I’ve been following the news that the Ypsilanti school system (the school system that I live in), is struggling very closely. I wasn’t really aware of it until good friend, Maria Cotera (whose child is in the system) contacted me–but since then, I’ve been following updates and conversations rather obsessively.
My children do not attend Ypsi schools. They go out of district to a charter school. Choosing to go to a charter school was one of the most difficult decisions W* and I have ever made with our children–everything we stand for and believe in is centered on community based solutions and reactions to problems. But…this was our kids we were talking about. Do we stand up for an ideal and leave our children to flounder?
Because when we were making the decision about what school to send our children to, that’s what Ypsi schools were doing. Floundering. The school that is in walking distance of our house was having all sorts of problems, including continuous cuts to funding and an ever increasing teaching load. It also was looking for “quick fix” solutions to budget problems by centering most of its curriculum on “math and science”–but test scores did not back up any sort of claims of student expertise in either area (and I want to emphasize, things may have changed, this was a few years back when my oldest was just beginning kindergarten).
There was also very little flexibility in this school in regards to different learning requirements. I had grown up in a similar school where things like ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, etc were all considered “being stubborn,” and I couldn’t stand the thought of my two kids being forced into the same hell I had been for so many years.
For those reasons, and many many others, we sent our kids to a school that was flexible, funded and designed to encourage a strong love of life long learning rather than a “get them through and someday they’ll figure it out,” apathy.
But of course–the administration at Ypsi schools don’t see parents leaving the district as a reflection of the apathy it has nurtured for years. It sees it as a marketing failure. As a business venture gone wrong. And so it is using business strategies to deal with what is ultimately about a failure to address community concerns about education and the role education plays in the community.
In other words, if Ypsi can get all of its kids into two huge schools rather than four smaller schools, expense will be cut and everybody will be winners! But parents, who have an investment in the child that is being streamlined to “cut costs,” recognize that parents who have the ability to leave usually do when their child is reduced to little more than an “expense” that the city can’t afford.
Maria and I have taken different routes with our children. But as she shows in her following response to a local blogger’s questions, she knows and is more in tune with what parents are thinking than Ypsi administration is. At the core: parents want what is best for their children–and they aren’t going to force their kids to stay in a place where what’s best is never going to happen unless they simply don’t have any other choices.
Ypsi schools would be wise to listen to the parents and community members who have had to interact with the schools. We know why Ypsi schools are failing. And frankly, we know how to save the schools as well.
If you are in the area, support Ypsi schools by joining up with other parents and community members. You, like me, may have sent your kids to schools outside of the district, but that doesn’t mean that a school closure won’t affect you. Read this entire interview with Maria.
MARK: It seems we’re kind of in a no win situation. Sure, some of it may be due to bad decisions that were made in the past, but, given the situation as it currently exists (with enrollment falling and a $6.4 million budget shortfall), it would seem that a school or two would have to close. As a parent fighting to save Chapelle, do you feel as though it’s incumbent on you to present a comprehensive plan that would detail comparable cost savings to be had elsewhere? I ask because it kind of seems like an impossible task. In other words, it seems like it’s not enough in this instance to just say “Save Chapelle.” It’s like you have to also do the job of the School Board and come forward with a better plan.
MARIA: Let’s think rationally about the numbers here. Even in the most optimistic projections, closing schools will only address a small portion of the budget shortfall ($1.3 million out of $6.4 million) so where, exactly, will the other 5.9 million come from? Moreover, in our opinion, it won’t take long for these projected savings to evaporate as a result of the hidden costs related to school closing. We fundamentally challenge the premise that school closures are a viable cost saving component in a rational deficit reduction plan, and we unreservedly reject the premise that closing schools saves money.
YPS needs to stop allowing actuaries to guide its educational mission. Closing neighborhood schools, limiting parents’ options, creating oversized, overcrowded schools with a “one size fits all” educational mission, is the surest way to exacerbate declining enrollments, which is a big part of the problem that we currently face. Remember, at one time, Ypsi had eight elementary schools, then four, now they are proposing to shave it down to two? Clearly, the formula has not worked in the past and it will not work in the future. It’s like being in the middle of a lake in a sinking boat with a slow leak and bashing out the bottom in hopes that the boat will sink slower if it weighs less.
