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March 2006
Focus now turns to Nathan Bishop, high school project
Posted Friday, March 31, 2006
With an agreement to clean up the Adelaide site, city and school officials must devise a short-term plan while the new high school is being built.
BY CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Now that the city and state Department of Environmental Management have worked out an agreement to clean up contaminants at a site for a proposed high school, city and school officials are meeting today to discuss what comes next.
On Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini approved a consent decree that set guidelines for the cleanup and development of the 37-acre former Gorham manufacturing site. The decree will allow the city to move forward with the construction.
The timeline for construction and the fate of Nathan Bishop Middle School, however, are still up in the air.
Today, Mayor David N. Cicilline and Schools Supt. Donnie Evans are meeting with the city's lawyers for a briefing on the settlement decree and to discuss its implications, said Karen Southern, spokeswoman for the mayor.
Evans said yesterday that he does not expect the school to be built in time for a September opening.
"We are planning for up to another year without Adelaide," he said.
Until a new high school is built, the School Department is crunched for space.
The city has proposed converting Nathan Bishop from a middle school into a high school to ease the crowding. The city has 400 more high school students than the current buildings can handle. Nathan Bishop, the smallest of the city's nine middle schools, has 400 students that would be reassigned to other middle schools.
The proposal has met with heavy resistance from Nathan Bishop families and East Side residents.
Evans said many options on how to use Nathan Bishop are being explored and he expects to make a decision by Monday.
"We need to make a decision very soon so we can inform parents and students and principals," he said.
The Providence School Board was scheduled to vote on the Nathan Bishop proposal at its meeting Monday, but Cicilline asked the board to postpone the vote until the Superior Court hearing.
At the time, Cicilline said that it might be possible to build the high school for the beginning of the school next year.
Evans said the construction will take six months, and it will be affected by the timelines for cleaning up the site that are laid out in the settlement decree.
East Siders outraged over high school plan
Posted Thursday, March 23, 2006
A proposal to turn the Nathan Bishop Middle School into a high school for 550 students from elsewhere in Providence has raised concerns among neighbors.
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Wealthy East Siders united with parents of Nathan Bishop Middle School students last night around a common goal: saving the only public middle school left on the East Side.
More than 200 neighbors, parents and students crowded into Hope High School's cafeteria to protest turning Nathan Bishop into a high school for ninth and tenth graders next fall.
"You have awakened a giant," Providence City Councilor Rita Williams said. "You have invited the voices of the East Side to have their say."
Schools Supt. Donnie Evans told the crowd that he has to find space for 550 high school students, and Nathan Bishop -- because with fewer than 400 students, it is the smallest of the city's nine middle schools -- made the most sense.
The School Department had planned to send these students to a new high school on Adelaide Avenue, but strong neighborhood opposition over contamination of the site has delayed construction indefinitely.
Evans said that the department explored a variety of options, from holding double sessions to putting up portable classrooms, but they were either too costly or academically unsound.
The proposal to transform the middle school into a high school -- and disperse its students among the eight other middle schools in the city -- created an immediate stir when neighbors got wind of it last week, leading Evans to postpone making a recommendation to the Providence School Board until Monday.
The fight against the plan joins families with the means to send their children to private schools with those who see Nathan Bishop as a rare gem in the Providence public school system.
While Nathan Bishop parents talked about the warm and supportive environment created by faculty members and staff, many neighbors of the school on Sessions Street worried that the influx of urban teenagers would usher in a fresh wave of vandalism, noise and minor crime.
"The proposal to move children from a troubled school is disastrous educational policy and even worse public policy," said Melvin Zurier, who called himself a typical East Sider. "The neglect of the East Side schools has caused the flight to private schools."
Charles Strauss, another neighbor, said the School Department's proposal to "plunk down 500 tough kids" in the Elmgrove Avenue area is "malpractice against the community."
Speaking to the Providence School Board, Strauss said, "I will hold each and every one of you responsible for any purse-snatching, bullying of young children or acts of vandalism" that occur as a result of bringing older students into the area.
But Clifford Monteiro, president of the NAACP, urged the crowd to keep the debate from disintegrating into an attack against poor families and minorities.
"Violence can be more than one's actions, it can be one's words," he said. "I've heard some comments here tonight that would divide us by skin color. Folks, we're all in this boat together. Let's save all of our children and all of our schools."
