So it’s the buildings hurting San Angelo students, and not their illiteracy or inability to do math?
You’ve seen the poor District TAPR (STAAR) scores. Kids aren’t “catching up” to literacy from year to year. Kids can’t afford to lose those foundational years while Bluebonnet works itself out. There is no place in that curriculum for remediation, though the District will have to create some sort of STAAR band-aid.
SAISD’s Academic Statistics Are Staggering.
Out of roughly 1000 SAISD students taking the Spring 2024 STAAR exam (I am rounding here):
Reading (5th Grade) — only 400 at grade level.
Math (5th Grade) — only 400 at grade level.
Science (5th Grade) — only 200 at grade level.
Science (8th Grade) — only 300 at grade level.
Social Studies (8th Grade) — only 200 at grade level.
I had to look these scores up. Dr. Gomez conveniently skipped over these 40 pages in her presentation of TAPR to the Board in January. The omitted data between the first and last pages is what brought TEA down upon SAISD’s heads. And it wasn’t even discussed.
Lack of Transparency From Admin Is Real Problem.
They keep crippling trust and I watched parents address that issue from the podium.
Bluebonnet came onto the Board agenda as a whisper in January tucked in as a reference to the remediation plan with TEA. Even as late as the last regular Board meeting in February where Bluebonnet was on the agenda, three of the six board members present had not bothered to read it. I can promise you that even fewer ever read the alternative curriculum offered by SAVVAS. Bluebonnet was approved at a pre-agenda meeting. That’s not supposed to happen, but they couldn’t miss a training window for the new curriculum if they put it off until the regular meeting. Nobody expected Bluebonnet to be plucked from the obscurity it was parked under on the agenda in January as “High Quality Instructional Materials.” It didn’t exactly announce itself.
SAISD could be a West Texas academic powerhouse. Instead, it deflects its responsibility for realizing that vision, and now we are at TEA’s mercy. But can we ever say that out loud and address it? No. At Tuesday night’s Tea Party meeting to sell the bond, Board Member Bill Dendle blamed COVID and added, “We have a parent problem.”
If only 200 Eighth Graders can pass Social Studies, and only 300 Science, we have a literacy problem, and test scores indicate it begins at the earliest grades. Bluebonnet readers released to date for those early grades are a mess. Even you wrote regarding same. This chronic illiteracy underscores the focus on creating more CTE spaces for hairstylists, food preparation certifications, welders, and nurses’ aides. Nothing wrong with the trades, but the District’s vision for San Angelo’s kids is written all over Phase I of this bond.
Board Failed To Do Due Diligence
People may be butt-hurt about Bluebonnet, but most I spoke with were willing to vote for a bond that they didn’t particularly like in exchange for an academic vision and backbone from the Board designed to improve educational outcomes. Few Board members addressed the multiple elephants Bluebonnet brought into the room, and several Board members were just plain wrong about the curriculum, but those who were fell in line with those who had not read it, either. Parents who had spent nights and weekends performing the due diligence their school representatives and administrators should have contributed observed the proverbial emperor to have no clothes. There is no such vision… or backbone… supporting or respecting teachers, parents, student, or their efforts.
Whether people vote for or against the bond, they have their reasons. Just as the Board will say it had its reasons for passing Bluebonnet. And to its credit, they did have ‘$60 per enrolled student’ reasons to pass it. But please don’t condescend to accuse parents who educated themselves and others beyond what the District would discuss with transparency as being responsible for hurting kids. That sort of “us v. them” logical fallacy is over-used on both sides and has played a serious rol[e] in bringing us to this crossroads in the first place. One need only look at the Juvenile Detention numbers correlated to illiteracy, or the felony jail stats on same, to see where real damage occurs.
Prioritize Education First
San Angelo kids deserve better than a school to prison pipeline. You are right. I believe “we must make THAT future happen,” (my emphasis). It won’t happen without prioritizing education first. This bond fails to center itself in changing the paradigm for too many kids who are not offered life choices made possible by the ability to read.
This entire conversation about the affordability of paying for this bond needs to come out of the ethereal discussion points of attorneys, physicians, business owners, and six-figured administrators whose own children will not feel the complete brunt of Bluebonnet. The children of this particular cohort will reap the benefits of private tutors and educational opportunities placing them at the head of the pack.
“Old Blood” Needs To Be Heard
This curriculum, and this bond, are going to be paid for by people who cannot afford to supplement their kids past the District’s apathy. These parents (the ‘old blood?’) know the price of eggs, the high cost of maintaining insurance on their homes, the outrageous monthly cost of healthcare, childcare, eldercare, and rising property taxes. They have a voice that needs to be heard on whether they want to pay for improvements that entertain, or instead offered a bond promising a solid educational foundation enabling future generations of ALL San Angelo kids to go on to truly great things. They should be empowered to choose their futures.
Perhaps they are not the “new blood” you are wishing for, but they are the ones who have put their life’s blood, sweat, and tears into trying to make this City the place both of us choose to raise our families. San Angeloans will vote for a bond when they see one based in educational realities for their kids’ futures. Perhaps enough people see such a thing in this particular bond. If they do, they will vote for it. Or perhaps they’ll vote for it in spite of its lack of vision. I, myself, remain undecided.
Our votes DO tell us who we are. They reflect our values. Monday night’s Board vote was a referendum on SAISD’s vision of the future of education in San Angelo. Now voters get to place their hard-earned money wherever they wish.
But you may want to share your McGuffey’s Reader. We’re all going to need it.
Karen Best
Editor’s Note: This op-ed originally appeared as a comment to the editor’s Op-Ed “Curriculum No Reason to Vote Down Bond.“
