One of the biggest problems we have had as a school system is the “all is well” message that the district has been force feeding the citizens of Jacksonville. The system is not the unmitigated disaster that some people pain it as but it is equally true we do have our problems, serious problems the district has tried to ignore or gloss over. The new superintendent said in a Times Union article that we won’t be doing that anymore, to which I say, about time.
The “all is well” message the district has pushed the last few years has led to the erosion of faith in the system that the superintendent talks about. Our parents and the citizens of Jacksonville aren’t stupid; they know we have problems and it must have been incredibly frustrating to them as the district took every opportunity to say we are a B district (we are a C now) and to put an unrealistic positive spin on everything. It has been for me.
Some might not know it but we do have some great things going on things that should be celebrated but it is way past time we stopped sweeping our negatives under the rug. If we want to improve as a district, recapture the faith of our parents and rally the community around our schools we have to start being honest about our problems.
Sometimes being honest can be difficult but at the end of the day it is the best policy and it will be very refreshing to have some honesty come out of the ivory tower and it will be even more refreshing to have a leader that believes in it.
The “all is well” message the district has pushed the last few years has led to the erosion of faith in the system that the superintendent talks about. Our parents and the citizens of Jacksonville aren’t stupid; they know we have problems and it must have been incredibly frustrating to them as the district took every opportunity to say we are a B district (we are a C now) and to put an unrealistic positive spin on everything. It has been for me.
Some might not know it but we do have some great things going on things that should be celebrated but it is way past time we stopped sweeping our negatives under the rug. If we want to improve as a district, recapture the faith of our parents and rally the community around our schools we have to start being honest about our problems.
Sometimes being honest can be difficult but at the end of the day it is the best policy and it will be very refreshing to have some honesty come out of the ivory tower and it will be even more refreshing to have a leader that believes in it.
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