Enthusiastic applause greeted his remarks, but the audience also applauded when neighbors spoke of the misbehavior of Nathan Bishop students. Miriam Ross lives a block away from Nathan Bishop and said that she wouldn't allow her children to attend the school.
"My neighbors have seen knives in their front yards and vandalism," she said. "I had a rock thrown through my front door window at 10 a.m. We have to make sure that our children are safe."
But Jennifer Wood, who said she was speaking privately, not as the state Department of Education's chief of staff, made an impassioned plea to preserve the middle school because of the rich relationships it afforded her daughter, now a college graduate.
"My daughter chose to go to Nathan Bishop because she wanted a school with a diverse population," she said. "Those relationships endure today. To simply move students around from one place to another is not a solution."
"I live around the corner," said another Nathan Bishop parent, Robert Lee, "and my yard was invaded recently by someone who left a racist screed."
Lee asked school officials to turn Nathan Bishop into a model middle school, one that East Siders would be proud to call their own. Several parents urged the School Department to start a program for gifted-and-talented children at Nathan Bishop that would draw affluent parents back to the Providence schools.
Nut no one made a more eloquent plea for keeping Nathan Bishop the way it is than 12-year-old Michael Boas, a seventh-grader at the middle school.
"I thought the school would be overwhelming," he said, "but it isn't as bad as people think. Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream. Nathan Bishop has one, too."
Proposal to close Nathan Bishop no easy decision, Evans says
Posted Wednesday, March 22, 2006
School Supt. Donnie Evans plans meetings with parents and neighbors beginning tonight.
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Schools Supt. Donnie Evans said he looked at every possible option before proposing to close Nathan Biship Middle School and reopen it as a high school for ninth and tenth graders.
The decision took everyone -- teachers, students and parents -- by surprise, and it has roiled the Elmgrove Avenue neighborhood on the East Side. At last week's Providence School Board meeting, more than 40 neighbors turned out to protest the opening of a high school in their midst, worrying that older students would usher in more noise, vandalism and crime.
In response, Evans postponed asking the School Board to vote on his proposal, and he has scheduled a series of meetings to solicit feedback from the community.
The first meeting, for Bishop parents only, will be held tonight from 6 to 8 at the School Department office. The next, which is open to neighbors, will be held tomorrow night from 6 to 8 at Hope High School, and the third will be held at the Harrison Street High School, for Harrison Street parents, at the same time on Thursday.
During an interview on Friday, Evans explained what led to his decision. The Adelaide Avenue high school was supposed to open last fall, but continued neighborhood opposition over contamination of the land has repeatedly delayed the start of construction.
In late fall, Evans said, it became apparent that construction would not begin in time for a fall opening, and his office began looking at other alternatives for the future Adelaide Avenue students.
At least two other factors contributed to the need to find space for 550 high school students next fall: the situation at the Harrison Street school and the renovation of Central High School.
Harrison Street opened two years ago to accommodate students who had signed up to attend Adelaide Avenue once it was built. Evans said that it was never designed to accommodate high school students on a permanent basis. The school, he said, is not only woefully inadequate academically, it poses a number of safety issues.
Evans said he could not in good conscience keep students or teachers at Harrison Street any longer. If his plan is approved, the 390 students at Harrison Street would go to Bishop next fall.
Second, Central High School is in the midst of a renovation and Evans said that the department needs to move at least 125 students to another school.
Once the district realized the need for additional high school space, it asked the city for help. According to Evans, the city's Planning Department scoured Providence for sites that could be used as a temporary high school, to no avail.
Evans said the department also looked at three other options:
Portable classrooms to accommodate this many students, the district needed a lot of space, which is in short supply around the existing high schools. Moreover, portable classrooms must meet the same fire and safety codes as regular buildings, which presented a significant challenge.
Double sessions. Evans said this is a last-ditch solution because the school day, which has long been a sore point in Providence, would be shortened to accommodate two shifts.
The School Department offices. The district was willing to move out of its space on Westminister Street to make room for high school students but Evans said the renovation costs would have been prohibitive.
That left the department with only one option: turning a middle school into a temporary high school. Again, Evans said the district took a number of issues into account: the size of the student population at each of the city's eight middle schools, the impact on students and staff and the effect on the neighborhood school concept.
Bishop, with fewer than 300 students, was by far the smallest of the middle schools and therefore its closing would have the least effect on students and teachers.
