Dear Members of the Board,
It has recently come to my attention that Franklin School's rating on the GreatSchools.org website has fallen from an already low rating of ‘six’ to ‘four’ and that is on a scale of ten. What is more, in a recent ranking of high schools by NJ Monthly magazine, Bloomfield ranked 221 on a list of about 315 schools. This is 61 spots below Belleville and 81 spots lower than Nutley, which I personally find inexplicable, as it is my understanding that Bloomfield population does not vary from general population of NJ by any measure – therefore, at a minimum, I would expect at least average performance, and personally, I would hope that we can strive to do better than that.
As a parent of a 4th grade student, and a tax payer who is burdened with a property tax bill in excess of $10,000 per year, I am at a loss as to why there are no more radical changes made to remedy this situation. In my view, our schools are systematically failing the population of this town, and when I am talking about the town, I am not merely referring to students and their parents, such as myself, but all the property owners, because we all well know that the quality of the school system plays a large role in determining property values. Why else would a house on a Glen Ridge side of Essex Avenue be 50%-80% more expensive than a comparable house on a Bloomfield side?
Therefore, I hope that this board and the superintendent are as aware and concerned about those developments, as I am and are taking aggressive steps to remedy this situation with a sense of urgency this warrants.
Between my two kids, we have been at Franklin continuously for the last eight years, and we have seen no such substantive changes in that period. The current rankings suggest we are not addressing this problem. I offer a list of improvements that I would hope to see as a parent:
- It seems to me that different kids have different needs and they learn in different ways, so why not create a magnet system (within the under-performing schools, obviously there are 2-3 schools in town that perform well and we should let them be). The schools I envision would have specializations that align with interests and needs of the student body they serve. So perhaps, we could have a school with bilingual teachers, who could assist children with limited proficiency in English in making a transition; have a separate school for kids who are interested in science and a school with emphasis on art. What all those schools would have in common would be strict, challenging curriculum and teachers who love to teach it. And yes, I would love to see after-school clubs that are not athletic.
- Introduce a real gifted program, surely we can round up 20-40 gifted children at each grade level in a town of 48,000 people.
- Some of the teachers, my children were lucky to have, were easily worth their weight in gold - they loved teaching, they loved working with children, and they instilled a love of learning in their students. Funny thing is that everybody knows who those teachers are and everybody knows, which of the teachers do not fall into that category, but for some reason it seems to be a taboo subject - here is why it should not be: according to Malcolm Gladwell, who attributes this research to Eric Hanushek, an economist at Stanford, "students of a very bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year’s worth of material in one school year. The students in the class of a very good teacher will learn a year and a half’s worth of material. That difference amounts to a year’s worth of learning in a single year." This is the very reason why we should not hesitate to broach the subject and insist that we modify our current performance evaluation system for the benefit of the students who attend our schools.
- Establish and enforce strict residency criteria, so we can be sure that our property taxes benefit our residents and only our residents.
- Improve school schedule – we have a high number of half-days and seemingly random days off. Certainly, test scores point to our students needing more rather than less classroom instruction and this schedule makes it very difficult for the working parents. I have previously written to the board regarding what I consider a frivolous number of November school closures, I believe when I added up all the full-days and the hours of all the half-days due to parent-teacher conferences, and subtracted all the days off due to a teacher's convention a Thanksgiving holiday - I got an equivalent of 13 full days of instruction during the entire month of November.
I call upon our Board of Education and the school leadership to take the first step today - recognize our dismal rankings for what they are - a failure. And then take the second step - seize upon this failure by not being satisfied with incremental improvements here or there, but as a call to action to take substantive steps to elevate the performance of the school system.
bruce arlett
2:43 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
Stop
Pat Gilleran
2:43 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
Everything costs money and Bloomfield is not getting it's fair share. You may want to attend this meeting- invite is being sent around by BOE President Mary Shaughnessy. I'm hoping to find people to carpool with.
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
I would like to invite anyone who is free on Sunday, Sept. 30, to attend a meeting in Edison hosted by Building One New Jersey, a nonpartisan, grassroots group concerned with rebuilding and revitalizing New Jersey's aging, overlooked suburbs. (The list below indicates the topics that will be tackled at this gathering.) I attended one other meeting sponsored by this group and was pleased to see elected officials from all political persuasions attempting to work together to help save struggling towns like Bloomfield.
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20120829/NJNEWS/308290068/Mayors-meets-White-House-representative-Edison-present-problems-plaguing-suburbs?nclick_check=1
I don't know what the meeting of the 30th will do, but I have enough curiosity and desire to see if this statewide group of concerned leaders and citizens can come up
with some solutions for what ails us. Strength in numbers coalescing around shared concerns could be powerful. Is anybody else game?
Thanks in advance for your consideration
Pat Gilleran
2:43 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
Building ONE New Jersey
Promoting sustainable, inclusive and economically prosperous communities
2012 Statewide Public Meeting
September 30, 2012
4 pm – 6 pm (doors open at 3 pm)
New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center
97 Sunfield Avenue, Edison, NJ 0883
Join 1,000 clergy, local elected officials, community, business and labor leaders from across New Jersey to press state and national policy makers to act on bipartisansolutions to pressing problems impacting our communities.
§ Lower Property Taxes
§ Equitable School Funding for Diverse Communities
§ Infrastructure Funding
§ Fair Housing
§ Criminal Justice Reform
Enzo DiCostanzo
2:43 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
Bea,
I can really appreciate your comments...I have had dealings with the superintendent and my opinion of Jason Bing and his staff is positive....we have had some very awful issues in the third ward that have lingered due to local self dealing politicians putting 'vote getting' and campaigning ahead of public safety; but I have to give JB credit, he responded and helped us out; I hope what I am seeing or rather not seeing this fall is not a mirage out on the Ella / Charles streets....we need the strictest enforcement of residency requirements...I couldn't agree more!
