Thursday, June 17, 2010

Face Lift or Good Education?

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Performing Arts Building Proposed For High School": 

Thursday, June 17th, 7 pm. at High School Library meeting for public regarding new addition to High School!!!! I don't have to work so I am going to find the courage to put a face among the crowd. I want to hear both sides even though I am skeptical. I hope low performance of the school is brought up. I want to know how this 6 million dollar face lift is going to promote higher learning. Reading "basic fundamental skill" needed to aid our children in ALL academics in the toilet 3 years in a row. Next year math evaluation results become public. I need to be a parent asking where the money is for actual learning in the current system. Which is more important here? I don't know what I will do if I hear deflection such as results weren't evaluated fairly. Our children are required to take responsibility for their actions and are graded by performance...NO EXCUSES!!! Alliance Middle School and High School are on this list because 75 percent of our kid's are under performing on state assessment tests. Please make this a priority! A Face Lift is great if you can afford it but a GOOD EDUCATION last's longer. 

8 comments:

  1. I agree, the students need a better education. But I want to know, where are the parents? I'm getting pretty tired of the "blame everybody else" attitude in the country. I have several family members that are teachers (none in Alliance). Some have taught for 30 years, others for less than 5 years. All agree, the students have been abandoned by their parents. No longer do parents make sure homework is completed nightly, no longer do parents expect papers to come home for review. Parents are shocked to find little Johnny is flunking out, but had they been involved in his education, they would know exactly what kind of work (or non-work) he is putting out. Daddy wouldn't miss a game, but does he help with a math or english paper every night??? You said it Perfectly...NO EXCUSES! Step up to the plate and start acting like a parent, help educate your children.
    And, concerning the Performing Arts Building...the question is do we need this facility, not will they be teaching classes in the building.

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  2. I have been a stay home Mom so long I can't remember what it felt like to really know who I am. My life has surrounded my child. I worked occasionally part time to supplement our income and pretty much gave up on my college education and career for motherhood. Recently I interviewed for a job and when asked about the last 20 years of my life I was honest, "I'm a mom". To topic at hand since we are generaliziing about society in general, I have a mother who is 80 years old and is still working and getting paid. She has always been a career woman. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing new. She has a difficult time understanding my decision for my life and child. I had always done homework with my child and my husband helped. I think for many years we did too much for our child. In many ways I feel I was too envolved and pressured my child to be someone she wasn't, a good student. Looking back I questioned why it seemed my child spent 7 hours at school and we were spending hours re-teaching material that was homework. At parent meetings I asked why my child had a tough time with school. She passed but there was something wrong. I am behind that parent that is speaking up. I wish for my child's sake I would not have been so self conscious about my child's problem's with school.

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  3. The Performing Arts Building will be for the whole community- not just school functions. The Alliance Arts will get a lot of use from it. How nice to attend a concert in a place built for such things. Good for all of Alliance.

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  4. To combat my lack of understanding with the education system I began my own search for how education became mandatory. Original intent which was to create good citizens, unite society and prevent crime and poverty. This has been a slow and labored effort beginning in the 1600's to what it is now. Deeptha Thattai, volunteer for Association for India's Development has written a comprehensive article summarizing history of Public Education in the U.S. She sources (4) American Publications. Do your own research. What I take away from what is public knowledge with state test scores and the promotion of the H.S. addition is local District and community value of importance. States play only half of the push for local communities to be what they deem acceptable. The question really is "what specifically is the social issues in our area affecting our school's and how much do we want to fund our current local public education system?" The debate 'for' or 'against' the addition are valid. Do we need to solve the social and internal problems first? Will financially funding a large project specifically for the High School advance primary, secondary, and post secondary education as a whole? Oppinion's voiced about this are valid. This is more than casting blame on parent's or the school; it is up to us as a community, not just Administration to focus on where our problem's exist. Address the problem's and incorporate step's to develop our priorities. A facility alone will not improve the current system. I believe we need resources applied in both areas to be successful. Are we as a community really aware of where our focus need's to be?