Bishop also draws the fewest students (about 60) from the immediate neighborhood; the rest are bused to the school from around the city. Because Evans is committed to creating K-8 neighborhood schools, which he will pilot next fall, closing Bishop would create the least disruption.
The Bishop students would be placed in their neighborhood middle schools.
"By the process of elimination, Bishop surfaced as the best of the alternatives" Evans said, "none of which are very good."
The timing of the Bishop closing is unfortunate. If the School Board approves it, the change will take place before the city completes its in-depth analysis of the city's school buildings. Mayor David N. Cicilline recently announced that the city has hired a consulting group, DeJong Educational Planning, to develop a master plan for all school buildings that would look at the condition of buildings along with population shifts. The $450,000 report should be finished by June 30, including specific recommendations for new schools.
Evans concedes that the decision to reconfigure Bishop is putting "the cart before the horse," but said he had no other choice.
He did promise, however, that ninth and tenth graders would be located at Bishop for only one year, until Adelaide is built or a new building is found.
Evans promised to minimize any negative impact on the surrounding neighborhood, adding his office will work closely with RIPTA to make sure that Bishop students are transported safely to and from the school.
Del Sesto High students win return of their 'Mr. Craig'
Posted Friday, March 17, 2006
The popular principal is reinstated, though with a lesser title and lower pay, after students at the new school turn out en masse to plead for his return.
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- John Craig returned to Del Sesto High School yesterday morning to the hugs, cheers and high-fives of his students, whose '60s-style sit-in persuaded the superintendent to reinstate the principal yesterday.
"I'm back," Craig said. "I'm not going to leave you kids."
A barrel-chested man with short graying hair, Craig was surrounded with students as soon as he hit the hallway. A teacher handed him a zeppole -- a cream-filled Italian pastry, traditionally eaten on St. Joseph's Day -- and clapped his back.
Another faculty member yelled, "Are you going to Hollywood?" -- a reference to Craig's so-called 15 minutes of fame.
Alexis Watkins, one of the student-organizers of Wednesday's protest, stuck close to Craig's side as he greeted students, all of them ninth graders in this brand new high school in the city's North End. At one point, Watkins shushed another student who was swearing, telling him that wasn't how Del Sesto students behaved.
As Craig ushered the celebratory crowd toward their homerooms, he greeted individual students by name.
"Hey, Sherleen, you never said goodby," he teased one young woman.
"I couldn't leave you, Gloria," he told another. "I put in a transfer for you, too."
Wednesday morning, Del Sesto High School had been a very different place.
Students, some of them near tears, had jammed into the cafeteria to tell School Supt. Donnie Evans why Craig meant so much to them.
Speaking with eloquence and passion, one student after another had described how Craig had touched their lives. One young man said Craig was the only adult who had cared enough to attend one of his football games -- a championship playoff in Connecticut. Later, Evans said it was the power of their words that moved him to change his mind.
It was Craig who originally asked for the transfer, because he was absorbed with helping his younger sister to battle cancer. A few weeks ago, he changed his mind -- but by then, Evans had already put several transfers into play.
After watching the Del Sesto students handle themselves with such dignity and poise, however, Evans knew he couldn't say no.
Yesterday morning, Craig decided to hold an impromptu meeting with students and staff, to get the school back on track. He began by thanking everyone for their support and telling the students it was time to get down to business.
Then, he got personal:
"I wouldn't be here today without you guys. You give me the inspiration to get through each day. People have said a lot of things about me. But the proof is right here -- every day we get better. Now give yourself a hand."
The students applauded warmly.
Craig talked about holding a spirit week, a spring dance, maybe publishing a yearbook -- all the things that make a high school more than just its bricks and motar.
Finally, a teacher led the students in a cheer.
"Give me a D!" she said.
"D!"
"Give me an E!"
"E!"
. . .
"What do you have?"
"Del Sesto!"
"I can't hear you?"
"DEL SESTO!"
An impromptu chant began as the students emptied out of the cafeteria: "Mr. Craig, Mr. Craig, Mr. Craig . . ."
Craig was appointed to Del Sesto last fall with a specific mission -- to turn around a floundering school.
He came in and restored discipline, organized a student government, and began holding special events to recognize honor-roll students.
"I'm not afraid to get dirty with these kids and they know that," he said yesterday. "I do what I have to do. If they need to eat, I buy them lunch."
