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Plan rescinded for special school

It's a pity they can't see that the total curriculum is wrong for most kids.

By Marla A. Goldberg

SPRINGFIELD - The School Committee uanimously voted last night to rescind a plan to put failing eighth-graders into a special preparatory school next fall, after dozens of people, including several prominent black citizens, packed a hearing room at City Hall to protest.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno moved the issue to first place on the agenda following comments from state Rep. Benjamin J. Swan, D-Springfield, City Council President Bud L. Williams, and John J. Duggan Middle School principal Jonathan D. Swan, among others.

Williams said isolating failing eighth-graders from their peers would ultimately do more harm than good. "My concern is that these students will be mostly Hispanic and black, in one building ... to warehouse these individuals would be a travesty, and a recipe for failure ... I think you'll see the dropout rate increase."


Sarno told the crowd he regretted April's vote in favor of the Springfield High School Preparatory School. "I apologize. I made a mistake on the vote, without the appropriate community input," he said.

The School Committee ultimately voted to rescind its prior 5-2 vote, and to refer the plan back to a curriculum and programs subcommittee for cost analysis, a review of concerns, including student isolation and program effectiveness, and analysis by incoming Superintendent Alan J. Ingram.

School Committee member Marjorie J. Hurst, who strongly opposed the plan, said she will re-join the subcommittee now chaired by member Christopher Collins. "We'll make certain that you have an opportunity to weigh in," she told members of the crowd.

Sarno said the plan suggested by Collins wasn't intended to be hurtful. "There was no malice on the part of what was offered up," he said, adding that the School Committee is "trying to reach every child, regardless of creed, color or background, who may be slipping away from us."

Collins, a retired elementary school principal, said the goal was to help failing eighth-graders who would otherwise repeat a year in the same environment where they failed before, or go on to high school without critical skills. Collins, although he "reluctantly" joined the unanimous vote to rescind the plan, warned that many eighth-graders are in crisis. "If we don't act, we've lost another year in these students' lives," Collins said.

During the last several months, four of Springfield's six major middle schools have come under scrutiny by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for failing to show sufficient improvement in test scores and other areas, including the M. Marcus Kiley, Chestnut Accelerated, John F. Kennedy and Van Sickle middle schools. Meanwhile, Duggan is completing its first year as a restructured pilot school, to save it from being deemed chronically underperforming by the state.

Bobbie L. Rennix, former principal of the Homer Street School, said students who must repeat a grade already feel penalized, without the stigma of being sent to a special school.

Benjamin Swan, who holds a master's degree in education and has worked as a consultant to school districts, said that designating students as failing would be a "self-fulfilling prophecy."

Benjamin Brown, a math teacher in the twilight program at the Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical High School, said he is "in the trenches daily" with students whose home situations are very unstable and are years behind academically. He, among others, indicated the school system bears some blame, and that interventions must begin much earlier.

"They haven't failed, they have been failed," Brown said.

Duggan principal Jonathan Swan said he was held back in ninth grade, although he later went on to finish high school and college and to earn two master's degrees. "I know where I would be if you had shuffled me off with other ninth graders who were failing," he said.

— Marla A. Goldberg
The Republican
2008-05-16
http://www.masslive.com/republican/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-14/121092422944180.xml&coll=1

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