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| James Morton, left, and David Roach, both on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, listen to members of the public speak at a public hearing at the Fitchburg Public Library Thursday. (T&G STAFF/Rick Cinclair) |
FITCHBURG — People wishing to get another shot at influencing the state's decision on a proposed elementary-level charter school in Fitchburg filled the auditorium at the Fitchburg Public Library Thursday night for a hearing on the matter.
It was déjà vu as those in attendance rehashed many of the same arguments they offered during hearings held previously on the proposed Academy for the Whole Child charter school by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Many in favor of the proposal said families need to have a choice and touted the proposed small class sizes. Many of those against said Fitchburg public schools have made many strides, and taking funding away to support another school would be counterproductive to that progress.
The school's creators hoped to open the regional school in Fitchburg that would serve 360 students in kindergarten through Grade 4 in August.
However, shortly after they were invited by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to submit a final application, Whole Child founders were told they would not be able to proceed because the towns making up the regional school district collectively did not fall into the bottom 10 percent of school districts in the state as required by a 2010 provision in the charter school law.
The state said inviting the Whole School founders to apply was an oversight.
Subsequently, Whole Child's founders removed Ashburnham-Westminster, Lunenburg and North Middlesex from their proposed regional district and added Clinton to the other cities and towns in the proposal that includes Fitchburg, Leominster, Athol-Royalston, Gardner, Orange and Winchendon, making the region as a whole fall within the lowest 10 percent.
Parents, educators and others in favor of the new charter school who spoke at the hearing, said parents deserve to have a choice and many in the region cannot afford private school. Some said they felt like the Fitchburg public schools failed their children.
Michelle Petie, from the Members of McKay for Students group known as MOMS, said those that work in the Fitchburg public school system contradict themselves when they accept $1 million in school-choice money for children coming into the district from other communities, but on the other hand say they do not want another charter school in Fitchburg because it will take money from the district. The North Central Charter Essential School is located in Fitchburg.
"Are they for or against choice?" she said. "How can they accept school choice money if they are against it?"
Amy Miles, another member of MOMS, said despite the Fitchburg public schools receiving more than $6 million in special education funding from the state, her daughter was not provided services outlined in her individual service plan and was "left behind."
Several local and state officials spoke in opposition to the proposal or provided written statements against it, including Fitchburg Mayor Lisa A. Wong and city councilors. The Fitchburg and Winchendon education associations also formally opposed it.
Fitchburg School Superintendent Andre R. Ravenelle said Fitchburg public schools had already met and exceeded all of the purposes the state outlines for establishing charter schools in communities.
"These efforts have been undertaken and results have been achieved while working within the restrictions of a regular comprehensive school system and without any of the freedoms or autonomies afforded charter schools," he said.
State Rep. Stephen L. DiNatale, D-Fitchburg, said although Whole Child's proposal is for a regional charter, most of the communities are 25 to 45 minutes away, so the majority of students targeted would come from Fitchburg. Those students who do come from outside the district would have to be bused in at a cost to Fitchburg public schools.
Robert M. Jokela, assistant superintendent of finance and operations for Fitchburg public schools, said the Whole Child school could pull $70,000 per bus from the district.
Additionally, he said, reimbursement money from the state to help the district financially transition if the Whole Child proposal is approved, is not guaranteed. Based on the state's funding formula for charter schools, Mr. Jokela said, districts are reimbursed 100 percent of pupil spending for each student lost the first year and for the following five years that drops to 25 percent per former pupil.
Mr. Jokela said the new charter school could result in $8 million to $10 million in budget cuts to the district.
Navy veteran Raymond E. Claflin III from Leominster, said the arguments reminded him of former President Richard Nixon's and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's so-called "Kitchen Debate" in July of 1959 at the height of the Cold War when Mr. Khrushchev said that it was more efficient to produce one stove for everybody, but President Nixon argued that consumers wanted choices that met their unique needs.
"It is like Walmart complaining about a mom-and-pop store opening up beside it because they might lose some business," Mr. Claflin said of those in opposition to the Fitchburg public school system. He asked why Fitchburg allows a "monopoly" to continue (only one public elementary school), saying it breeds complacency and inefficiency.
Anyone may submit written comments on the school proposal through Jan. 5 to the state DESE by email to charterschools@doe.mass.edu">charterschools@doe.mass.edu
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A final decision will be made in February.
Contact Paula Owen at powen@telegram.com
Trivium
ReplyDeleteFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Trivium is a systematic method of critical thinking used to derive factual certainty from information perceived with the five senses — sight, sound, taste, tact, and smell. In the medieval university, the trivium was the lower division of the seven liberal arts, and comprised grammar, logic, and rhetoric.[1]
Etymologically, the Latin word trivium means “the place where three roads meet” (tri + via); hence, the subjects of the trivium are the foundation for the quadrivium, the upper division of the medieval education in the liberal arts, which comprised Arithmetic (number), Geometry (number in space), Music (number in time), and Astronomy (number in space and time). Educationally, the trivium and the quadrivium imparted to the student the seven liberal arts of Classical antiquity.[2]
The trivium is implicit in the De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (“On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury”), by Martianus Capella, although the term was not used until the Carolingian Renaissance, when the term was coined, in imitation of the earlier quadrivium.[3] Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric were essential to a Classical education, as explained in Plato's dialogues. Together, the three subjects were included to and denoted by the word “trivium” during the Middle Ages, but the tradition of first learning those three subjects was established in ancient Greece. Contemporary iterations of The Trivium are practised in the Classical education movement.
There are those who feel that compulsory education has failed to promote our Founding Fathers intentions for a government that would serve the people. One such individual would be John Taylor Gatto who wrote the book The Underground History of American Education. The first twenty seven installments can be found on Templeton Times. Here is Mr. Gatto explaining some of his points. Gatto