Post by title1parent on Aug 30, 2009 7:51:27 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/opinions/1742475,6_4_NA30_EDITORIAL_S1-090830.article
District 204 copes with opening day problems
Sun Opinion
August 30, 2009
It's probably best to approach the first day of school with the idea that there may be some rough spots, but the staff and school board will work to make things better.
As students in Indian Prairie School District 204 started to head to class this year, and in many cases to a school different from the one they attended the year before, the kids seemed to take the opening day miscues more in stride than some of the parents.
Overcrowding at Waubonsie Valley High School and on its buses had one mother saying her son and his friends "thought it was funny."
Many parents, though, thought otherwise and The Sun was contacted by parents who related stories of their children sitting three to a seat or standing in the aisles on over-crowded buses or of buses that sometimes passed by students who were supposed to be picked up.
The fact that WVHS is overcrowded and some freshmen had to share lockers didn't sit all that well with some parents either.
But this concern is OK. Being protective of kids goes with parenting, and when children have to stand on a moving school bus their mothers and fathers have a right to complain.
So also did the parents who live in Aero Estates and whose children attend Welch Elementary School. Initially, a change in bus routes had kids who were normally collected in front of their homes having, instead, to walk to a stop on 83rd Street. Normally, one might think this was no big deal, but the area in question has no sidewalks, no shoulder areas next to the streets and no street lights. Moreover, there are also drainage ditches for the kids to maneuver.
Parents felt this was not tolerable and the district quickly reverted to having the buses stop in front of the homes.
That is the kind of reaction the district needs to have for all of the problems that arise, which occur primarily due to the presence of a new high school -- Metea Valley -- and the changing of attendance boundaries that came with it.
And, so far, the district seems to be doing adequately on responses to concerns. That's especially important because this comes in the wake of the long struggle over the third high school in terms of whether to have it and where to put it. In terms of resident contentment, the district has very little political capital and needs to avoid squandering it.
District 204 copes with opening day problems
Sun Opinion
August 30, 2009
It's probably best to approach the first day of school with the idea that there may be some rough spots, but the staff and school board will work to make things better.
As students in Indian Prairie School District 204 started to head to class this year, and in many cases to a school different from the one they attended the year before, the kids seemed to take the opening day miscues more in stride than some of the parents.
Overcrowding at Waubonsie Valley High School and on its buses had one mother saying her son and his friends "thought it was funny."
Many parents, though, thought otherwise and The Sun was contacted by parents who related stories of their children sitting three to a seat or standing in the aisles on over-crowded buses or of buses that sometimes passed by students who were supposed to be picked up.
The fact that WVHS is overcrowded and some freshmen had to share lockers didn't sit all that well with some parents either.
But this concern is OK. Being protective of kids goes with parenting, and when children have to stand on a moving school bus their mothers and fathers have a right to complain.
So also did the parents who live in Aero Estates and whose children attend Welch Elementary School. Initially, a change in bus routes had kids who were normally collected in front of their homes having, instead, to walk to a stop on 83rd Street. Normally, one might think this was no big deal, but the area in question has no sidewalks, no shoulder areas next to the streets and no street lights. Moreover, there are also drainage ditches for the kids to maneuver.
Parents felt this was not tolerable and the district quickly reverted to having the buses stop in front of the homes.
That is the kind of reaction the district needs to have for all of the problems that arise, which occur primarily due to the presence of a new high school -- Metea Valley -- and the changing of attendance boundaries that came with it.
And, so far, the district seems to be doing adequately on responses to concerns. That's especially important because this comes in the wake of the long struggle over the third high school in terms of whether to have it and where to put it. In terms of resident contentment, the district has very little political capital and needs to avoid squandering it.