Holiday Concert exposes serious problems at Moody School

Last Tuesday, December 9th, Moody school held its annual Holiday Concert. Guess what happens when you try to fit the parents of 460+ elementary students into a gym with a seating capacity of 360? Yep. You guessed it. There was no place to park, emergency rescue vehicles wouldn’t have gotten anywhere close to the front door if they had needed to, parents got upset because they couldn’t see their children, and the fire marshal got a phone call.

Yesterday, Moody PTA President Susan Courchesne authored a devastating letter to the editor of the Middletown Press, calling for help for a desperate situation: “It’s time every one knows what the daily struggles are like. We need help…we can no longer survive on duct tape and paper clips; we can no longer “MacGyver” this situation…”

What help does Moody School need? Yes, these are tough budget times, but let us consider the facts (in case you didn’t see the letter to the editor – thanks, Susan, for these statistics):

Moody’s enrollment in July was in the 380s, consistent with the previous year’s numbers. Since July, more than 70 students have enrolled, bringing the school’s total enrollment to 463 as of today. The school’s cafeteria has a seating capacity of 222, and you already know what the gym can hold. A little math here…when there is rainy/foul weather, 222 can be in the cafeteria with 241 stuck in the gym. Since the school splits lunch and recess time into a rotational schedule (since everyone can’t eat at the same time), that means that the lunchroom is used for lunch AND indoor recess at the same time.

You think about what that scene looks like…think also about what we’re asking our children to endure, and what the school must accommodate.

Not convinced there’s a problem? How about this: the computer room was turned into a classroom, so the “new” computer room is one-half of the library. Teachers also have to use the library as a work space because the faculty lounge is partially a work room, so there isn’t space for everyone during their lunch periods. There are two classrooms in the entire school with 18 students: all others have between 19 and 26. The first grade classes have 22 children each, the second grade classes have 22 each or more, the third grade classes have 24 each or more, and fourth grade has 20 or 21 in each class. There are only two full-time special educators, one part-time speech therapist, one part-time social worker and one part-time psychologist, and they have to be “creative” with their time to meet student needs.

There are only two multi-stall student bathrooms and just three custodians. There are 12 buses to load each afternoon: school gets out at 3:20, the buses don’t finish loading until about 3:50, and thanks to the BOE’s canceling of 300+ bus stops, kids have anywhere from 5-45 minutes to ride the bus home. That’s a productive use of time and gas money for sure…(heavy sarcasm here in case you didn’t pick up on it).

The PTA can’t invite everyone to the annual spaghetti supper (remember the whole seating capacity dilemma), and the science fair will have to be limited to the upper grades just to be sure there’s room to put everything. Oh, and not everyone will be invited to attend, either, since we can’t all fit in the building at the same time.

So, at tonight’s PTA meeting, you can guess the atmosphere and topic of discussion. There were two quick items on the agenda before things got intense. First, Donna Marino, the District’s Parent Resource Coordinator, spoke about the Welcoming Environment study that will be conducted at Moody on the morning of January 15th. According to her handout, “Research has shown when schools create a welcoming environment, they become inviting places where students want to learn, school employees want to work and every citizen feels respected and valued. The schools belong to our customers, and we are dependent on public support for our ultimate success.” The action team will walk through Moody School, evaluating its Physical Environment (parking areas, classrooms, lobby, hallways, etc.), School-wide practices and policies, the Public Relations/Welcoming School Staff, and Written Materials provided. Apparently, the new Middletown High School was designed according to the results of a similar walk-thru conducted at the old building, with the suggested changes getting factored into the design of the new building.

Hmmm…be on the lookout for those results. I’m guessing, though, that we won’t be surprised by what this great new process will tell us.

Next, Principal Yolande Eldridge reported on the work of two committees. The School Family Partnership Committee wants to have created a school brochure and a welcoming packet by May, as well as hosting additional literacy nights. The STARS Committee is working on a new state initiative on school climate. Specifically, the STARS Committee is revising the old STARS program into a positive behavioral program. Mrs. Eldridge promised to send home an update at the beginning of January on what this will eventually look like.

