August 27th, 2005

The Surry Village School Continued

The Surry Village School Situation...continues....8.27.05 update

Small towns near Surry Mountain--each with its own elementary school--participate in a large, multi-town school district. Concerned that the school board might abruptly close one of its village schools, the expressed their concerns to the school board. The School Board heard the concerns and then voted a guarantee that towns whose schools might be closed or changed would be guaranteed a year for transition. And then, after two chaotic board meetings a year later, the School Board voted to close the Surry Village School on June 27th with no community forum and with no year of transition. The entire town was outraged. Townspeople sought attorneys to help them intervene. Then, the Town of Surry discussed pulling out of the larger district which ignored Surry concerns and prior Board commitments. When attorneys for Surry and the School Board got together, they apparently realized there the Surry School Board had not affirmatively voted to cancel the Board's prior vote for a transition year. A review of the School Board minutes shows they didn't even take a vote to close the Surry School!There's a lot of confusion around the removal of all the furniture from the school and the transfer of the school's two teachers. The Board clearly knows that the Town of Surry wants them to stop and give the year of transition, as promised.Meanwhile, school begins in a few days. Retired Surry School teachers stepped up to the plate and said they would step in to open Surry School again this year. The plan to transport Surry's young children to other town schools has half the children going an hour in one direction and the other half traveling an hour in a different direction. Many parents and townspeople are concerned about this.

We've covered the latest news in Saga of the Surry Village School, Part III. What should be done? If you are new to the Saga, you might want to read Saga of the Surry Village School, Part I and Part II, and the blog comments we've received from around the state.

Stay tuned and Have Your Say!?

Posted by Susan Hollins, 8.27.05 For more information about the Saga of the Surry School, click here.

9/3/05

"The first day, Surry kids on our road were on the bus for 1 1/2 hours. Yesterday my child got home at 4:10. Apparently they have been so late they don't meet up with the big bus at the fire station as planned, so some kids have to go all the way to Keene and then back up 12A to Surry. That means they probably don't get home until about 5:00. My child said one girl felt really sick yesterday from such a long ride." from a Surry parent, name withheld by request

8/25/05

"I went back and read all the minutes of the school board from the last 21/2 years. The recurrent theme that comes up every 4-6 month by Mr. Thackston, who now chairs the board is to close the Surry School based on financial and not educational reasons. He's been looking for ways to save the district money and his solution is to close the Surry School. "An hour on the bus for young children K,456 going in one direction and an hour on the bus for children in 1, 2, 3 going in another direction is unacceptable and puts children in harm's way. It's totally unnecessary when there is a safe school near by. "What's astounding is that reading the record there was never a vote to close Surry School in September 2005."

M, from Surry

8/18/05

"I have been going to Surry School since I was 6. I am now 11, and have big hopes and dreams. Someday I hope to be in a spelling bee. When I was in second grade I knew how to spell metamorphosis. That was because I had one the best teacher, Ms. Leclerc. Then I went to third grade. There I learned cursive in a fun creative way! My teacher at the time was Mr. O'Connell. We graded the letters by size. Then I went to fourth grade. Where I really got in to story writing. I wrote a story with some help from information, called Women of the West. My teacher, Mrs. Small, was so impressed she said I should publish it! I don't want all those memories to be forgotten I want them to live on and on. For me, my children, my grandchildren, and someday my great grandchildren.

Sincerely, Submitted by a Current Surry Student

8/11/05

The following letter to the Editor was forwarded by the author: To the Sentinel, Imagine having to send your 2 young children on a one and a half to two hour trip to school and back each day, when we have our own fantastic school just a few minutes down the road. Imagine having 3 kids in three different schools, Monadnock, Gilsum and Sullivan and then trying to get them all to a doctor's appointment. We don't have to imagine it, we are living it! The cost to transport these kids is the same amount as hiring a new teacher. Doesn't that seem like a waste of taxpayer’s money, not to mention approximately 10 hours of a child's time each week? On Monday, August 15, 2005 at 2:00 in Cheshire County Superior Court there will be a hearing to try to keep Surry School open for a one year transition period. The parents of these students were lead to believe they would have a year to figure out the best solution for their children's needs. Abruptly, the board decided to close Surry School, though they reassured us it wasn't being "closed", just used for another undetermined purpose. Why the rush? The budget was passed to include Surry School for the 2005-06 school year. We keep hearing it is for the sake of the children. Whose children? Our 2 daughters had a fantastic year, high honors, straight A's. You can't convince us that triple classrooms don't work. We agree, they might not work for all schools, but Surry School is not like other schools. If any two teachers are capable of handling triple classes it is Ms. Jeanine Leclerc and Mr. Bill O'Connell. Yes, it was hard on them and not something they would want to do for the next 5 years, but if it means keeping the school open, they would be willing to do it again. Why didn’t board members come observe one or both of the classes while they were in session to see how they "do work"? Have you checked out their test scores? You would be impressed! All we are asking for is a one year transition. Can't you grant us that? For the sake of the kids!

