[Grovenet] School Board Meeting Tonight -- Come support NAMS

[Greg & Cindy Gritton]

For those who didn't make it to the school board meeting, it was a packed 
house. The majority of parents came to comment on our concerns regarding 
the loss of electives with the loss of a class period.  Many  voiced their 
frustrations that the students who are not only meeting, but exceeding 
benchmarks, are not receiving challenging enough classes, and that with 
this additional change, will continue to not have their needs met.

Additional views came from those with special needs children, or who work 
with them, who feel this change will not help this group of students 
succeed (i.e. electives offer students a chance to shine/succeed in 
subjects they are interested in and chose), as well as concerns about the 
effect on "regular" and advanced students who will not be able to broaden 
their educational experience unless they have more than one elective.

Suggested solutions included using (and not using) a block schedule, 
providing 45 minutes after school of Enrichment when teachers are available 
for extra help, finding ways to help the students learn more effectively, 
and remembering that our students are just that--students, not test scores, 
and that passing/failing a test doesn't always mean success in future 
schooling/work.

One parent quoted from the district's web site that 78% of the students are 
meeting/exceeding benchmarks.  She then pointed out that this change will 
affect this 78% the most in an effort to help the other 22% who may or may 
not be helped.

Other parents cited how their children have benefited from being able to 
work on Japanese, or Spanish, as well as participate in music programs 
(band, orchestra, etc.) and how important both were to their child's 
educational experiences.

Thanks and Kudos should go to the Board for extending the scheduled 20 
minutes allotted for unscheduled appearances to allow all who signed-up to 
comment when they saw that there were not that many more parents to be 
heard.  Regardless of the eventual outcome, I felt that the board members 
were attentive and concerned about our concerns as parents.

If I missed anything important from the meeting, hopefully someone else 
will post it.

Cindy Gritton

At 12:03 AM 6/10/2008 -0700, you wrote:
>Bringing the thread back to a less flippant direction, NAMS is Neil 
>Armstrong Middle School, Jeff, if indeed you truly didn't know what the 
>situation was/is.  I can't answer what happened at the school board 
>meeting tonight, because I didn't go.  I do know that quite a few parents 
>are upset by the cutting of classes from 7 to 6 (thereby ostensibly 
>cutting elective options).  Regardless of the outcome of the meeting 
>tonight (and I'm surprised that there haven't been a myriad of postings 
>about what went on yet), I think it clearly shows that the FGSD (uh... 
>Forest Grove School District, not Frog Guts Semi Diced) needs to find a 
>better way to inform, and perhaps encourage participation from the 
>community, during the decision making process.
>
>Regards,
>
>Jeff Cooper