After he attended a student football game, the young man who spoke at Wednesday's protest told him: "Mr. Craig, you're like a father to me. No one's ever done this before."
Craig said he understands these students because he grew up in Hartford -- a big city like Providence. Before coming to Del Sesto, he was an assistant principal for four years at Mount Pleasant High Schoolalso in Providence, and before that, he taught in Johnston and Chariho public schools.
"After I left Mount Pleasant, I cried for three days," he recalled. "My heart is still there. This year's seniors dedicated their yearbook to me."
There is a downside to Craig's joyful return to Del Sesto. He will resume his former title, assistant principal, but with a pay cut of almost $10,000.
When Craig was assigned to Del Sesto, he was named acting director of the entire complex, which includes a middle school. On Tuesday, he was told that another longtime Del Sesto administrator, Albert Paranzino, would be the new director.
"It wasn't punitive," Deputy Supt. Frances Gallo said yesterday. "Albert [Paranzino] has a lot of experience. We felt it was wiser to go this route."
Craig said he doesn't care about the money.
"I did the right thing," he said about coming back. "It isn't about me. It's about the kids."
For months, Craig has watched Del Sesto struggle to become a real school. On Wednesday, it did.
Board delays decision on closing school
Posted Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Parents, teachers, neighbors protest the plan to close the Nathan Bishop Middle School, and officials decide to hold a public forum on the issue on March 22.
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Facing mounting opposition from East Side neighbors, Supt. Donnie Evans announced last night that he has postponed a decision about whether to close the Nathan Bishop Middle School.
A standing-room-only crowd of more than 50 neighbors, parents and teachers turned out at last night's Providence School Board meeting to protest the closing of the 430-student school.
Evans had planned to ask the School Board to vote on his proposal but he decided to delay the request until after a public forum on March 22.
Evans said he wants to move approximately 550 ninth and tenth graders into Nathan Bishop this fall as a stop-gap measure to ease crowding at the high schools.
The district was supposed to open a new high school on Adelaide Avenue a year ago, but opposition from neighbors over environmental hazards has postponed the groundbreaking indefinitely.
Meanwhile, Evans said that the Harrison Avenue building, which opened two years ago as at temporary high school, is completely unsuitable for educating students. That facility was supposed to be a temporary solution until Adelaide Avenue was built, but it has continued to operate, despite the fact that it violates safety codes and lacks such necessities as science labs.
Finally, with Central High School in the midst of a major renovation, the district needs to find room for at least 100 freshmen next fall.
Evans said that closing Nathan Bishop made the most sense because it is the smallest of the district's eight middle schools and only 60 students come from the neighborhood.
The district, he said, looked at a number of options, from renting portable classrooms to holding morning and afternoon sessions, but none of them seemed feasible.
Meanwhile, the proposal to close the middle school took everyone by surprise. Faculty and staff were notified of the decision on Friday afternoon, during an emergency meeting with Evans. Nathan Bishop Principal Ernest Cox said that faculty and staff were distraught, adding that he has no idea what would happen to him or his staff.
"When I give of myself, I give my heart and soul," Cox said. "I'm worried about where you are going to put my children."
"I felt betrayed," said Todd Creel, a Nathan Bishop teacher. "I thought they wanted us to be a better institution. This tore the rug out from under us."
Janet Cunha, a special education teacher, shared his feelings:
"The students are very distraught," she said. "We've built a lot of relationships here. Our needs were not taken into consideration."
Providence Teachers Union President Steve Smith told the school board that he was "extremely distressed" when Evans called him on Thursday afternoon.
"I asked that it be pulled from the agenda until parents and faculty could be informed and treated with the respect and dignity they deserve," Smith said. "I was told it couldn't happen. This is not the way you do business. It is unacceptable and it cannot and should not happen again."
Jacqueline Carboaro, a single mother of three, said her son has excelled at Nathan Bishop. His grades have improved, his attendance record is perfect and his attitude is much more positive.
"How can you close this school?" she said. "No other school can meet my son's needs."
But neighbors were more concerned about the impact that teenagers might have on their community. They worried about that noise, vandalism and violent crime would increase once Nathan Bishop became a high school. Gil Martin, a local Realtor, said that property values would tumble, adding that East Siders contribute a third of the city's residential tax revenues.