Now for the good stuff:

According to the “history” attending the PTA meeting (parents who’ve been connected to Moody for 10+ years), the Board of Education has known for at least that amount of time that overcrowding was going to be a problem at Moody. Back then, parents who complained were apparently told that there was a building cap in this part of Middletown, so the problem would never actually happen.

(I guess someone forgot to tell P&Z about this cap, because I live in a home that was built just six years ago, and I’m not the youngest house on the block. Nor, for that matter, am I the youngest house within a mile of where I live. I can think of a whole subdivision that was built in the last 6 years, and that’s just in one direction from where I live.)

Mrs. Eldridge did announce that Superintendent Michael Frechette told her directly that the BOE has hired some kind of research group to study the district’s enrollment plan, and that the group’s #1 priority in January would be Moody’s enrollment issues. She also said that the BOE wanted to redistrict in two years.

Well, great for the BOE, but here’s a news flash: Moody is out of time for fancy studies. It is but for the grace of God that there wasn’t a serious problem on Tuesday because of the overcrowding. As one parent put it, Moody’s “been really lucky – Tuesday’s meeting was scary.” Do we have to wait for someone to get hurt for the BOE to take action? I know several good lawyers: should I put them on standby?

I’m also really annoyed that we can hire someone to study our enrollment problems, but we can’t pay for gas for our buses so kindergarteners don’t have to walk a mile to a bus stop. Wait! That’s supposed to be another issue, you say, but I say it isn’t. If the BOE wasn’t trying to send 460+ students to one school, it wouldn’t have the busing issues it does, and our children wouldn’t have to ride the bus for 30-45 minutes to go 2.3 miles to school. The price of gas would be much less relevant (and that has fallen, by the way, so do we get our bus stops back?)

So what can be done? Well, the first steps have been and are being taken. It’s about awareness. Bless their heart; the staff at Moody has done an incredible job of “staying under the radar” as one teacher put it. Yes, they have problems, but they’ve made do, and they haven’t complained. Oh, there was that issue about the mold in the mobile classrooms, but hey, that only took how many years to resolve? (again, the heavy sarcasm if you didn’t catch it)

But, the cat’s out of the bag now, and not one Middletown resident can afford to wait to do something about it. Everyone needs to know, and they need to know now. Why should you care if you don’t have kids at Moody? Here are a couple of reasons:

1. If it’s OK for Moody, it will be OK for your school too.
2. On the third day of indoor recess because of last week’s rain, the PTA President invited the Superintendent to visit to see what conditions were like. He declined because he was too busy. If he’s too busy to worry about the factors underlying a school overcrowding that lead to Tuesday’s nightmare, then what exactly are we paying him for, and how do you know he’ll care about your school’s problem when you have one? (Apparently a BOE member did show up sometime last week, but who works for whom here?)
3. If you don’t have any kids in school in Middletown, you should be even more afraid. If our BOE tolerates such conditions, and now the word’s out, what young family will pick this town to move to when they could go to Glastonbury or another community where education IS a priority? No young families means no new tax revenue and it also means falling home prices. All of that translates into less money for the town and you can fill in the rest…

What can be done? The Superintendent can cap the enrollment on Moody School, effective immediately. This doesn’t solve the overcrowding issues, but it prevents them from getting worse. Just this month, Moody received 10 new students, so the cap MUST be put into place as soon as possible. Importantly, this cap would also have to mean that even if Moody lost a student, a new one couldn’t be sent in as a replacement.

Secondly, the BOE needs to fast-forward its redistricting plans. I don’t mean think about commissioning a study, and then get around to doing the study, and then maybe thinking about the results…I mean get it done. The Board has had 10+ years to think, and now it’s time for action. Need I remind everyone that ½ the BOE is up for re-election next year? I’m thinking it doesn’t look good for the incumbents, given the bus fiasco this past fall and Moody’s issues now.

Finally, you, the taxpayer and ultimate consumer of Middletown’s school district: are you getting your money’s worth out of our school system? I don’t mean are the teachers doing a good job, I mean do you know what the BOE is doing and how our schools are faring at the most basic levels? If you don’t, then perhaps you should. Change will only come in the bright light of public scrutiny, and I challenge you to turn that light on as soon as you can.