Reading Parents Unhappy with Children’s Middle School Assignment
Say others feel the same way about a small group of students from Birch Meadow Elementary School headed to Parker.
Reading parents Ken and Cathy Young are unhappy with the way Birch Meadow sixth graders were assigned to middle school for the next phase of their school careers.
Between 15 and 20 students will be going to the Parker Middle School in September, Ken Young told the School Committee Monday. The rest – 70, Young said -- will go to the Coolidge Middle School.
The Youngs know other residents in what Ken described as a “swing area” on the south side of the Birch Meadow elementary school district who are also “very upset,” he told the committee, about their children’s middle school assignment.
Students from the Killam Elementary School are also split between the Parker and Coolidge Middle Schools, Young said, but more evenly: roughly 60 to 40 percent.
None of their daughter’s three best friends will be going to Parker, Young told the committee, and their daughter is reacting negatively to her school assignment. The town is focused on the issue of peer pressure, Ken pointed out. His daughter will make new friends at Parker but, Young said, the assignment process is “not fair.”
When parents met with the principal of the middle school to which their child was assigned, the group with children going to Coolidge was happy, Young said.
The other group of parents, which included the Youngs, was unhappy, he said.
“If I felt isolated and alone, how’s my daughter going to feel?”
The Youngs will lose part of their own social group and their school support system – backup transportation, for example – he said, with their daughter’s assignment to Parker.
Ken Young and his wife, who he said have been active at Birch Meadow School, will not have the same relationship with the Parker School, either, he said.
Young is also concerned that his four children will be split between the town’s two middle schools.
“I know it’s tough, a numbers game,” Young said. He said he hadn’t seen the issue brought to the committee’s attention.
“I didn’t stay in this town to get this angry at the process,” he said. “We do not want to fight the school system.”
Young said he has spoken with Superintendent John Doherty. Assignments are based, Doherty told the committee and audience, on class size. You can’t just add a teacher, as you might in elementary school, Doherty said, since Reading middle schools are taught by teams of teachers. Moving more students from Killam to Parker would runs into transportation costs, Doherty said. The superintendent said he has talked to several other parents besides the Youngs about middle school assignments.
School Committee member Chris Caruso said he wants to talk about this issue at a future School Committee meeting.
“We drew the (elementary school) district lines,” he said.
Public hearings are held before lines are moved, said Doherty. He described the assignments as an administrative issue rather than a School Committee issue.
School Committee member Hal Croft suggested that the Youngs bring other disgruntled parents to speak with Doherty.
Parents can also call School Committee members, said committee Chairman Karen Janowski. She plans to speak with Doherty, she said, about middle school assignments.
In This article
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Birch Meadow Elementary School
27 Arthur B Lord Dr, Reading, MA -
Walter S. Parker Middle School
45 Temple St, Reading, MA -
Arthur W. Coolidge Middle School
89 Birch Meadow Dr, Reading, MA -
J. Warren Killam Elementary School
333 Charles St, Reading, MA
Concerned
8:48 am on Friday, July 13, 2012
My three kids went to killam and were sent to Parker when all of their friends went to coolidge. Life is unfair at times. They went, made new friends and when they got to the high school, reconnected with friends from elementary school. I do not understand why parents are always trying to protect their children from all disappoints in life. It happens and if we do not help are children deal with it now they cannot grow up to be well adjusted adults. I was not happy with the situation initially either but my kids survived and are now adults who can handle what life throws at them because I let them suffer some disappoints along the way.
Jane
9:03 am on Friday, July 13, 2012
They should thank their lucky stars.... Girls at Coolidge grow up way toooo fast.... Sex.... Drugs ... Alcohol
Nonya
9:30 am on Friday, July 13, 2012
Like the girls at Parker dont gorw up too fast either. Wake up.
Liz
9:46 am on Friday, July 13, 2012
The issue is not whether the kids and their families will ultimately adjust to their new school--they will. It's just a particularly sensitive time developmentally to be putting kids through this type of change--they have enough to contend with already, given their age. The problem here is that there is NO NEED for this type of disruption to happen, particularly in the case of the pocket of Birch Meadow kids. Had these families just been districted to Barrows in the first place, they would have proceeded to Parker with friends, with a support system, etc. Believe me, though, families like the Youngs who fall into that pocket area would have been sorely missed at Birchie! :-)
Tom Jeffords
11:32 am on Friday, July 13, 2012
" It's just a particularly sensitive time developmentally to be putting kids through this type of change--they have enough to contend with already, given their age. The problem here is that there is NO NEED for this type of disruption to happen, particularly in the case of the pocket of Birch Meadow kids. Had these families just been districted to Barrows in the first place, they would have proceeded to Parker with friends, with a support system, etc."
Spoken like a true Nanny Stater
Ellen G
3:25 pm on Friday, July 13, 2012
I am speaking from experience. I am an adult who was "spot" redistricted in the middle of my elementary school years (I grew up in a different town). I will admit it was scary for me as I entered the fourth grade (with three other kids from my neighborhood) at a different elementary school than even my younger brother. However, in the long run it was a fantstic experience. I still saw many of my old schoolmates in dancing school and religious education and of course three years later I was reunited with my old schoolmates at the junior high school.
One must ask what is the most important factor, keeping class sizes small, keeping class sizes balanced among many schools, or the social/support structure outside of school hours. These are not easy questions and inevitably not all individuals will be happy with the final decision.
