As I said I would do, I brought the contract for professional development, coaching, and support that was approved last month for Warrington Middle School back to the board this month for a discussion among the full board.
The contract was approved last month with two board members not present for the discussion.
I laid out the argument for pulling back the contract and taking a different approach, however all of my fellow board members and the Superintendent support going ahead with the contract as written, convinced it is the right support for Warrington Middle School. They all voiced this strongly at the meeting.
The board based their decision to support this strategy on the strong recommendation of the incoming principal, who has stated she feels this support is essential to making the school successful. Additionally, some of the board members have met with the personnel from this vendor and feel they will be successful.
So after hearing from the board members and realizing I was the only one with continuing reservations about this tactic at Warrington, I ended the discussion on the topic.
I can count to three and there are no shortages of other issues to move on to....
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Jeff, I can understand your perspective on the issue. My position is that if this was a truly viable option before, why wasn't it implemented already? This school has a fairly long history of lagging progress.
I also think it is unfair that the great changes underway are only happening at WMS; this should be a district wide effort to move forward struggling schools. But this is at least a start.
I know $375,000 is a lot of money, but if that is what it takes, I say the future of these children is worth it. We can talk about high stakes testing and preventing a school being closed. But in the end, education is for the sake of each student, and education is their only way out of perpetual poverty and other struggles. This $375,000 after 10 years may very well alleviate the burden of safety net programs.
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