More Coffee, Please

There are some weeks where it’s almost impossible to keep up on the little lies and half-truths leaking out.

I’ve already had to contend once or twice with the misquotes and mis-figurings of Neil Moriarty and the the Monadnock Taxpayer’s Association, but it’s getting a bit too much when it starts coming from Fitzwilliam as well. Are the same folks who informed the administration about WMDs also feeding information to people in the Monadnock School District?

I’m referring to the Fitzwilliam newsletter, and the information supplied by Mr. John Tommilla and Mr. Tom Parker. I believe I had Mr. Tommila’s son in class many years ago, and I’ve never been anything but impressed with the man and his family—so I’m a little surprised by how off-base he is here. I wish the two of them had taken the time to call and confirm the information before writing it and publishing it as school-board representatives for Fitzwilliam—I do my best to cite sources, mark rumors as such, and I tried to teach Mr. Tommilla’s son—and every other student—the same. ¹

In any case, what was there first, and then we’ll get to the truth.

There are only 21 students in the program. This program was funded last fall for over 40 students. There are 11 MRSD students and 10 tuition students from other districts…We subsequently learned they recently adopted 4 new out-of-district special education students. We will try to get to the bottom of whole situation, however, your School Board has apparently agreed that you will underwrite this expense regardless of cost.

Okay, a few things. One, we have 28 students, and we’re hoping for more. Seven students isn’t a ton, but still, having the numbers off by 25% is careless. I did them the favor of not counting the students who don’t show up and are probably going to drop out—we have some of those, just like any high school. ² Also no mention of the fact MC² returned the unused money to the district this year—Just like MRHS and several other schools did. It’s one of the reasons this year’s budget is smaller.

But what I’m really curious about are who these new special-education students are? I don’t have a single kid who isn’t doing the work of the others—and they’re all starting in roughly the same place I start all my classes, from my honors course to my senior elective. (And for all my former students who just shuddered and rolled their eyes, yes, that does mean they read Allegory of the Cave.) I’ll even step out of a ledge and say that my kids this year have gotten it much better than all but a few of my best and brightest—we taught it better, having a schedule that allows for more than 48 minutes with the kids.

And then we turned around and had them read Flatland, which in addition to being a great book to discuss geometry with, also was a vicious critique of Victorian England. Trust me, given the death of the British Literature elective at MRHS, I doubt there are many kids who could really say they “got it” at a traditional high school either.

I’ve taught sophomores, juniors, and seniors, all at college and honors levels. I wrote Monadnock’s junior curriculum, its Advanced Placement Writing curriculum, and parts of its sophomore curriculum. I sat down with a member of the math department, a member of the social studies department, and a member of the tech department and looked at what we’re teaching the kids. All agreed that it was high level, “college appropriate” stuff.

And it was going out to every kids, and every kid was getting it. I don’t know where these “extra expense” special education students are hiding…because I don’t see them anywhere.

What really bothers me is the subtext. There’s still the resentment of the Monadnock Community Connections School program, still a desire to cut it apart. The people who think so need to do some learning—the state of New Hampshire is moving to make schools more like MC². It’s here to stay (or, at least, the model it represents is) and the dinosaurs who can’t imagine anything different are the ones who will pass.

Final point. This tired old lie was repeated:

Last spring we mentioned the savings that was available by changing health insurance suppliers. Depending upon which program each employee chose, the savings was between $850,000 and $900,000 for the current school year. The program was apparently killed by the teacher’s union before it even got to a vote by the union members…it would appear that, if we save a few dollars in one area, we will be expected to spend it in another.

Right. Once again no mention of the $450,000 which was saved. I wonder who they get their information from?

Man. Between these mistakes and the lies of the Monadnock Taxpayer’s Association, telling the truth around here is starting to be a full-time job.

1 I’m operating under the assumption that “kids these days” don’t learn anything. Therefore, if a kid today can do it, then a parent of yesterday must be able to do so. There might be a flaw in the logic somewhere, as I think kids these days can be pretty awesome, but I’m doing my best to not, in any way, mock the current thought paradigm. I don’t think challenging established ideas has any place in a teacher’s job description… ↺

2 This is my new throw-back comment to anyone who tells me that MC2 is nothing but fluff or kids who sit around all day and do nothing. If that’s true, then why am I putting up with so much whining? I firmly believe kids whine when they’re learning something, and my kids whine. A lot. More seriously, there are some kids so badly damaged that they’re going to need a lot of help before they can get anywhere with an education—Maslow discussed that—and they’re not ready for school. That’s a social worker’s job more than mine. ↺

Gregarious

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