Are you kidding me… close Oak Ridge Elementary School?! In what is already less than a 
banner year for education in general, it was painful to start my morning with a local story, the Sac Bee‘s front page story: 3 area schools told: Reform or close.
Oak Ridge Elementary School is part of the Sacramento City Unified School District. It also where my friend Alice Mercer teaches. Many readers of my blog also know Alice. And if you know Alice, you know that students who enter her computer lab have opportunities to connect, create, collaborate, and share – and to experience what 21st century teaching, learning, and citizenship is all about. You also know, through conversations with Alice, how hard the Oak Ridge team works to level the playing field for their students and to provide them with tools and programs that will take them beyond “basic.”
I’m not sure how to interpret Sac City Superintendent Jonathan Raymond’s response: “It’s not a list you want to have a school recognized on. We’re obviously disappointed about that. But looking at the numbers and the data, it’s not a surprise.”
For the sake of the students, parents, teachers, and administrators of Oak Ridge Elementary School, I hope having their school on “the list of the state’s lowest-performing schools” will not lead the site backwards into “the genteel unteaching of America’s poor.”
Hang in there, Oak Ridge Elementary!
My main concern is what is going to happen now to these kids? Are they closing this school down, just giving up on it, and sending on apparently kids who must need more help, smaller classroom settings, etc. to another school that is not in their neighborhood? A school that is not going to feel like theirs? The ownership of the school will be lost. The kids are going to be packed in. How are the teachers going to react to these new kids filling up their classroom? I would ask for more grants, get tutoring in there, help revamp the curriculum, etc.
Thanks for raising some important points. “Ownership of the school” is such an important concept, one I rarely hear discussed in this current test-driven climate.
Gail, Leroy Greene in Natomas will be closed. This was the school that Leroy (my son) was supposed to attend. It’s become highly segregated as white students fled to other middle school(s) and charters. It’s not a “neighborhood” school, and there is some capacity as the district is not growing at near the rate it was. My only worrying, the district is ADAMANT they will cut all busing except Special Ed next year, so transportation will be bad.
My school, Oak Ridge will NOT be closed. They will either remove some or ALL of the teachers and keep us as a neighborhood public school. We still have contract rights, and will somehow be placed in a surplus pool if we have to leave. The situation is complex and given that things are still in progress I don’t want to discuss public details at this point. Basically, the program is so new, EVERYONE involved seems to not be sure what the rules are.
Glad to hear the school will not be closing. But if they remove some or ALL of the teachers, will “they” make public their criteria for removal?
I’m guessing the anxiety level at your site must be pretty high right now. Has there been much community reaction to the article?
I have been through a situation where my school was taken in by a different school system. Teachers were surplused. Some stayed. I have also been through the process of losing a position in education based on budget cuts. Alice, I will pray for where ever your path leads you and hope that you will be happy there. But I do know that from following and learning from you online that whatever student and school gets you as a teacher will be high fiving one another because you shine and are WAY good at what you do! Good luck!