I'll Have Some Cheese to Go with that Whine

@FrostytheSnowman took me to task two posts ago, and rightfully so.  Rereading some of the posts about the Fitzgerald school, I do sound pretty darned entitled.  So, let me back up here and give a little context for the whining.

The new Fitzgerald Elementary School opened to students six years ago.  It is the newest of the beautiful new school buildings that we have here in Waltham.  I remember watching as the little old building came down and the new building went up.  The current Fitzgerald houses students from the area formerly served by both the Bright and old Fitzgerald Schools.

When I state that the current use of space at the elementary schools in the district in general and at the Fitzgerald specifically is less than ideal and needs to be addressed, I can imagine anyone who bothers to read this blog rolling his or her eyes and sighing "there go those Fitzgerald parents again."  If the school building was 20 years old or 120 years old instead of six years old, I wouldn't be complaining that teachers are teaching from carts or that students are meeting in non-classroom areas of the school.  The fact is, the beautiful building is six years old and, if it's already been outgrown, well, we have a problem.  

When these issues with use of space, and teachers teaching from carts, and students meeting in conference rooms and work rooms and the cafeteria, are happening in one of only two Level 1 schools in the system, in spite of an enormous budget, I have to ask what the priorities are.

When national education is focused on the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) subjects, and one of the classrooms that is given up is the science classroom, I think that we need to look at why that happened and then rectify the situation as soon as possible.  Not next year, or the year after.  Now.  And it's not okay that the Fitzgerald science teacher teaches from a cart because the science teacher at Plympton does, too: it means that there are also space management issues at the Plympton.

When 32% of students in Waltham will need English Language Learning education and these students are being taught in a non-classroom space, I have to ask where is our focus on this group of students and why are we marginalizing them at the elementary school level.  I believe that if, instead of a group of ELL students, the non-classroom space was being used by, say a mainstream fourth grade class, there would be demands from parents to correct the misuse of space immediately.  And I bet that they would get results.  Since, by definition, these are students who don't have English as a first language, it's safe to say that their parents probably aren't the ones calling the mayor and the superintendent's office.  And so they get stuck in a former workroom.  

When another group of non-mainstream students, the students in the Language Based Resource Room, are shuttled from school to school to 'make room' for them, again, I believe that these most fragile of our students are getting less than they deserve.

The students who receive special education aren't the only ones who are impacted by the decisions to increase the number of students at the Fitzgerald: the students in the Challenge Program, who are the district's academically promising students, meet with the Challenge teacher in a conference room or in the library.

The issue isn't 'overcrowding', which is a word that I have used before.  The issue is space and resource management.  The School Committee gave oversight of both the Fitch and Bright schools to the City Council and the Bright School is now slated for a city archives and history museum.  Apparently, the Fitch may be used by the GWARC, possibly because the School Committee never grabbed that space when it was hanging there like a piñata. http://www.wickedlocal.com/waltham/news/x574275320/Waltham-nonprofit-given-OK-to-tour-Fitch-School-f...
As I have pointed out before, the Central Office and the Parent Information Center are both housed at the High School in what would otherwise be classroom space.

At the last School Committee meeting, the Superintendent recited some of the data that she was waiting for in order to to them give to a consultant who will tell the School Committee how best to deal with the use of space and the resources that are needed.  My point is that we have resources; we just aren't using them wisely.  Or logically.  

I know that Mr. Cincotta has recommended increasing the classroom size at the elementary school level.  The reason that that won't work is that the kids who are in special programs (ELL, LBRR, etc.) spend a large part of their day with their mainstream peers.  That is, the class size doesn't accurately reflect the size of the classroom when all of the students are present and not in special education.

Dr. Nicholson told me that many other districts keep their special education students with their grade level peers for more time in the school day than Waltham does.  Why doesn't Waltham look to benchmark with other districts?  This one goes back to inconsistent leadership: there has been large and frequent turnover in the district's special education department.

I know that it can sound like I'm whining, and maybe I am.  However, with the resources that the Waltham district has, there is no reason that we can't do better for all of the kids in Waltham.  What is needed is strong management from School Committee members who want to make decisions, not deferrals.