Editorial: A teaching moment for Rapides School Board
School Board inexplicably missed an opportunity to gain needed parental support for new plan
Editorial: A teaching moment for Rapides School Board School Board inexplicably missed an opportunity to gain needed parental support for new plan Check out this story on thetowntalk.com: http://www.thetowntalk.com/story/opinion/2018/02/11/teaching-moment-rapides-school-board/320584002/
The Town Talk Published 11:10 p.m. CT Feb. 10, 2018
The Rapides Parish School Board(Photo: The Town Talk file photo)Buy Photo
The intentions of Rapides Parish School Board members may have been good when they approved a plan Tuesday night to realign grades at roughly a dozen area schools. But their approach was anything but good.
For years, local education leaders have struggled to solve issues at "failing schools," those schools where state test scores show students are not performing up to expectations.
Given that Louisiana as a whole ranks toward the bottom of most education rankings, a failing school in Louisiana would rank especially low. If the state is essentially at the bottom of the barrel from a national education standpoint, then schools failing to keep up with the state's average are what you find under the barrel. Nobody wants their children stuck in a school like that.
So normally we would be quick to applaud any and all efforts to rectify issues and help students succeed and thrive. Our community desperately needs -- and our children deserve -- the best possible opportunity to learn.
There are a lot of factors that go into that equation. Adequate funding for resources, training and hiring quality teachers, having the best curriculum, encouraging parental support, and creating a partnership with the community to address and solve problems.
We're not being critical of the board's decision to realign the schools. It may prove to be a wonderful idea and provide a much-needed spark to improve educational opportunities for local elementary students.
But the fact is, we don't know the prospects for success because the public didn't really get a chance to examine and digest the details between the time the plan was first mentioned to the public in January and was then approved at Tuesday's meeting.
Parents and teachers who were just learning of the proposal and interested in learning more about the idea at Tuesday's meeting were surprised to learn the matter was essentially a done deal. There was a brief comment period, and then the final vote.
Under the board's procedural rules, Tuesday night's regular board meeting wasn't the appropriate forum for a give-and-take discussion of the merits of the plan. So we won't criticize the board for following the rules of order when it came to handling the comments from the citizens present Tuesday night.
But we will criticize them for not giving the public a chance to meet in a forum that would be appropriate for a question and answer session. This is a major change for the students, parents and teachers at the affected schools. We believe a key to the proposed change being successful is gaining the support of all involved -- which includes those parents whose concerns were not adequately addressed before the vote was taken.
School board members, like all elected officials, are expected to represent the views and interests of their constituents. That means taking the time to listen to their concerns and answer their questions.
In this case, it does not appear to us that they did that. And it really has us shaking our heads why, given that the proposed changes won't take effect until next year. What harm would there have been in scheduling time to have a public Q&A session before taking the final vote? If it's really a good idea, we would think board members would be eager to get the word out to parents.
This new alignment plan may turn out to be a Grade A idea -- it will be years before we know if it helps. But as far as working with the public -- the voters the school board members are elected to serve -- and educating them about the new proposal, we give them an F on this assignment.
Read More: Grade shuffle: RPSB could change levels at a dozen elementary, middle schools
Read More: What do parents and teachers think about plan for schools?
Read More: Big changes are on the way for neighborhood schools in Alexandria and Pineville
Read More: Was decision about Rapides Parish school plan rushed?
Read or Share this story: http://www.thetowntalk.com/story/opinion/2018/02/11/teaching-moment-rapides-school-board/320584002/