Welcome back!
As I noted in my last blog post, I’ve been assigned to the Dover zone this year. I greatly enjoyed my time in the John Barsby zone. As I move into my new assignment, there is one thing I want to clear up.
There is a perception that the Board didn’t question the move of VAST to John Barsby because they don’t care about these students. I can guarantee you that every member of our board, whatever our differences, believes, when they vote on a matter in front of us, is looking at the issue through the lens of what they see as the best way to serve kids, in the short term & the long term. Many of us did raise a lot of questions regarding the move; we didn’t just give it a rubber stamp. And to the credit of staff, when we discussed the issue of the VAST move, they worked very hard to address all the concerns. I know that first hand, because I was part of the transition meetings. I have had many conversations with the staff who work directly with these students. They are passionate about supporting them and we are lucky to have them.
Second, there appears to be some confusion around the issue of the fact that the students in VAST/CTC have a separate entrance they can use. This decision wasn’t made to stigmatize the students. Learning Alternatives (which is what the overall program is called) is a school within a school. They want to feel like their own entity, and part of respecting that desire is to give them their own entryway. That is very important to the students and the program staff, who work very hard to support them. The planning for the physical layout of the new classrooms – including the choice of location – was made with full input & approval from the program principal & discussed in depth at the transition committee meeting.
As always, if anyone has further questions about this matter or any other issue, please feel free to contact me!
Brzovic For School Board 