The following is the text of a letter sent on March 13, 2001
Nyack Public School Board of Trustees
Dear Mrs. Zampolin, Dr. Evangelist and Members of the Board:
Last June we came before you and presented a detailed letter describing the concerns and recommendations of some families in the district regarding elementary reading programs. Our presentation represented nearly a year of discussion with a wide variety of people involved with all aspects of reading and was well received by the Board.
Tonight, we would like to take this opportunity to highlight the current status of some of those ideas and suggestions. We remind you that these points were addressed in our June 2000 letter to you, and include some of your suggestions and concerns.
1. Homework Policy: Homework policy generated a high level of interest from Board members and remains a consistently frustrating issue for parents. There was, and there remains, a general agreement that homework policy needs "lots of discussion" and should involve parental and teacher input. A policy guide was received by some parents early this year, but some issues of concern remain unadressed and the guide was not formulated as a result of any public discussion with parents and teachers. Does the district have any plans for a discussion, including parents and teachers, for formulating homework policy as was discussed last June?
2. Reading Forum: On December 4, 2000, a Reading Forum was held at Liberty Elementary School, as per our suggestion. Our hope was to create an atmosphere for discussion, similar to the Open Forum Board Meeting recently held at the Nyack Library. Instead, the audience was met with a pedantic display of charts, overhead projections and NYS Standards. An overwhelming amount of information, formally presented, is not conducive to open discussionwith parents and is in fact intimidating to many.
Our experience is that both parents and teachers bring enormous energy to their respective tasks and have much to offer one another. Open, informal discussions may help to facilitate the natural relationship that esists between school and home. Can we hope to see a change in future Reading Forums?
3. Questionnaire on family experiences in the Nyack district: There was general agreement that it would be helpful to know what issues are presenting problems to parents in our district, as well as how many parents rely on outside help (tutoring) in our district. We requested that the district conduct an formal survey. This was done in the form of a questionnaire that was distributed last fall. However, as with the Homework Policy Guide, some parents received a district questionnaire at the fall parent-teacher conferences, but many didn't. At our request, they were also offered at the Reading Forum.
We believe that one of the goals of this survey was to convey to families that the district is sincerely interested in them and their experiences, and that answering the survey could be helpful in improving educational services. Could we revisit this question and issue the survey in a more unifrom way (for eg mailing to all households) with a cover letter of explanation by the district?
4. Remedial Programs: To this date, parents continue to express concern with the remedial reading programs. Questions regarding qualifications of remedial teachers, class size, lack of individualized programs, and confusing progress reports are central issues (attached you will find copies of progress reports in both math and reading. Please note that they offer no academic assessments, only behavioral). We continue to maintain that these programs need more fine tuning on order to maximize success for children already struggling to read. Of particualr concern are those children whose families have fewer resources and are therefore especially reliant onthese programs for their success. What is being done about assessments, both of student outcome and program implementation?
5. A Written Set of Benchmarks based on Nyack's Elementary Curriculum: An easy-to-read, simplified version of the grade level benchmarks derived from the core curriculum was suggested in order to inform parents of specific learning targets and to improve the home- school connection. Board members agreed that parents could (or should) be part of the framing of these benchmarks, which was to take place during the summer of 2000 and be ready for the fall of 2000.
Early in February, families were mailed the Nyack Public School English Language Arts Curriculum Guide. This 22 page booklet was presented, to our knowledge, without any input from parents. It is difficult for the average lay person to read, understand and interpret, and may not be a useful tool for the average parent trying to help his or her child. Most of the parents we have spoken to don't know what to do with this document. Is it possible to publish a simpler guide, complete with parental input, as discussed in June?
As always, we appreciate your support for these concerns, as they raise issues for families in our district. Would it be possible to hear a response from the Board on these questions at a Board meeting in the very near future?
Thank you. We look forward to a continued collaboration with all of you.
Sincerely,
Katie Berry and Nancy Savoca
cc: Alice Blueglass; Barnet Ostrowsky; Brenda Grier; Liberty, Valley Cottage, Upper Nyack PTA's; Dr Anne Roberts; Nyack PIE; signers of letter dated 6/7/00
Updated 3/20/01
