OK Guys, I am about to cause a commotion. You have been warned!

I am not sure that small schools guarantee better education. I have mentioned before that I went to a large high school in North GA. I got a great education. I realize that part of it was that I was a driven student and I took advantage of all opportunities given to me, but another part of it was that the school system found a way to make the large school feel like small classes. Great education takes place when there is a child-motivated teacher, enough space to allow individual time for the students that need it, and the supplies required to teach the class are availible to every student.

My kid attends one of our local high schools. He has struggled all through his previous 3 years at this school. I have made numerous trips to the school, e-mailed and phoned teachers, spoke with the principal, begged councilors, offered to stay at school in the classrooms with him to keep him doing his work. So here we are in the senior year and he may not get to graduate. Is this the schools fault? Not all of it, but a large part of it is. I have asked the teachers to contact me when he does not do assignmnets. I usually find out that he has 20 homework zeroes when his grade card shows he failed the class and I call and ask why did he fail. They say, well he did not turn in homework. I reply, I thought you were going to let me know when he doesn't turn it in. I get the "Well I have 6 classes with 30 kids in each class and I do not have time to contact each child's parent." I think why bother to assign the work if all 30 aren't turning it in!

I am not saying all teachers are bad teachers. I am not saying all of my kids teachers are bad teachers. I am not saying that Roane County Schools are not great schools. I am not saying that the kids are never at fault. I am not saying there are no uncaring parents. I am saying that we are dropping the ball for kids that need something more than to sit in a class 5 days a week. Small schools do absolutely nothing for kids if the classes in those schools are so large the teachers can not give the time needed to EACH child in the class that he/she NEEDS. I had a teacher say to me last week that I need to make sure my kid does his homework. Well, I try, but when I can't find out what that assignment is and if he turned it in until grade cards come out, then they have tied my hands.

So I guess after all of this rambling...my point is that the size of the building, the area of the county it covers, which community name the building sports, and the number of students that come through the door are just issues for people to argue about and mean very little to the education of the children. Our cry should be for CLASSROOMS with fewer children, a time and place for tutoring (not all parents can afford Sylvan or Murphy-Cates, and poor kids need tutoring too!), a textbook for each child to take home (yes there are classes in Roane County where each student enrolled in the class does not have a book to carry home), affordable school supplies ($100 calculators are not affordable supplies), ways to teach compensation skills to ADD kids that do not include medication, and programs that motivate our kids to strive for more. Money does not guarantee education.

If you really want to know how we are doing in Roane County, call Adult Ed and ask them what percentage of Roane County people fail the pre-employment test(requires 11th grade educational level)they administer for local companies. Ask how many 17-25 year old males are floating in and out of the GED program. Do not focus on our few successes, look at our failures. Where did we fail and how can we change it?

Tyler said he looked forward to hearing more from me on education. I think if you guys realized how I really feel about education, you would block me from posting.

Wylamena

OneT,

Yeah, I think folks may be using the terms to imply the same. Point of clarification needed -- thanks.
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Perhaps, Mr. Harmon is saying "magnet" and means "consolidated" but I do not speak for him. These are two very different concepts and I think the working term for the current situation in RC is "consolidation."
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IMO, if we were talking about a magnet school it would be addition to our existing schools and we got to this point, again IMO, because of funding issues not because we want to add to or enhance our educational services. That would require even more funds.
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Should we aspire to offer a better educational product to the students of RC? You bet and we are trying. I think our CC wants to spend our limited funds wisely and therefore this is the season of exploration and consideration of options. Hence, the consolidated school does offer many enhancements that a smaller high school cannot and that opens the door on confusing magnet with consolidated. Again, my individual opinion and it does not represent the RC School Board or any one else.

If Roane county built the school Mr. Harmon proposes it would likely be a comprehensive high school. This type of school offers more that just basic academic courses but has college prep and expanded vocational courses.

But, whatever the label -- magnet, consolidated, combined, comprehensive, or whatever - the funding and building issues will be the same.

Quoth WC: "County Commission that seems to love their jails and their industrial parks more than OUR children's education."

I know you think I just don't get it, and I reckon I can live with that :-) And I'm not a member or nor a lackey for the County Commission. They often do things that... uh... "aggravate" me (trying to be no more than M-rated).

That being said, I don't think it's a matter of loving - or even liking - jails or industrial parks more than children's education.

Liking an industrial park or quality education for our children is NOT an either-or proposition. It's a both-and. They can't exist in isolation from each other.

Last time I looked, to build schools, pay teachers, and create new and innovative programs, ONE of the things required is money. Don't even start with the lecture that we can't solve all school problems by merely throwing money. The fact is that to do these things takes money. Either of the School Board members conversing in this forum correct me if I'm wrong.

PART of the money deal is that it is in finite supply. Let's throw the jail out of the picture... that's about $10 mil. Given what the BOE said they needed for our schools, even if we didn't do the jail and added that $10 mil back into the picture, we'd STILL be $37 mil short. So how ya gonna get money. The feds won't let us print it and spend it. So...

We work on doing things like developing an industrial park that can help the financial status - ultimately - of the county. It's an investment, and it takes time for payouts, like any investment. But you can't ignore the aspect of generating new dollars if you want to soend new dollars on school improvement.

Yet - having an excellent educational system is part of what draws new business and even new industry to a county. The two feed each other. And we become penny wise and pound foolish when we forget that we need both processes working in order to have a progressive county.

The only problem is this... there's not always enough money to go around. This finite resource is such that sometimes choices have to be made that mean we don't get to invest in everything every year.

But I think it's a problem to separate the two as if they exist independently in a vacuum. They don't.

RB

"So is there a sense that you get that the Board is ready to push for a serious solution to our schools situation?"

I can't speak for the other Board members, but I for one am ready to push for a serious solution. From the Kingston side, all I see is continued growth. Kingston high school in 2004 was 709 students, 677 in 2006 and as of last week over 800. This is a 100+ increase in two years. Kingston elementary had its largest Kindergarten class register this year. This year they lose their smallest class -- 5th grade which will be moving into Cherokee middle school. This means that next year we may have to add another portable there because all their classes will be big. Growth is hear to stay.

The school building program needs has achieved public awareness and our school facilities are reaching a critical state of usefulness -- we have to act now while this awareness exists. There is a school liaison committee meeting with County Commission reps and a school board facilities meeting in the next week where building options will be discussed.