Task Force Reaches Consensus on Key Principles
At its February 23rd meeting, the Building Southmoor Together Task Force reached agreement on the principles it believes will best help to alleviate some of the perennial challenges around class size equity/parity, meeting individual student needs, and building a stronger community for all of Southmoor’s students, teachers, and families. These principles strike an important balance of preserving a dedicated HGT program even while striving for better integration of all Southmoor students to the greatest degree possible, and designate specific targets and strategies for ensuring class size parity. The full list of principles can be found by clicking here: bst-consensus-principles1
Because these principles show a deference to teacher expertise on the design of specific configurations in grades 4 and 5, which are under discussion and won’t be finalized until more specific enrollment numbers come in, the Task Force will now turn its attention to more long range planning and visioning for the school. Stay tuned for ways to get involved.
Note: these notes were updated 2.26.10 to clarify that the 80% threshold of parity referenced in the final paragraph is in reference to class sizes in a given grade, not across grades. Thanks!
1IF the school receives same funding per HGT and traditional student, then having smaller HGT classes consitutes an uneven distribution of resources and is unfair.
Instead of doing a separate test and thus undermining the work of the whole Gifted department at DPS, I suggest a monetary equation of resources.
Imagine, the GHT classs ended at 33% smaller headcount than tranditional class. Teacher compensation is about $2500 per student per year. Thus, to equate teacher resources per student the HGT parents need to pay about $833 per student. In practice, this amount will be lower because the school receives about $100 per HGT student subsidy from DPS.
2One soultion to shortage of resources at school is a broader parent participation. At the moment, a small number of parents carry almost all vounteer load. Many Charter Schools mandate parental involvement - from sweeping the floors to class assistance. The greater amount of patental time may compensate for reduced DPS funding.
We can consider changing Southmoor status to a Charter School or a School of Innovation.
3I do not see the need for “integration to the greatest degree possible”, nor for any additional efforts in that direction.
Children from all grades and classes have ample opportunities to play together and form friendships. A multitude of art and aftershool actvities involve children across the whole school, mixing age, gender and any other groupping. If, at certain age, girls prefer not to play with the boys or not to play with much younger children - then so be it.
Parents should not be bringing their personal and political agendas into educational process, certainly not for other’s children.
4