An Open Letter to District 65

Marci November 21, 2012 at 09:01 pm

I am a parent and not an employee of District 65, but I felt it necessary to respond. I understand the frustration of finding childcare, but the purpose of school is for education. It is not a child care facility. The district does offer child care for before and after school as well as optional child care for the monthly half days that are used for district wide professional development (which increases the quality of education students receive). There was also optional care offered for the day after parent teacher conferences. In regards to holidays, I don't know of any school system that does not take these same days off, and expecting District 65 to do so would also increase cost by having to pay employees additional time, maintain building lights and heating, etc. If fewer days happen during the school year, then students would be done with the school year closer to Memorial Day instead of into June. The additional days in school still end up being taken off somewhere else during the year. District 65 couldn't suddenly increase a school day to 200+ days (as opposed to about 180) without it costing a significant amount of money to tax payers. So, your frustration is understood, but the solution to be in school on the days that inconvenience families (breaks at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring) seem illogical.

millie November 21, 2012 at 11:58 pm

Marci Many parents think that Schools are childcare centers and teachers are the childcare specialists, If you look at the way parents reacted during some of the strikes you will see this.

liliana fargo November 22, 2012 at 04:18 am

Extra Points:
I. The argument that we parents take school as a daycare option is the typical response from school administrators every time parents raise theirs concerns about school time, and the fact that you use it as your main argument raises to me a red flag about who are you really representing. II. Public Education is Not Free. We residents pay it through significant local taxes, and insinuating that we parents are using school as an easy daycare option is simply adding insult to the fact that we are already struggling as taxpayers to pay for such services ( leaving aside the Pension issue! ) III. United States currently is already lagging behind many other countries in terms of days of school per year, and on educational attainments, specially with respect to countries that are close competitors in the international market. Currently students in China (200 day) and India (220 days) spend around one Month Extra of school days than students in USA (180 days). IV. As a College Professor I appreciate the importance and complexities on education, But I believe that we cannot expect to improve our educational standards by simply taking time off from the classrooms. We need more than ever to work harder in order to become competitive in the global economy. We need a 21st Century school system and calendar that fits the dynamics of a 21st Century economy. This key idea may seem Illogical to some, but makes perfect common sense to me. Dr.Liliana Fargo

Melanie November 22, 2012 at 05:03 am

I also feel the need to respond. Although both of our children are now in college, when they were in school, these days were treasured by our family, since it is a time that most families take advantage of spending quality time together since many family members are from out of town. Also, it instills in our children the importance of the parent's role of educating our children. Too many parents believe it is solely the educational system that is responsible for teaching our children everything they need to know to be successful in life. Maybe, that is one of the reasons why so many children are not properly educated in our society. On these days, we as parents need to take the opportunity to spend more time instilling values in our children (introducing them to the arts, music, our beliefs from our perspective) as well as just letting them know they are loved, treasured and that we enjoy spending time with them. By the way, Dr. Fargo, you never mentioned in your initial letter that you were concerned about them not getting enough instruction time. It sounded to me as if you were more concerned about making ends meet and pay your taxes. Just saying. ;-) Happy Thanksgiving! .

n.f. November 22, 2012 at 01:00 pm

It is a bit of a stretch to understand why the day before Thanksgiving is a holiday. I am not aware of many businesses that provide Wednesday (before Thanksgiving) as a holiday. Now if the people who pay taxes to support the school district are working on Wednesday before Thanksgiving why aren't their employees (the teachers) also working? I would suggest an 11 month school year with restricted holidays (as is the case in the private sector) for the school system.
Happy Thanksgiving

TAKH November 22, 2012 at 01:35 pm

My son is not in full time school yet but as a parent and a teacher I agree. President's day, stay in school and dedicate the day to learning about government. MLK day, stay in school and learn about social justice. 2-3 month summer break, outdated, the amount of learning that leaks out of kid's heads with such a long break is staggering. Year round school with breaks of 2-3 weeks 4 times a year, plus a couple days for Thanksgiving. Christmas, Easter and 4th of July would be covered by the Winter, Spring and Summer breaks. This would let parents plan to have their kids in what I'm sure would be slew of camp like activities that Park Districts and entrepreneurs would rapidly set up to take advantage of the breaks. We are rapidly racing to the bottom of the educated populace list. We need more time in school, not less and fewer kids per classroom so each student can get a decent share of the teacher's attention.

liliana fargo November 22, 2012 at 02:50 pm

Melanie,
I love to spend time with my kids, and I deeply care about their education. But I have to endure the continuous increase in property and state taxes in Illinois, which have been raised in recent years mainly to cover the growing liabilities on State Public Pension and Public Health Care benefits for state workers. ($200 BILLIONS and counting). Unfortunately I have no choice but to work sometimes extra hours in order to pay such burden, which forces me to spend less time with my kids. Maybe we parents should start considering the option of CHARTER SCHOOLS, which in many cases offer a longer calendar, more flexibility in schedule and more parent's control in school's organization, which could result in better education and more parent's involvement in how our kids learn!!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING !

liliana fargo November 23, 2012 at 08:12 pm

Follow the Discussion:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Smart-Skokie-Forum-Dr-Liliana-Fargo/219231194763848?ref=hl

Marci November 24, 2012 at 07:17 pm

Your second list of points are much more logical, but these are not the points that were expressed in your open letter. It is clear now that these are your real concerns. Perhaps you should have started with these as your 'open letter' I am not representing anyone but myself. To insinuate that I represent someone else is the same as you writing an open letter to later promote your own interests with the "follow the conversation" link below. I think your lack of addressing Dr. Murphy as "Dr" was also disrespectful. I earned a Masters degree in Education, and I have worked as a classroom teacher, school administrator, and director of Professional Development, so I understand the need for 21st Century Learning and the urgency for school improvement. It is my charge. You began your argument by sharing your frustration that the traditional school year has a TOTAL DISREGARD for working parents. You did not express that the 180 day school year (created to meet the needs of a past agriculture economy) is outdated and keeping our students from being globally competitive. Yet, there are much larger differences in the systems of education in the rest of the world than the amount of days students are in school. That is for another conversation. I was responding to you original points which were stated in your open letter. I am very happy with the quality of education in District 65, but I am my child's first teacher.

Procrustes' Foil November 25, 2012 at 09:49 am

It is clear that you are misinformed about CHARTER SCHOOLS. Fewer than 25% of charter elementary schools show better test scores than public schools. The rest are worse. Remember, charter schools get to choose their students, while public schools do not. You might do well to focus on deteriorating colleges and universities that for decades have watered down the curricula and grossly inflated grades. At least Harvard is trying to address these deficiencies.

Elizabeth Hubbard November 25, 2012 at 03:04 pm

The teaser for this story reads, "Do Students Need Less School Days?" Since it really should read "Do Students Need Fewer School Days," maybe we all need MORE school days! Seriously though, I don't think it is necessarily the quantity, it is the quality. I happen to like having my kids home more, but I am fortunate enough to be home with them. I realize that all families are different!

liliana fargo December 7, 2012 at 01:02 am

For those suspicious about the success of CHARTER SCHOOLS, this article might be useful...and informative: ow.ly/2tBH2B

liliana fargo December 13, 2012 at 05:24 pm

Worth to notice:
I NEVER received a response from Superintendent Murply, or anyone from his office, regarding this issue, even though I sent directly to him this message by email. I wonder is somebody is listening up there!.... Dr. Fargo.