Over the decade I’ve been a teacher, I have frequently been asked three questions: Why is there a teacher shortage? Why is enrollment dropping? And, most importantly, why are our kids failing?
The recent handling of the closures of seven of Acero Charter Schools’ 15 schools is a great example of an answer to all three.
I found out that the Acero charter school where I teach would be closing from a friend who saw the news on social media. Previously, leadership had let us know it was thinking about making some changes and considering consolidating some of the schools for financial reasons. Apparently, they went straight from considering consolidations to closing seven schools.
Now, I have my own questions.
Why weren’t staff and families involved in talks about closing the schools they rely on? Maybe leadership knew they were not going to hear what they wanted to hear from parents or staff. If you’re making a bad decision, and you know that if you bring others into the conversation they will tell you that you are wrong, you just don’t include them. You go ahead and make the choice.
There is no easy way to close seven schools, but there definitely could have been a way that caused less anxiety and strife.
Acero kids, like a lot of our kids in Chicago, come from homes with greater academic and emotional needs. Adding something as big as not just one school closing, but seven schools closing, is a huge blow. What is going to happen to those kids? Most would think the answer is simple: transfer them to another neighborhood school. However, looking deeper into this “simple solution” we see, in our neighborhood at least, that the schools to which the Acero network is trying to transfer our kids are already crowded, not funded correctly and understaffed. Instead of looking for an alternative way to support our students and families, Acero leadership for the most part already decided that this school is not making them money, and so it’s not feasible to keep it open. Their proposal instead is to shove over 1,000 kids into other schools at the end of the school year.
Acero leadership clearly believed that the way they delivered this information was the best one. If that is their decision, they better make sure every single person available to help transition these families out of these schools is there. A lot more support is needed in the areas where there are closings. Parents want answers that some of the Acero schools don’t have. They were given a link from a QR code to scan with numbers and compiled data, but nothing that would help answer the question: What will happen to my child come next school year?
The students who are being forced out are the same young people who will be our future leaders, but we can’t create that future for them if the network is making decisions that don’t take them or their parents into consideration. There is a lot of talk about making sure students receive the kind of support and resources they need to be successful. In reality, the Acero network’s actions do not demonstrate that leadership cares about these students or the communities they have created within their schools.
I understand that it costs money to educate a child. It costs money to keep a school open. The way the decision was made — without any conversation with staff or families — reduces us to statistics and numbers, not people who feel hurt, angry and anxious about these closings.
Once again, people who have the ability to do something as big as closing schools did not involve communities in the conversation. This is unimaginable, since those communities will now have to deal with the repercussions of one network’s decision.
Now, I have one final question: Why does this keep happening?
There is a history of poor choices being made in education. For one, parents are not being included in decisions that affect the same students who attend schools like Acero. We are seeing that now with the Chicago Board of Education, and previously with the board’s proposed closing of charter and selective enrollment schools, with the focus being put instead on improving neighborhood schools. Decisions are made, but who is bringing to the table all the stakeholders these decisions will affect?
Our school is more than a number, more than a building, more than a financial target. Our school, my school, is the staff members who work with our students when they are having an off day. It is the kids who line up to walk down the hall with me while telling me how their weekend went. It is the maintenance staff who work diligently to make sure our school is taken care of. It is the lunch workers who feed our children. It is the teachers who meditate with our kids, coach sports in their free time and eat lunch with them when they need a space of their own. It is the parents who come to the school plays and school events.
I don’t have the answers I would like to share with others, but I do know that this can’t keep happening. We all have a voice and we need to be heard, so why aren’t we?
Jemalyth Fabara is a reading and writing teacher at an Acero charter school.
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