Save Our Students
Concerned parents making a difference in District 51
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Board of Director Spots Available
Posted on January 19, 2012 by Dave Grossman | Comments Off
A few of our Board members will be stepping down due to time constraints, so we’re looking for a few new board members who are intersted in being actively involved in our efforts. Board members need to be willing to meet most Monday nights at 7:00, as well as to take an active role in helping us shape our strategy. We particularly need a person or two who want to help grow our membership more broadly across the district by establishing contacts at other schools and soliciting recommendations for new members. There will still be budget cuts that will exceed the savings generated by a 4 day school week and changes to busing, so we still have a lot of work to do. If you’re interested send a message to Amy Day Agapito.
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Posted in News
Mission Statement
Posted on December 6, 2011 by sos51_admin | Comments Off
A group for people concerned about education in District 51. Because of the decline in tax revenues, District 51 has cut 28 million dollars from its budget, resulting in the reduction of 80 teaching positions, many administrative positions, as well as a reduction in the number of school days. Those cuts have put District 51 at the tipping point, yet next year those tax revenues are expected to decline by as much as another 10 million dollars. In November 2011 the voters rejected a mill levy increase that would have offset some of the damage from those budget reductions. District 51 is now faced with dire choices — whether to close several schools, layoff teachers, and significantly increase class size, or whether to make changes such as reducing busing services or adopting a four day school week. We feel strongly that our children’s academic opportunity should be the last thing to feel the impact of these cuts, so we formed our group to make sure that we have a voice in the way that those cuts are implemented.
We believe:
1. Academics should come first. When forced to choose between cuts that inconvenience parents (busing, for example) and cuts that adversely affect our children’s learning experience (i.e., increased class size, closing schools), parents should bear the burden of the budget shortfalls rather than our children.
2. Large classroom size has been proven to be detrimental to effective teaching and learning.  While we do not necessarily advocate a move to small classroom sizes, we are opposed to increasing from medium sized classes to large classes (more than 25 students).
3. PE, Art, and Music are important for childhood development and should remain a part of the curriculum in elementary school. If faced with the choice, those classes should be given priority over computer labs in elementary schools, which are expensive and become obsolete relatively quickly.
4. Classroom positions should be given pr