I am a parent of four children—two who have graduated and attend the university, one who is in our local public high school and my youngest is in fifth grade. I am weary of having to come to these hearings for Seven Oaks as they shop around for someone to authorize them.
I am trying to understand what would motivate you to say “no” to Seven Oaks. I watched with sadness as Dugger public school district could no longer afford to stay open and retain local control. Your authorization of their request for a charter school fulfilled their desires to maintain their community. But what about OUR community?
My children have enjoyed and are enjoying an amazing education. They have teachers who have been able to gear their instruction toward each kids’ learning styles because they are highly educated. My kids’ experiences have been as varied as they themselves are: they’ve read Shakespeare and the classics, learned Spanish, while their friends have had Latin and Chinese. grappled with advanced math problems, sharing ideas in book groups with their teacher librarians and literacy coaches, participating in Science Olympiad at the national level, competed at semi-state for their school soccer team. They have attended school plays, been on the school newspaper, won leadership awards in the marching band, and done science experiments in the creek behind their school.
All of these things require funding.
We worked as a community to pass a referendum supporting all of these experiences. Now here comes this small group of people who will basically take away some of these choices for my kids and the 10,000 others in our public school community so that they can have this niche school they feel that they need.
While the organizers claim “innovation” and “excellence in leadership”, nearly their entire application is lifted off of other sites without proper citation and appears to even be plagiarized in places.
I strongly suggest that you take a passage; google it, and see what you find. I did. Most of it is taken directly from other charter schools’ applications in other states. Last time I pointed out that there is a whole section that has taken paragraphs from the National Archives website and mixed up the order of sentences taken verbatim --with nothing but a parenthetical reference at the end of the page as “source.”
Another part of the application has whole sentences lifted and shifted around that are from “Introduction to Classical Education: A Guide for Parents by Christopher A. Perrin” who is never quoted nor is he mentioned in the application at all. How are these people supposed to organize a high-quality school if this is the application that they put together?
My objections, however, are not so much with the quality of education that this leadership might bring and the concern for the children whose parents would trust them in this charter school. My concern is what it costs us as a whole. MCCSC and RBB have shown great support for their school communities. Within our communities are people from all backgrounds and abilities, from those who would find themselves right at home in this ultra-conservative school environment being proposed to those who would rather learn on the moon than be subjected to that. My kids have learned that part of a being in a democracy is respecting that we may not all believe the same things, go to the same church, look or act the same, but we all have worth and we all have to get along and find common ground in order to take care of one another and make this world the best that we can. The public schools are that living democracy and that is our community.
The people at Dugger asked you to preserve their community that the state would not. We are asking you to preserve ours. The public schools, though messy and imperfect, are the heart of our community. Please don’t step on it by chartering Seven Oaks.
Return to Seven Oaks public comments page
I am trying to understand what would motivate you to say “no” to Seven Oaks. I watched with sadness as Dugger public school district could no longer afford to stay open and retain local control. Your authorization of their request for a charter school fulfilled their desires to maintain their community. But what about OUR community?
My children have enjoyed and are enjoying an amazing education. They have teachers who have been able to gear their instruction toward each kids’ learning styles because they are highly educated. My kids’ experiences have been as varied as they themselves are: they’ve read Shakespeare and the classics, learned Spanish, while their friends have had Latin and Chinese. grappled with advanced math problems, sharing ideas in book groups with their teacher librarians and literacy coaches, participating in Science Olympiad at the national level, competed at semi-state for their school soccer team. They have attended school plays, been on the school newspaper, won leadership awards in the marching band, and done science experiments in the creek behind their school.
All of these things require funding.
We worked as a community to pass a referendum supporting all of these experiences. Now here comes this small group of people who will basically take away some of these choices for my kids and the 10,000 others in our public school community so that they can have this niche school they feel that they need.
While the organizers claim “innovation” and “excellence in leadership”, nearly their entire application is lifted off of other sites without proper citation and appears to even be plagiarized in places.
I strongly suggest that you take a passage; google it, and see what you find. I did. Most of it is taken directly from other charter schools’ applications in other states. Last time I pointed out that there is a whole section that has taken paragraphs from the National Archives website and mixed up the order of sentences taken verbatim --with nothing but a parenthetical reference at the end of the page as “source.”
Another part of the application has whole sentences lifted and shifted around that are from “Introduction to Classical Education: A Guide for Parents by Christopher A. Perrin” who is never quoted nor is he mentioned in the application at all. How are these people supposed to organize a high-quality school if this is the application that they put together?
My objections, however, are not so much with the quality of education that this leadership might bring and the concern for the children whose parents would trust them in this charter school. My concern is what it costs us as a whole. MCCSC and RBB have shown great support for their school communities. Within our communities are people from all backgrounds and abilities, from those who would find themselves right at home in this ultra-conservative school environment being proposed to those who would rather learn on the moon than be subjected to that. My kids have learned that part of a being in a democracy is respecting that we may not all believe the same things, go to the same church, look or act the same, but we all have worth and we all have to get along and find common ground in order to take care of one another and make this world the best that we can. The public schools are that living democracy and that is our community.
The people at Dugger asked you to preserve their community that the state would not. We are asking you to preserve ours. The public schools, though messy and imperfect, are the heart of our community. Please don’t step on it by chartering Seven Oaks.
Return to Seven Oaks public comments page