RAS Transitions - Fears, Concerns & Thoughts

As noted, many staff, parents and students are experiencing a significant amount of change due to the school closures and boundary shifts. This post is to clarify my concerns and to give folks an opportunity to post their own. Why should you take the time to post them?

• G2A has ~100 readers per month. Some probably share your concern, others may have a different perspective that could reduce your anxiety level.
• Some of the readers are administrators, board members and others that definitely want to hear them. And they may be able to take them into consideration during this challenging time.

I’ll open the list by trying to state my concerns:

• I am concerned that well meaning, yet highly anxious parents will disrupt the school function and productivity. These conflicts, discussions, negotiations, etc will result in less focused “teacher-student” time and more “parent-teacher” time. Though good for the parents / students that are part of the discussions, however these take away from the other students whose parents are not as involved or anxious. Ironically, these are often the kids that need the most “teacher-student” focus.
• I am concerned the district may have lost too many dedicated volunteering families from the more challenging schools. These folks either moved to a new out of district home, open enrolled out of district, intra-district transferred or moved to private schools. Though I understand the rationale and respect the decision, I am concerned that the personal choices left the kids /schools that most need support and good role models with fewer of them.
• I am concerned that some people will lobby to make school more fun, which is fine by itself as long as it does not reduce the dedicated “teacher-student” time. The kids have so few hours/yr to learn everything that is expected of them, any hours that steal instructional time concern me. (ie I trust the teachers to make class fun, and have never been disappointed yet.) Of course, remember that I am a 3 R and Science priority type of guy…

Remember, fears/concerns are just like emotions, they are not wrong or right, they just are. We can personally manage and question them, however often only time will show if they were valid or unnecessary.

By the way, though my family was not required to change schools due to the closures. We do have one moving to PMS and one moving to Armstrong. This is causing some household discussion as the kids adjust to the idea/change. The upside is that we have been through this before and have always found the new school, staff, teachers, parents and students inviting and caring. So other than managing the chaos of schedules, forms, etc, we are much more relaxed than when our first started ZLE or moved up to PMS…

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your families as you deal with the transitions and family choices you are making. I realize and am empathetic to the stress you are under. Please feel free to add your concerns and thoughts.