Update April 20

(KENT's DISCLAIMER: The views contained on this site are strictly my own and should not be taken as a reflection of the Board or their positions. Additionally my comments should not be interpreted as Board guidance.)

I apologize for not getting back sooner. I have a couple pressing matters that have been the focus of my time. Below is my response to a Comment left by Alex Eichelberger, an individual that I greatly respect for her concern, consideration, and bluntness. I will try to answer as best as I can. Again I apologize for the delay answering.

Tuesday March 17th, 6:09pm

Subject: RE to your post dating March 21, 2009

Hello Kent,

As always I do appreciate your posts and sharing. I read through this post numerous times and I do have some questions.
You stated that you have watched the test scores decline over the years and that nobody is looking at the status of the respective schools. Now my question - how can the test scores decline in a school that hasn't even been open for a year? And also at the time of your post there were not any test results from CSAP for VRHS and I think the results are still not out for this year. Could you please explain this to me?

Test scores are one of the drivers for SCHS and as you state it is difficult to make this same assessment for VRHS. VRHS is more the result of the recommendations referred from the Admin and other insubordinate actions. I believe that more information will be forthcoming when I can.

I would also like to point out that Vista opened with the same budget as Falcon High. Lets take a step back and see that Falcon was an existing school which means they already had a lot of the necessary inventory. Vista had nothing. I do think that this is a major set back for Vista.

If you look at the big picture, Vista had to make due with a lot less.

I would like to point out that VRHS opened with half the students, didn't have to shift at Christmas Break, had many of the items that it is short delivered from Mill Levy dollars and a full contingent of professional staff, with half the responsbility.

I would also like you to take a look at the totally different demographics of our high schools.

No offense, but I HATE this line of reasoning. Are we just supposed to assume that because some students are not as blessed as others that we should just let those with professional stewardship skate passed their duty? Are kids who don't come from a strictly Anglo background going to be resigned to the food service because they have been disadvantaged? I know for a fact that this is not your perspective, and I apologize for reacting this way, but obviously I have a strong opinion. If this is the reasoning that we are going to use, then I feel that we have a greater responsibility to not approve these contracts, not less.

Now to your next statement:

"Recently when administrative personnel were explaining the current financial position of the school District, the meeting was allowed to dissolve into accusations and attacks about the administrative personnel and others while the building leadership stood by and let it happen. That concerns me.

In the same meeting as the topic transformed from budgets to building focus some teachers indicated that they will not work to make the incoming International Baccalaureate (IB) a success and will in fact work against it. This is a program that has raised one of our lowest performing elementary schools to the top of the heap. This is a program that allows its graduates to go into colleges in Colorado and throughout the world as sophomores. This is a program that the District is investing 10's of thousands of dollars and to hear that the building personnel are not only not on board but are working against it is concerns me."

I guess this could be seen in two ways - and I am not trying to accuse of anything I am just trying to keep an open mind. Building administrators might not have stepped in because they wanted everyone to see the frustration of teachers. Now your statement is also quite broad and I would like to see the actual accusations and if they were validated. Sometimes one person sees it as an accusations when another person sees it as constructive criticism. If nobody in the district is allowed to speak their mind how can we see where change needs to happen. I do want to stress the fact that criticism needs to be done in a respectful manner but I do understand when emotions run high. About the IB program - you stated that "some" teachers are against it and will work against it. First of all "some" to me doesn't mean all but a minority.We will always have folks which don't believe in certain programs. That said, why do these teachers not want to support the program - again is there a certain frustration present, do they feel overwhelmed? Now if we really listen, do you think there might be some constructive criticism in this even if the teachers involved might have been flustered and expressed it in the wrong way? I obviously wasn't present at the meeting but I do think if you put this out, you need to have concrete examples of accusations and so forth. Were you present at the meeting or were you told about it by a third party? If it was by a third party - don't you think that one gets personally involved when accused and gets also emotional and isn't really objective anymore (this is a normal human reaction)?

I will concede in part, but I feel that if the building personnel need to show "the frustration of teachers" that is a further strike against the building leadership that it has arrived at this point. The central admin are not directly responsible for the climate in the building, the principle is.

About letting go of administrators instead of teachers and I quote from your post "These actions obviously result in certain losses of efficiency, but it is difficult to keep an administrator when some salaries keep 2-3 teachers in the classroom. Is this penny wise and pound foolish? Maybe, but right now I am concerned about the pennies." - hm, this does make me think. Why are only two HS principals being let go and not FHS also if it is such a financial concern? And who is going to run the school if not a principal? Why are we still having principals in any of our other schools then? Why do we have any administration? I actually do find it foolish to run a school without a principal. I guess I am not really understanding this because lately the board does emphasize on how taxing it is on the district administration to run a district without a superintendent. Do you really think it is any less taxing on school administration to run a school without a principal? Also doing this to a brand new school is a double whammy - now is this really in the best interest of our children. I do not think this makes any sense at all. But that is my personal opinion.

My apologies on this one, because you are correct that you are "...not really understanding this..." and it is my fault. The referenced section was related to reports that 13 central administrators are not currently on the list to be extended contract for the 09-10 school year. I am not sure of all of the positions that this includes, but they are strictly Central Office personnel and are not in conjunction with the principals, who would obviously need to be replaced if their contracts were not renewed for the 2009-10 school year.

And last I would like to say it again, our children are not robots that will perform because we ask them to perform. What I do know is that my kids will work twice as hard for a teacher they like. I know our son, who is in elementary school, loves his principal and is extremely proud of her praise. I know our daughter who is in middle school worked twice as hard this year and improved tremendously because she loves her teachers. I can also tell you that the kids at SCHS try twice as hard because of Mr. Collins. Again, I think demographics are a big factor and instead of pointing fingers and finding a scape (sp?) goat - has the district ever asked where SCHS could use help to improve? SCHS was an overcrowded school for a long time - this is the first year the school is back to a kind of normal size for its building size. This comes with it's own issues. Lets look at all the facts, keep our eyes wide open.

This comment is not meant accusatory against anybody.

I never would have thought otherwise. Your concerns and articulation of those conerns are always fair and I would be saddened if you did not share them.

I just wanted to share my thoughts with you because I do think if we keep communication open it will improve our district. One might see something another person doesn't.
Thanks for caring about our schools.

Sincerely, Alex Eichelberger

Thank you