Linda has my e-mail, message me sometime...good luck with your agenda!
-Enzo
john g chipko
2:43 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
excellant letter and it's time that we stop hearing about the teachers who are great and get rid of those who aren't. with the school taxes we pay we should be on top of student achievement. why aren't we?
fxja
2:43 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
Bravo! More ideas:
- Establish a parent/guardian report cards regime!!! Like... http://www.sde.com/Downloads/TeacherResources/di/ParentReportCard.pdf
- Multiply homework by a factor of 2, 3 or at least provide additional optional homework. I despise that my kids don't get weekend homework, for example. More broadly, it's clear our parents are lacking in creativity, help us BoE!
- Require certain base programs that Home & School associations should provide to their community. For example, administering more spelling bees, chess/smart-gaming events, and prohibiting non-academic, non-essential events from moving forward on school premises. Or in another way, require H&S associations adopt/present/educate parents on home-schooling best practices. Just because we send our kids to school doesn't mean we cannot promulgate home-schooling practices.
Lauren Fischer Favetti
2:43 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
Nice letter. It goes much deeper, and I hope they respond.
A
2:43 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
Wow well said, and I agree. My son goes to Berkeley and that school has failed well below all the schools in Bloomfield, its beyond me how we in Bloomfield pay high taxes and our children are not benefiting. Berkeley is run down, dirty, and in need of major work. The schools bathrooms are disgusting, I have no other choice but to send him there as I tried for two years to get him transferred with no luck. They tell you we are failing you have an option to send him to another school just make a request when I do it gets denied. Go figure. Dr. Carr is new to our school and she is great so I hope that things change quick because that school is going fall apart. All the children are being set up for failure as they get older. Its a true shame. Bloomfield should be ashamed of themselves. It upsets me even more that they are more interested in building apts and businesses and forgetting about our childr
en our future. Step up and do something!!!
Corrine Harney
7:46 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
As a Bloomfield home-owner of 11 years and a mother of 3 children in the district schools (one in Middle School, two in Elementary), I concur with much of what you've written. I would say that aside from a few "teachers" my children have had, the majority of their school experiences have been positive. My children have been fortunate to have sat in the classrooms of talented, dedicated and creative educators, despite a flow of administrative issues throughout the years.
A few of us were disheartened by the ever-decreasing "enrichment" offered in the schools and we began BRIDGE (Bloomfield Residents Interested in Developing Gifted Education). We met twice last spring, once with Superintendent Bing on-hand to field a barrage of questions from parents and residents. By the responses we've received and the turn-out of both meetings, it is obvious that residents recognize the value of a meaningful gifted and talented curriculum in our school district. If you or anyone is interested in learning more about BRIDGE, please contact Corrine Harney or Susan D'Andrea at bridgegifted@gmail.com.
Thank you for articulating the frustrations of many of us. I hope your words had some impact and will help facilitate some much needed changes. And you are correct, this is not simply an issue for those who currently have children attending Bloomfield Schools. This impacts anyone who owns property in town or wants to see the quality of life in Bloomfield improve.
Chentz
7:46 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
Excellent points and references! Having had a Montclair HS grad and now a Bloomfield 1st grader, the only equitable solution is to adopt the magnet system of school choice although the opposition will site the prohibative cost of bussing. Thank you for raising what I agree to be a pressing issue for all conscientious Bloomfield parents.
Peter L
11:26 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
It is all about the public trust or in reality the lack of it....the aforementioned comments are on target and for this to occur (terrible scores and placement)someone using our public trust failed.....its quite simple "just do the right thing" Money is not the answer 20K spent on inner city kids not much for that. God help us
Name Not Provided
7:35 am on Saturday, September 15, 2012
This letter is beautifully written--well spoken and throughtfully addressed the EAXACT issues and frustrations that I have articulated for several years. These are also the reasons that I will not send my child to the Bloomfield schools. Which is a shame--because I love the area and our home-- but realize that it makes more sense to move to the othere side of "Essex St." than to wait for the school board to wake up!
Karen Banda
7:35 am on Saturday, September 15, 2012
Many decades ago, I thought I was an idiot when it came to math. It just didn't compute. My teacher could just as well have been speaking in Greek for all the sense it made to me. I constantly pulled D with a red underline. Borderline failure. Then we had a practice teacher for one semester. Wow! It all made sense! I wasn't stupid! Sadly, the PT left and the regular teacher returned. D with a red underline. Again.
In Bloomfield HS I was blessed to have to wonderful math teachers in Gabe Mosso and Ms. Carter (Geometry). I wasn't great, but I didn't fail. I had hope.
When I went to college I had to take remedial algebra as I totally tanked that part of the SATs while achieving a perfect score in English. Again, I had someone who was able to teach and did extremely well in a comprehensive summer semester.
It took until my late 20's to realize the problem wasn't me. It was the people teaching me. I actually did extremely well in accounting and statistics in college. Go figure.
It IS about the teachers. Just saying.
patricia marinaro
7:40 pm on Sunday, September 16, 2012
yep. hang in there.
sheltershowcase
7:40 pm on Sunday, September 16, 2012
I would love to learn more and work towards improving our school system. It is very true that this is important for our children, and property values as well. Bea, I would love to connect with you and others interested in this cause. I created a Facebook group, as a starting place. Please join if you want to connect: http://www.facebook.com/groups/365589853515394/