My name is Carroll Scott, and I am the mom of a 2nd grader at Frank Porter Graham Elementary.  My son started the year in 1st grade, but the outstanding teachers and staff at FPG recognized that he was not being challenged and needed more.  They created a plan to slowly and comfortably transition him to the next grade, and he’s thriving.

That is just one example of the faculty recognizing a child’s need and acting on it. That is just one example of great teaching and outstanding leadership at FPG that is making a significant impact on the achievement gap there. They have done an amazing job at creating one of the best educational environments with the most diverse populations in the district. The school board should be applauding them.

Instead, they are recommending dismantling all that great progress to create a Spanish dual-language magnet school, a concept with very little buy-in, that will benefit far fewer than it’s disrupting, and that (so far) has a financial burden of at least $600k in the middle of a budget crisis. 

I am not against the dual-language program; I am against the recommendations to dismantle this great school that is making amazing strides with the whole diverse population… to be replaced by a non-diverse magnet school with uncertain direction and a lack of evidence of plausible success. I applaud the school board for seeking out and collecting community feedback. What they found is overwhelmingly strong disapproval of the recommendations including disapproval from families in the program. We all need to come together and to work to find a better solution. 

There are options, although the advisory committee and the school board continue to say there aren’t. There is no logical reason to dismantle the great trajectory and community at FPG in order to force a dual-language program riddled with holes and unanswered questions.

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