We have to make cuts to address the budget shortfall, yes, but we also have to keep parents (and their money) in the system in order to insure a revenue stream. Why are parents leaving the Ypsi public schools for private and public schools in Ann Arbor? A primary reason is that these schools offer small, intimate settings and creative educational approaches that are responsive to individual students’ needs. If we could offer our parents schools, within walking distance of their homes, that did that, we could keep them in our system.
My response to the “sky is falling” rhetoric I’m hearing from YPS: “You’ve asked for creativity and sacrifice in the face of our current budget shortfalls, but so far, your plan only calls for sacrifice. What we need now is CREATIVITY, and what you are giving us are old failed formulas (school closings, cutting back on instructional staff as well as extras like art and music, etc). This approach will not address the core problem, which is lack of faith in our public school system, and lack of investment in the principle of a free, quality education for all.” What does creative thinking look like? I did a cursory web search and discovered that there are substantial funds out there for the creation of magnet schools with distinct educational missions. Magnet schools are meant to address inequities in the system caused by de facto segregation while promoting academic excellence and creativity. Chapelle and Adams, the elementary schools on the chopping block in the YPS plan, are over 80% minority and low income, they are ideal schools for the magnet funding program. We’ve kicked around some ideas that we think would be very appealing to parents, like capitalizing on Adams’ current specialization as a “math and science” academy but shifting the focus of its educational mission toward the current push in the State to develop green technology. Chapelle Community School has a well-established reputation as a space that actively encourages community involvement. It currently has great partnerships with Fly Art, 826michigan, and the University of Michigan. We are working on partnerships with Growing Hope, Community Records, and Dreamland Theater. We think Chapelle could easily be re-imagined as a “Public Engagement Academy” that would interface its curricular goals with community projects. What would it be like, for example, to help 5th graders improve their writing skills through community reporting and blogging? What would it mean for 1st graders to grow their own lunch in one of Growing Hope’s greenhouses (it’s a short walk away). There are parents currently in the system that have been working really hard to develop these community connections, and who have been thinking creatively about how to enhance our children’s education, because we believe in the dream of the public school as a democratizing space.
I guess that’s why the YPS plan is so disheartening, because it represents not only a failure of imagination, but also a complete disconnect with the wonderful things that are currently happening right under their noses (with no cost to the system’s bottom line). Do we have an alternate plan? Yes. First, develop partnerships with the School of Education at EMU and the University of Michigan to get some grant writing help, apply for major grants to help build on the educational missions of Adams and Chapelle. Close Ardis and sell the building. Move RCTC back into the high school, hold off on buying into costly new curricular plans like “New Tech High School” and the “international Baccalaureate” until you fix your foundation: the elementary schools. Get parents back into the schools on the ground floor (K-5) by offering them the full range of educational environments from Montessori schools to Magnet schools. Our point is that closing schools, especially small elementary schools that are located in the middle of thriving neighborhoods, will only add to declining enrollments, increase the lack of public engagement in the schools, and ultimately make our budget woes much worse. This is basically an economic problem of outlays and inputs. Addressing one (cutting expenses) without addressing the other (attracting new students) is a recipe for failure.
And then head over to the website she and other parents have set up. There, you will find all sorts of really important background information, as well as how you can get others involved.
ETA: Because there seems to be some question as to what, exactly, I am advocating here–let me be very clear and specific: There are a group of parents who are organizing community support to keep the various schools in Ypsilanti open. I am following their lead and showing them the support they have asked for. I advocate for nothing that they haven’t specifically asked for, and I do so specifically pointing out that I have made the choice NOT to send my kids to Ypsi schools. I think it’s important to mention that I made that choice: 1. so people know and understand where I am coming from and what stakes, if any, I have in saying what I say and 2. So that people know that what the parents of Chappelle school are arguing–that parents are leaving Ypsi schools for reasons that *Ypsi Schools (and on a bigger picture–the state of Michigan) ARE NOT ADDRESSING* is *true*. They are talking to other parents in a way that the Administration *is not*.
