions, and opinions-not facts.  Just what does all this bring about anyway? Will it change anything? And have you realized that there are several advantages to the year-round conversion. I have personally talked to several teachers myself who were extremely excited about the conversion. I haven’t noticed any teachers who seemed to be “on edge” about the change this week.  I think that our most valuable and valid information would come from a more credible source-not just neighborhood gossip.

Hi Jacquie:

Thank you for your post.
While I make no secret about the fact that I opposed the conversion because it was going to split my family onto 2 different calendars, I am certainly not “seeking any type of negative information from friends, families, and employees at Leesville in order to make my opposition valid.“ as you stated in your post.  I don’t feel the need to seek out any information from ANYONE to make my opposition valid.  The fact that it was going to split my family onto 2 schedules is really all the validation I felt I needed to oppose the forced conversion.  Knowing that over 400 other people at Leesville felt the same way told me I was in a majority, but being in a majority is not why I was opposed.  I have a mind of my own, and would never mind going against the majority if I was looking out for what is best for my family.

I am doing my best to explain the situation at Leesville Elementary School according to things I have seen and heard, and would never knowingly pass along misinformation.  I have a wonderful relationship with our principal and many staff members at Leesville, and wouldn’t just make things up to hurt those relationships.  I do not talk to the families of all 850+ students, so what I have to share does not represent EVERYONE at the school.

I am relatively new to “blogging”, but one thing I’ve learned from blogs is that they are TRULY a place to post OPINIONS.  When people feel compelled to share their opinions with me, I take them into consideration when formulating my posts.  I was asked to do this blog to share my experiences and those of others in my community, and I’m trying to do that as honestly and fairly as I can.

Because I can’t tell who you are from your ID I don’t know how active you are within the school, but I’m guessing that you already know how HUGELY opposed our families and staff were to the conversion.  When something was not “needed” at our school and not “wanted” either, of course we were going to fight as hard as we could in hopes that the School Board would reconsider their decision.  We fought hard and we fought respectfully, and in the end we still had to convert.

I will e-mail you outside the blog and I’ll be happy to fill you in on all that transpired during the past 11 months.  Quite honestly, thinking about all of the work we put into fighting the conversion (and then still being forced to convert), it brings up old feelings of frustration.  Talking about the past does nothing for the future direction we need to take.  At this point we need to move forward with the situation we’ve been presented with.

I appreciate all of the e-mails that I continue to receive outside the blogs, but if you are willing to post your stories and opinions on the blog PLEASE do that as well.  That way everyone reading the blog will be able to see what is being experienced by others.  I realize that due to job situations, etc… some of you can not feel free to give your opinions on such a public forum, but when possible please share your stories here too.

Jacquie: 

Could you please e-mail me directly so that we can discuss some Leesville related issues.  I tried the e-mail address that came through this blog, and your e-mail address came back saying “permanent failure”.  Thanks!

I will confirm the collapse of Kindergarten (1 class) on Track 2.(LE) That is a fact! Also light attendance in some classes.Real light.

The layers of these conversions are slowly being peeled away and the consequences are being felt.  How many times are we supposed to say…“its ok, its for the growth..lets sacrifice our children, move over, for the kids who are not here yet because of the poor planning and spending of the WCPSS and the BOE. I for one am dissapointed that dance and drama have been removed and replaced with Spanish.  I am not against a foreign language being offered but that is just an example of one thing being stripped away because of YR.  Now the “Sound to Sea”??? Forgive me but when is Enough, Enough? Where do you draw the line for the sacrifice of Poor Planning and Spending? If WCPSS was not this big then we would not be having ALL these problems. I feel real sorry for the staff and admin. on the school level, that in the end THEY have to put up with these ridiculas decisions, and then take the slap in the face from WF rd and say “We are not giving you the raises you deserve”. What else are these people supposed to say? Their jobs are on the line.
Whatever reason people find to complain about the conversions will come with great debate.That is what is making Wake Forest Rd happy that the focus is off their poor planning and on the YR debate. (Apex Land Deal is one of them). What is getting lost in this mess is the real problem that we are all sacrificing in our “Own” ways of the conversion because of poor planning and poor spending by WCPSS.  I fully support the staff on the local level because they are in the trenches and deserve all the help they can get because of this mess. So lets just stop the debate of how much better YR is for all of us than traditional.  If they planned properly we would all have the specials and events that we are used to and would not even be having this discussion and accusations of being a “Grouser” (is that even a word?).

Excellent post Cindy!  I too feel the teachers and administration on the school level are being put in a difficult situation.  They are being asked to sacrifice a lot too.  Teachers, for one, have to move classrooms every 9 weeks. They no longer have their own classroom.  As a former teacher, I can tell you this is not appealing. I commend them for being so positive about it and making the best of the situation. It is truly a shame that programs and special trips have to be cut.

Another Leesville update.  I’ve been receiving e-mails about this since I printed the “retraction” on Saturday, but since this came straight from the principal I know it’s true.

Leesville Elementary has combined the two track two 2nd grades into one class.  The other 2nd grade teacher has agreed to take on the responsibility of our track out intercession program.

As of now, we’ve gone down to 1 kindergarten class on track 2 and 1 2nd grade class on track 2 since we started school July 9. 

Monday track 4 comes in and I believe the “10 day numbers” will be taken on August 10.

Hope you had a good vacation