Could Reading have done a better job of communication? Yes - because after all emotions have died down-in the final anlysis of the situation the cause of the consternation among the affected families is most likely poor communication bewtween the school system and the families.
If one were to follow the logical path of your own statement "It's just a particularly sensitive time developmentally to be putting kids through this type of change--they have enough to contend with already, given their age. The problem here is that there is NO NEED for this type of disruption to happen" we should still have one room school houses.
Tom Jeffords
11:30 am on Friday, July 13, 2012
...Young said, the assignment process is “not fair.”
Hey Kenny, here's a news flash, "Life is not fair." Get over it, or move to a house in town that is squarely within the Coolidge Middle School district.
Jane
1:44 pm on Friday, July 13, 2012
@ Nonya no they don't having several daughter go through Reading High the girls at Coolidge were more advanced in the ways of the World and not in a good way!!! Feel free to keep your blinders on.
sonny
2:28 pm on Friday, July 13, 2012
Jane: Might want to check your facts and learn about the girls caught drinking in school during the school day at Parker. Not saying kids are more advanced at one or the other. There are issues at both.
chris h
6:18 pm on Friday, July 13, 2012
On behalf of the Parker Middle School PTO, I'd like to say that we are very much looking forward to meeting this special "pocket of Birch Meadow kids" and their parents! We will do our very best to make you feel welcome. The administration at Parker is top-notch, as are the teachers. You will thank your lucky stars that you were the chosen ones! - Christine Larsen Hylan, Parker PTO President 2012-2013
Liz
10:55 am on Saturday, July 14, 2012
Christine, well said. The silver lining in all this is that you can't go wrong in Reading. Parker has fantastic programs, teachers, families and, of course, PTO! You are getting some fabulous, very involved parents in this group from Birch Meadow. Liz Rogers, Outgoing Birch Meadow PTO president.
SMS
7:43 pm on Friday, July 13, 2012
Teach your kids the best you can at an early age. Do not make excuses and say how everything is unfair because then they turn into excuse makers. Instead tell you kids you'll be okay, you'll end up with a lot more friends going to a different school, keep them busy and pray that the words you speak pop into their brain when faced with a situation.
SMS
7:53 pm on Friday, July 13, 2012
Lived all my life in Reading and have had a child in Coolidge and in Parker (one finishing this year). Parker and Coolidge girls are well educated in both sex and drugs, its the age and the times.
Nikki
9:22 pm on Friday, July 13, 2012
"It's the age and the times" is a bs excuse. The bottom line is it's the lack of vigilant parenting.
SMS
10:58 pm on Friday, July 13, 2012
Nikki, I completely agree! But our current "times" is because we are not vigilant in parenting as we once were. We focus on sports more than academics, work far too much, stress how everyone has to be fairly treated and recieve the same treatment (when thats not the real world) and the parents blame everything and everyone else for bad behavior and do not reprimand. I believe that basic human decency and respect for oneself and others is something that we have to teach our children and I feel alot of people have lost it.
Nikki
7:14 am on Saturday, July 14, 2012
You said it better than I, SMS. Perhaps I am, as they say, "just a cockeyed optimist", but I'm hoping someday we can get back on track.
Liz
10:48 am on Saturday, July 14, 2012
Looks like this is a volatile issue for many...hey, whatever gets people talking...
Having been president of Birch Meadow's PTO, a member of Town Meeting and one involved in many community groups, I am well aware of what's going on in this town and how hard everyone works to ensure we all have a great place to live and raise our children. Are there mistakes made? Yes. Are there unfortunate circumstances that arise that affect just a handful of kids/families from time to time? Yes. Should we all just accept when things have the potential to disrupt our families and impact our well-being? NO. That's all that's being done here--concerned families protecting themselves and opening CONSTRUCTIVE dialogue with those in power to make a change. Everyone here, note the word CONSTRUCTIVE.
Lisa G
3:08 pm on Monday, July 16, 2012
My daughter would have been one of the kids who went to Birch Meadow and was within the Parker district had we not moved during 4th grade (for reasons unrelated to the middle schools) to a house within Coolidge's district. My daughter just completed 3 terrific years at Coolidge, WITHOUT any involvement with drugs, alcohol or sex. She's not alone, and I'll bet there are a fair number of Parker parents who can say the same thing.
anonymous
4:24 pm on Thursday, July 19, 2012
I am a current RMHS Student and was in the class of kids that were in elementary school during the redistricting after the addition of Wood End. And they got switched and at Joshua Eaton, literally 1 student was moved to Birch Meadow by themselves. THAT is unfair. And honestly when I went to the High School, it was the kids from Killiam and Birch Meadow that went to Parker who faired better. They were generally better at making friends and they felt more comfortable in classes because the chances of being with friends or people they knew was higher. Also with social media and texting contact won't be lost for long.
Robin Hood
7:54 pm on Thursday, July 19, 2012
Coolidge is closer to the High School and closer to the threat of widespread recreational opiate abuse. They are probably better off going to Parker!
Robin Hood
8:05 pm on Thursday, July 19, 2012
Parker is closer to the depot. The kids have to walk by the junkies taking the train back from Charlestown where they buy their smack every day. The kids have to be careful they don't get a needle stick crossing the tracks. Better off going to Coolidge!