I trust these parents and I am a part of their community. And I will continue to follow their lead and assume that they know what’s best for the schools and that they know how to fix the schools.
I hope that makes my intentions clearer for any who have questions.
- Share
January 30th, 2010 at 12:55 pm #
I have two children now in high school who have attended Ypsilanti Public Schools from the start. I know the trepidation that parents feel as they make a choice as to which school their children should attend.
We chose the Ypsilanti Public Schools despite the ongoing rumors of their pending failure (this is not a new thing, the so-called failure just gets recycled). From our experience our children have received an excellent, if imperfect education. They have consistently scored above the 90th percentile on national standardized tests. They have had great opportunities to participate in sports and music. And they have found friendships that will endure.
I’m sure you did your homework before you made your choice, but my experience is that most parents that choose other educational venues are easily influenced by rumor and innuendo. By spreading this second-hand opinion (since you do not have direct experience) about the failure of our schools you are helping to push them over the cliff. Thanks.
To accuse the school district of focusing on schools as a business while you send your children to charter schools is unfathomable. The charter school movement takes public money and funnels it to private corporations. They were sold to us as a way of making public schools think more competitively–public schools would act more like a business and improve under a competitive market. To not understand the irony in your statement is to be completely ignorant of the motivation behind and operation of the private business you contribute to. I’m glad you found a place that meets the needs of your children, but to assume the YPSD is incapable of creating a warm, welcoming environment is incorrect.
You reference that the school you considered had a cold and ridged approach to dealing with special needs children. Our experience directly contradicts your assumption. We found excellent help, and a supportive environment.
Like every other school district in the State of Michigan we are experiencing a fiscal crisis brought about by the current poor economy and our state government’s decision to de-emphasize public education.
I, too, am frustrated by the current YPS administration and their weak attempt at public engagement, and I share many people’s angst about the fact that we are left having to decide which path (out of a number of unacceptable paths offered) we should take.
I’m glad you think you know the answers to solving our public schools’ difficulties. If only you would have shared your brilliance with our school administrators and board in a more timely way. Have you reviewed our budget? Have you watched how the district has fought to improve curriculum (successfully, I would add) despite ongoing budget crunches? Have you witnessed the strategic cuts that have been made over the last 10 years to keep focus on the classroom? Have you ever been an officer in the public school parents’ group? Have you attended a School Board meeting prior to this latest round of concerns?
Your presumption that you have the answers while you don’t contribute to our district by sending your children to our schools strikes me as strange. To come up with some “answers” at the last minute without recognizing the work of people who have fought for solutions for decades is short sighted.
I do appreciate that people are getting engaged in this latest round of concerns. It’s unfortunate that it often takes a crisis that involves us personally for people to begin paying attention. Perhaps a few people will use this as an opportunity to get involved in the larger picture of our school district.
January 30th, 2010 at 1:13 pm #
thank you profoundly irritated, for your comment.
I just want to make one thing clear. I don’t claim to know the answers–I, in fact, was strongly encouraging anybody reading this to follow the lead of the parents who are at Ypsi schools. The website I linked to and the post I linked to are all run and submitted by Ypsi school parents. I would never dream of stepping in, except when asked. And I was asked, and I plan to continue to follow the lead of parents who are at the school and doing the organizing around this.
Thank you again for sharing your frustration and your concern–I know exactly the place you are coming from, believe it or not.
Sincerely.
January 30th, 2010 at 1:34 pm #
As the parent who asked BFP to post something about our struggle to save ypsi schools, I feel compelled to come to her defense. She could have posted my conversation with Mark Maynard without mentioning her own personal choices, and saved herself some grief. But she did something vastly more powerful. She spoke honestly about why she and her partner made the decisions they did. Her statement will be very helpful when we go to the Board of Education and tell them that closing schools will only hurt Ypsi. They already know that parents in the district are invested in the system, but they need to know why some parents in the district opt out of the system, and why closing schools will only confirm the “rumors”out there about our schools. We have many friends who we love and respect, that made the exact same choice as BFP. Our friendships have remained strong because they have supported our decision to send our child to public schools in Ypsi, and have even given their time and energies to the schools, which is very meaningful to us. When the public schools lose talented and motivated parents like BFP, it is indeed a tragedy, but if those parents can engage with the school as community members, then we have not lost them entirely. So I thank BFP, for her willingness to open herself up to criticism, and especially for lending us her “bully pulpit.”