Frank and Nicole Conroy Surry, NH

8/10/05

An article in our local paper quoted a school board member as saying Surry children were being harmed by having 3-grade multiage classes. But my children were thriving. And why squeeze the school and town like this? Why not let children from other districts attend. After all, our cooperative district supports choice schools. Something isn't right. The way this is happening is not right and no one is being harmed educationally. We were promised a transition year should a northern school close, and that was in October. Our community wasn't properly involved in a decision like this. A few people have moved because of our high school, not the elementary school. F, from Surry

8/9/05

I am a Surry resident ... on the Northern Schools Committee that studied declining enrollments in the Northern Schools for six months and came up with the recommendation to consolidate the Sullivan, Gilsum and Surry ("Northern Schools") students into two schools (we did not specify which two schools) and with the recommendation that a plan be drawn up for the third school, which might be an educational program available to students in that town, such as a charter school. Needless to say, this additional plan would require time to study the issue and write the proposal. The School Board has assigned a committee to do this task. The Northern Schools Committee was composed of 28 members: 15 of whom were active working members. The Committee contained School Board and Budget Committee members; Northern School teachers; SAU, District, Northern School administrators; Selectmen; parents and community members. The committee looked at the demographics, and realized that the school population in the Northern Schools, in the District, in New Hampshire, and in the US is declining, and will for the foreseeable future. In the just-past academic year, Surry School had 31 students, it will be 25 for this coming school year and is projected to be 24 in 2009. In 2009's enrollment is expected to be: 7 first graders, 2 second graders, 6 third graders, 5 fourth graders, 2 fifth graders and 2 sixth graders. If it were to be a triple-grade, two-classroom school, the younger classroom containing children learning to read, would have 15 students, and the older classroom would have 9 children. Or should there be a first-second classroom of 9 children and a quadruple classroom of 15 children? Forgotten in all this discussion are the people who will live the most with whatever decisions are made: the children and the teachers. I am one Surry resident who is not willing to sacrifice the education of our children to adult needs. Yes, it is harder for parents to have children in school 15-30 minutes away (both in the same direction); yes, it is harder for parents to go to two buildings for teacher conferences and open house nights. Those occur about once a month. But, it is harder every day for children who don't receive all the help they need from teachers who must teach three grades; teachers on the committee told us that there are always children at several levels within a single grade. A teacher who has taught single grades, double grades and triple grades told me that students get the best education in a single grade classroom. The plan to consolidate students into two schools put all the students into single grade classrooms. There was simply no other feasible configuration that could do that, given the numbers of children in each town in each grade. (We examined ten possible configurations from building a district-wide elementary school to previous configuration of schools with double and single grades.) What's wrong with triple-grade classrooms? Teachers are split too many ways. There were children pulled out of Surry School, and families who moved out of town, because they did not want their children in triple-grades. Yes, multi-age classrooms can work, but that is not what we have in Surry. We have grades, and with the state testing...If a charter school is set up in Surry, I have advocated that it be a multi-age model. Of course, it would be available to Surry residents. Yes, a critical issue is the time-table for the change. Again, it came down to a choice between what was best for the children and what adults wanted. We knew there would be much negative public reaction to a change for September, but we recommended this because we wanted to make improvements for the children immediately, rather than wait a year to make it easier for the adults to accept. Both the decision to recommend consolidation and to have it take effect in September were agonizing for all committee members. We knew it was going to make townspeople angry. But, we felt we must put the needs of the children first. We presented our recommendations to the Board in early June, and the Board voted to follow them in a later meeting. The night we presented our recommendations, I sent an e-mail to those on the Surry e-mail list about what we recommended and why. The Surry e-mail list contains a lot of actively involved townspeople. Caroll, from Surry Who offers her email: clothrop@quixnet.net

8/9/05

I just wanted to note that I was present at the meeting, but when it became apparent that the board chair wouldn't listen to me, wouldn't allow public comments before the vote - I walked out in protest after the vote to close the school was completed. Jeff Friedman Surry School Board Rep. 8/9/05 The Monadnock School Board uses the excuse to close the Surry school that multiage classes provide an inferior education compared to classes consisting of kids of the same age. I can not find a shred of evidence to support the proposition that classrooms with kids of the same age have anything to do with either superior achievement or with sound pedigical policy. In fact the evidence is quite the contrary. The following link is a typical assessment: http://www.asmilan.org/inter/docs/Multiagemakessense.pdf . There are even organizations dedicated to promoting multiage education: http://www.multiage-education.com/ . This site has lots of links to research. Searches of Eric, the education database, and of the Department of education web sites turns up research that is at least neutral and almost always positive. Look for yourself. Do a Goggle or a Yahoo search to see for yourself. In my experience this is an excuse. The real reason is better judged by local people. Tom from Salem 8/8/05 I hope everyone reads your report about Surry. I just read in the newspaper that there is a special school board meeting tomorrow night. It's probably something sneaky. N, from Surry

8/8/05

Did you see this? "Fight for Surry Elementary. Residents Suing to Keep it Open." http://www1.keenesentinel.com/main.asp?SectionID=31&SubSectionID=37&ArticleI D=75828 People are very upset here. M, Surry 8/5/05 I would suggest that the Board not close this school until they have had at least one public forum on the matter at which they can outline the research and data they are basing their decision on to the public and the public has the same opportunity to give the board their rational, data, research. I do not know anything about Surry's situation, but without public input and the sharing of information (not emotions) the closing will fester ill feelings for many years and that cannot be helpful to anyone's interest. Just a thought.