A dysfunctional district
This was a primary factor in our family's decision to leave East Allen last year, and move into the Southwest Allen district.Our oldest daughter was ready to start school, with her younger sister not far behind. I could not, in good conscience, place them into that school system as it exists today.
Ironically, my parents moved from SWACS to the EACS district 35 years ago, as it was well-rated and growing at the time. What a difference a generation can make. . .
Excellent read from this Sunday's FW Journal Gazette: Click the link on the bottom to read the full story (while it's still available).
(as reported in the Ft.Wayne Journal Gazette- Sunday 02/26-06)
They were five diverse communities driven into one another’s arms in 1964, fearful of being swallowed up by the big city.
Forty-two years later, the East Allen County Schools district is still shaped by the provincialism out of which it was born.
“These are five separate communities, and the schools are the source of so many community activities,” said one former school board member, Mary Barksdale. “You go to football games, go to basketball games, band concerts. The gyms are packed with people. Those schools are an integral part of their lives.”
East Allen’s diverse school communities have kept their identities, but the economic and social cost has become unsustainable. Through much of its history, the district has been threatened by the realities of public school financing. It’s frighteningly expensive to maintain five tiny high schools in a district of just more than 10,000 students, and school officials have grown used to pinching pennies and slashing budgets.
Mindful of their constituents’ wishes, East Allen school boards in the past 16 years have dispatched two superintendents who dared to suggest closing a high school. But many people wonder how long East Allen can survive without real change.
Read the rest of this Journal Gazette story here (for a limited time).
posted by John Good @ 7:58 PM
3 Comments:
John,
You were right about East Allen Co. Schools. I started teaching there when they were the best. Over the years, they slid and today EACS is a shadow of what it once was. My wife and I were honored to teach children in that district, but are now happy to have retired. The teachers and students all suffer.
- - Roger (see you Sat. morning for breakfast)
I was sitting next to a couple at the 3 Rivers Festival Parade a few years ago. They were both teachers, he at EACS, she at SWAC. They explained how it took her over 2 months to get a paper cutter and when he needed a new computer he got it in two weeks. Stark contrast.
I have two in SWAC and I think it's a fine district. However, I do know a FWCS teacher that thinks everyone at the SWAC school board are nothing but a bunch of racist pigs aimed at keeping the blacks out.
I think the racist comment comes from the fact that the 'white flight' has left the south side and moved to the 'burbs'. It really is not a function of the school board to keep anyone out. FWCS should look at their own school district before evaluating others. Did you see the recent NS article citing test scores in FWCS that 40% of the children there can't read at grade level. I'd say that is a major problem and may have to do with some of the teachers at FWCS including your friend.
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