Thank you too, “profoundly irritated”, for your passion, and please bring that passion to our community meeting (at Chapelle) next Wednesday night (6:30) and following that, to the School Board Meeting on February 8 (7:00). We need you!
January 30th, 2010 at 4:43 pm #
maria–please feel free to use this blog or me in any way you need to!!!!
If the parents would rather just post something themselves and not have me involved, I can do a guest post–or just, whatever you need.
We *are* community–and just like this effects the single person with no kids, this affects me and my kids too. And we’re all doing the best we can with what we have–even as profoundly points out, often times, that’s not a lot.
anyway that I can help, I’ll be there. (p.s. we got the flyer today! we’re trying to see if we can arrange to be at the meeting!!!!)
January 31st, 2010 at 7:13 am #
…Don’t charters share some funding with the public schools? *is easily confused* Our million charter schools seem to share a lot of the public schools’ stuff…
January 31st, 2010 at 2:29 pm #
My daughter, a first grader, has been in YPS since preschool. I loved Perry and I love Estabrook (where she currently attends).
My perspective is somewhat different than the authors and commentators.
I went to Detroit Public Schools most of my life. From the height of Coleman Young’s reign, to right before Kwame duped his way into office (and yeah, I was one of those hopeful new voters he duped). In between stints at public schools I went to two different Catholic schools (one inside Detroit, the other outside), and the first university run charter school in the US (if you had cable in 1993 and were tuned to CNN, you couldn’t miss us).
I won’t say that DPS was a hellish nightmare from the start. In fact, it wasn’t. My first school, the now torn down Jefferies, had teachers who had been there since my grandmother’s brother was in kindergarten (absolutely no hyperbole there, my kindergarten teacher was my great-uncle’s). We had teachers who traveled from Royal Oak to south west Detroit (where I lived at the time) to teach science to 3rd graders (if you’re unfamiliar with the area I mean, think about the drive down 75 where all those oil refineries are). We moved to the east side when they decided to close that school and push all the students into one, already over crowded, school.
After another year in public school I was shipped to a Catholic school in Detroit. Then to one in Warren. My academic performance there would be labeled “Failure to thrive” if it were to be looked at like an infant.
I got the luck of the draw when it came time for middle school. University Public School was about to open and I was there for its first rocky year. They experimented with different style class schedules, we were offered course like dance and Japanese. Our afternoons were taken with after-school activities that ranged from karate to ROTC to a sort of mini Phi Beta Sigma fraternity. I loved it there (granted I still wasn’t doing homework, but at least I wasn’t miserable).
From there I went back to DPS, attending King high school. King is known as one of the three major high schools you have to test in to. It offers academic programs in Math and Science, as well as in Business and foreign language.
But I didn’t qualify for those. I went into the college prep program. The name itself was a joke. We got the hand-me-down books when the upper two programs were done with them. Our economics books had the first half of the first Bush presidency as a recent event (I took econ in 1998). Foreign language was a joke. And computer classes? You could learn programming languages that would quickly become obsolete, on MacIntosh computers that already were obsolete, and that was about it.
As a whole, our school was suffering from absolute neglect. This past school year is not the first time DPS has been in the local news for lack of basic supplies like toilet paper in schools. One of the students at king altered the media to our leaking ceilings, half functioning bathrooms, lack of toilet paper and soap, and all number of issues.
And, as we all know, DPS hasn’t gotten any better over the years.
So that is the perspective that I look at YPS from. I love YPS, it has it’s faults like any school district, but having been through the alternative, I’ll take the lesser of the two evils.
