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Letters to the Editors'Less popular' schools face issues© St. Petersburg Times published February 26, 2003 Re: School picks hint at snags ahead, Feb. 16. We have been teaching at one of the "least popular" choice schools for the last 12 years. The fact that many of our students are succeeding in spite of the odds appears to be one of the great mysteries and secrets of education. These miracles are ones we attribute to those caring, hardworking staff members who genuinely care about the students. Our school has always had a reputation of being a dumping ground for the south county. We believe this stigma can be traced back to the '70s, and unfortunately that perception is still alive. What we believe most parents and other educators (other than central administration) are not aware of is that the vast majority of our incoming ninth-graders read at or around the fourth-grade level and are not prepared for the vast differences of high school. One can only guess how many of these students are socially promoted, since this practice is still being used (although it appears that no one in central administration seems to have the actual numbers). After all, if it was not being practiced on a regular basis, then this would cease to be a serious problem, as prohibited by federal and state law. There are other questions that continue to plague us and that we feel are not being addressed. For instance, of the number of students entering ninth grade, how many actually graduate, and with a regular, not special, diploma? How many of these students withdraw into the GED program, which does not require FCAT testing? How many of our students are actually college-bound, and if the majority are not, why are we not gearing our curriculum to meet those students' needs, instead of following all other county curricula? These are questions I'm sure many other teachers at "less popular" schools around the county are also asking. Our teachers have been trained in each and every new strategy that comes down the pike. But all the training and materials at our disposal don't amount to a hill of beans if the students can't read or comprehend the materials at or near grade level. There is a substantial amount of money attached to the FCAT for the successful schools. Rather than blaming us for our students' failures, wouldn't it be more productive to prepare them for high school in the early and middle grades, get their reading levels up before ninth grade, make their absences count in all grades and expect success, instead of continuing to move them through the system, expecting miracles from us or from heaven?
Someone is doing a hack job on treesWhat is happening to the trees in our towns? Recently, while driving around doing errands in Dunedin, Clearwater and surrounding towns, it occurred to me that I was seeing many trees that have been poorly trimmed. There seem to be so many more trees that have been hacked without any regard for the appearance or health of the tree. Having once worked in the office of a major tree service, I have some knowledge of how a tree should look after pruning. Many of the trees I've seen do not look like they have been worked on by qualified personnel. Who is doing the work on these trees? Not only do they look terrible, I wonder what the future of those trees will be. What are the criteria used when determining who is qualified to do this kind of work? I get the feeling that if I were able to handle a chain saw, I would be able to drive around and find someone to hire me to work on their trees. We've lost too many trees to shopping malls, public buildings, condos and the like to lose more to poor workmanship. Would the officials in these towns please investigate and come up with a solution to this problem? There are a lot of people like me who would really appreciate it.
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