List of "cons" compiled by parents at December 18th meeting

This is a list of the potential negative impacts that parents compiled during the December 18th meeting:

• Larger class sizes
• No exposure to older students thus eliminating the role model/mentoring skill set that is currently in existence.
• Fewer resources (for example: the library would only contain books up to a certain level.  How do we accommodate 2nd graders that are reading at a 5th grade level?)
• There is a level of security staying in the same building for 5 years.  The front office staff knows all the families and the children.  Transitioning to a new building every other year would take some of this security away.
• Transitioning to a new building every other year could be very disruptive to some children.  Some 3rd grade students struggled with the transition to different classrooms for core subjects within the same building.
• Transportation concerns for parents with children in all three buildings.
• Transportation concerns in regards to younger children on the bus without older siblings to watch over them.
• Lose instruction time due to doctor, dentist, and the like, appointments when families are spread between buildings.
• Loss of parent involvement and PCO's due to families trying to be involved at multiple buildings.
• How do parents attend celebrations (i.e, Mother's Day, Christmas, Halloween, etc.) when families are split between buildings?
• Research has shown that an increase in transitions correlates to an increase in high school drop out rates.
• Enrollment declines due to large number of districts close by that do not split families between buildings at the elementary age.
• Question the safety of a central bussing hub or zone.
• Concern for time with children in transit-lose educational time.
• "Guinea Pig" students in an unproven model
• SPED staffing and SPED programming
• Lack of continuity in relationships between staff and families
• Staffing for specials
• Child anxiety
• Detract from the neighborhood school-ownership and community
• Will lose familiarity with K-5 teachers and across differing grade level collaboration
• Students will get lost in the pack.
• What are the chances the board will bump up class sizes and cut teachers anyway?
• How would parent/teacher conferences work?
• Behavior issues INCREASE with more of the same age peers
• Lack of diversity (not a broad range of age levels)
• Lose the potential of mentoring across grade levels in the same building between teachers.
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