That said, I respect BFP for coming out and stating that her children go to charter school. My nephew attends one in Southfield and attended one when he and my sister still lived in Detroit. And, yes, I contemplated sending my daughter to one also. Especially since the school they wanted to say was her “home school” was not only further from our house than Estabrook, but ranked so low in scores that I found the very idea of sending her there laughable. I chose to send her to Estabrook (which is within walking distance of Chappelle) because I liked what they had to offer and, in speaking with other parents I knew whose children had also gone through YPS, they highly recommended it. So far, I’m not disappointed. Would I move my daughter, my only child, from YPS to a charter school if I felt it would benefit her? In a heartbeat.
Charter schools are not supposed to make public schools competitive in a business sense. They are supposed to make them competitive in an ACADEMIC sense. Even if just 1/10 of 1% of my taxes are going towards education, I want to know that that money is being spent in the best way possible. That means the academics need to be up to par. I give not a half of a damn about sports, and don’t feel my money should go to prop up school sports while the arts, which are just as important (and more important by my standards), suffer and are removed. My daughter gets the arts at Estabrook. Right along with PE and monthly swim lessons. If that should change, then her school will change right along with it. If that means a charter school, then so be it. My daughter’s education is worth more than all the politics in the world.
And if we’re going to speak in business terms, people vote with their dollar. Where their child goes, their dollars go. And if those dollars are moving away from YPS, then it’s time for YPS to find where they are lacking and fix it. Closing popular schools (and I drive past Chappelle every day on the way to drop my baby off at Estabrook…it’s plenty popular) and cutting certain academic courses is a fix the way wrapping a broken arm in a towel is a fix. It might help in the short term, but will do nothing for the overall health of the school system, nor will it foster anything near faith in the system for the parents (which, in turn, will run them out of the YPS to charter/private schools).
But…this is all just my opinion.
February 1st, 2010 at 6:51 am #
Anne, Your eloquent statement speaks very precisely to the issue we are raising: that closing one or more schools in Ypsilanti will substantially impact both the bottom line (parents WILL take their dollars elsewhere), and, inevitably the quality of the remaining schools. A very simple calculation demonstrates that closing even the smallest school (Chapelle) would increase enrollments in Erikson and Estabrook by 20%, and this is a MODEST estimate, contingent on keeping Adams open and at capacity (they are talking about closing it as well, which, of course would lead to a veritable exodus from Ypsi elementary schools). We need parents who can speak honestly and bravely about their choices with respect to the education of their children. The YPS administration seems to be coming up with ideas in a vacuum, despite their vaunted “community input” workshops. We need to come out in force and tell them that our children, and their education are not abstractions. Again, we will be holding a citywide community meeting on Wednesday, February 3 at 6:30 at Chapelle Elementary (multipurpose room). The meeting is hosted by the Chapelle PAB. Childcare will be provided. I believe some or all of the Trustees will be there. Please mobilize your friends, families, and fellow parents to come show up in force and demonstrate that we WILL have a say in our children’s future.
February 1st, 2010 at 6:53 am #
One more thing….
We are going to be posting parents’ comments and testemonials on our website http://www.saveypsischools.com. Anne & BFP, might we post your comments? Let me know if its ok in an email to sosypsi@gmail.com.
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:11 pm #
I have a few thoughts about the potential for Ypsi school closings. When two schools were closed a few years ago, I thought that was the right decision, because it seemed like it was “right-sizing” the schools to the district. Now, that does not seem to be the case.
If you live in Ypsilanti–whether you have kids or not, and whether you send kids to the public schools or not–it seems to me that it is in your interest to speak out as to the best direction(s) for the school district. After all, you are taxpayers, right? And as the schools go, so go your property values. Also, if school districts make the “right” decisions, then one hopes they will attract back the families that have chosen charter, private, parochial or homeschooling options.
I agree with the person who said that people make decisions sometimes based on rumor and innuendo–that’s why marketers say that one bad experience multiplies itself. That is one more reason that schools really need to work to make families satisfied.
One more thing: I blog about Washtenaw County schools at a2schoolsmuse.blogspot.com