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  5. I am of the opinion that this is not the right time for this addition. I have children in this school system. I have struggled with thtis system to help them, to help keep on top of their grades, etc. In this, I have found that we have a large number of people in the employee of the school system that are here mearly to collect a pay check. They refuse to communicate with parents, saying thats what parent teacher conferences are for. They do not teach, they give assignments. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Altho this may be an economic boost of sorts for our community (if the general contractor hires local people and sub contractors), what is our focus really on? When the school system has had a failing report card of its own, for a number of years in multiple areas, we need to put the focus back on the instruction. The teachers in this system recently attended several days of workshop on how to work with the students, and the parents, and basically how to teach these students. They need the opportunity to put this instruction to use. Our school system needs the opportunity to pull their report card grades up to passing. Until thats done, this needs put on the back burner. The project proposed is little more than fluff. It is an attempt to "keep up with the Jones'", after all, Sidney just completed something similar, and Scottsbluff middle school is getting an update also.
    And when looking at it further, just how is this to be paid for and then cared for? I have heard "no new taxes" before, and something similar is being said now with this. This is going to be paid for over 30 years. Are we really to believe that our taxes will not be increased with an ear mark for the schools in that time? How will it be maintained? Where is that money to come from in the years to come if not from another tax increase? Alliance turned down an opportunity to have a Cabellas facility here several years ago. Do we think that they will donate to us the way they did to the Sidney schools project? We are limited on local businesses to help increase our tax base, and not gaining any ground at this point in time. Leaves only one place that money will come from, and it isnt another government stimulus package or stimulus bonus.
    I have heard that our schools currently have no debt. Let it remain that way, save the funds needed for this, or at least the majority of it, and then, after our school and our teachers can provide us, the tax paying community, with a satisfactory report card, then look into an upgrade. Maybe by then, we will need to add on actual classrooms for the curriculum offered and the number of students enrolled.
    Cant wait? Then, school board members, stop sneaking around and put this up for a special vote. Let the community REALLY have a say in this addition. Anything less is a school board, and upper administration, that are trying to put their names in the history books under "look what we did".

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  6. I decided 2 years ago to move to another town...mainly to get out of the Alliance School District. Wow did I found out how behind my kids are in Reading & in Math. I think the APS District needs to get back to the "core" of teaching. School systems need to make the teachers accountable for their low test scores. It has taken 2 years to get my 3 kids back up to where they need to be in Reading & Math... How sad - at the expense of children....

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  7. The school board says that they will follow the will of the community on this matter, but in reading the happenings of the school board, they seem to be gearing up for construction. We need our school system to put the focus BACK on education, and not on a facelift, or fluff. When you take your kids to a different school district in order to get them the education they deserve, or you have to take them to Sylvan to get them caught up, or simply taught what they should have been in the first place, then that speaks so loudly that this is not the place Alliance Public Schools needs to be in right now. Alliance School Board members and Superintendent, PLEASE listen to the community. Put the focus back on education. This proposed addition is not needed at this point in time. If you want to leave something as a legacy of your time on the school board, do it by improving the quality of education that is received by students who attend this school system. That is a true legacy, not some addition that is really not necessary.

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  8. Before this disappears I want to say that I went to school to escape what was going on at home. I didn't go to school to cause trouble for teacher's or anyone else. No one knew what it was like for me at home. No one asked and I never mentioned it to anyone. I did not want to be a victim. I took very little pride in anything but what I did at school. I was not in the top ten percent of my class. I did as many sport's as physically and mentally possible, even when I didn't have money for lunch or even a snack. My family rarely ever showed up to watch me and I really didn't want them there. Coaches didn't give me the time of day. I remember practicing alone with little notice in track. That period in time still stings. Now when I go to see my kid I try not to cry. I tried college but didn't make it all the way through. Let's face it folks nothing is cut and dry. No absolutes. Bicker if it will get us somewhere. But look at your kid, love your kid. See that one who is trying to be invisible. Why is that you begging for so much attention. Why does that kid have red glassy eyes and seems spaced out? Why is that one so ticked off, truent? It is all about the kid's. Question everything you think you know and your experience because you really don't know.

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