"I don't know if you're ever going to do anything for the white middle class taxpayer," said Jim McAlleer, a lawyer and longtime neighbor of Nathan Bishop.
Councilor Rita Williams said her constituents pay the highest taxes and yet "they must send their children to private schools."
"We have enough problems controlling the middle school students," she said. "This is a big mistake. Don't let expediency ruin this wonderful neighborhood."
"We all moved here to get a quiet life," said Charles Strauss. "It's one more annoyance."
Another neighbor, who wouldn't reveal her name, called the proposed high school "the beginning of the end."
Evans told the crowd that no decision will be made until the public has an opportunity to speak at the public meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. on March 22 at the Nathan Bishop Middle School. He also promised that moving high school students to Nathan Bishop would be a temporary solution until a more suitable facility is found.
Evans said he will make his final recommendation to the school board on March 27.
Providence parents get tips for school success
Posted Saturday, March 11, 2006
From preschool programs to demystifying gangs, the Parent Conference aims to connect parents with an array of resources to help their children succeed.
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- We must all imagine the greatness of every child.
With those words, Elizabeth Burke Bryant, the executive director of Rhode Island Kids Count, kicked off the Providence schools' first Parent Conference, a two-day eventthat administrators plan to hold annually.
Providence Schools Supt. Donnie Evans has made parent involvement one of his priorities and Tomas Ramirez, the assistant superintendent of public engagement, said the conference was prompted in part by Evans' commitment to this issue.
Bryant, the keynote speaker, urged parents to be active players in their children's education and to demand more from their schools and their elected officials.
"It will take a movement like the civil-rights movement to arrive at a day when every child has access to excellence in public education," she told more than 100 parents. "You are the foot soldiers in that movement and your passion will make it happen."
Bryant, whose organization gathers data on child welfare in Rhode Island, did not soft-pedal the statistics. At 66 percent, the graduation rate in Providence is not acceptable, nor is the state rate of 81 percent. Far too many schools in Providence -- 29 -- are listed as needing improvement.
As Providence's ethnic makeup changes, so does the state's. One out of four children in Rhode Island are minorities; in Providence alone, Latino children comprise 44 percent of the total school-age population.
Bryant said these demographic changes are a cause for celebration because these groups enrich our culture. But the changing face of Rhode Island also presents challenges. In Providence, parents move frequently as rents continue to rise and older buildings are converted into high-end condominiums. The more children move, the more likely they are to repeat a grade, Bryant said.
She also spoke of the need for more quality after-school programs, saying that children who have a caring relationship with at least one adult have a much better chance of staying in school and staying out of trouble.
The School Department's goals are threefold: to bring parents into the public education fold, to give them strategies to help their children improve academically and to put parents in touch with a variety of community services.
More than 60 organizations, from Big Sisters of Rhode Island to the Rhode Island Children's Crusade, offered parents information about childcare, health care, preschool and after-school programs.
The workshops covered topics near to a parent's heart, from helping children prepare for college to the state's new high school graduation requirements. There were also classes on bullying and gang violence, reporting child abuse and talking to teenagers about drugs and drinking.
In Gang Violence 101, a workshop offered by the attorney general's office, parents learned to recognize the signs of gang involvement, from tattoos to certain handshakes. They learned that gangs are not confined to the inner city and that gang leaders recruit children from affluent suburbs. And they heard that Rhode Island is doing very little to curb the problem.
In a class on bullying, parents shared their stories. One mother said that when the middle school principal didn't address the problem, she demanded that the School Department move her child to another school. Parents learned to identify some of the signs that their child is being harassed and what to do about it.
Ramirez said he was thrilled with the strong turnout yesterday, noting that more than 200 parents signed up to attend today's workshops. The conference resumes at 9 a.m. today at Community College of Rhode Island's Providence campus.
Educators get candid look at Central
Posted Thursday, March 9, 2006
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- What constitutes good teaching? How do you measure whether students are engaged? Are the lessons rigorous enough?
These are the kinds of questions that teachers and administrators think about when they take part in a learning walk, where professionals from inside and outside the school building observe a handful of classes in quick succession.
Yesterday morning, 10 educators descended on Central High School for one of these tours. Led by principal Elaine Almagno, the group, which included Deputy Supt. Frances Gallo, popped into a dozen classrooms and then gathered in the principal's office to share their impressions.
Developed by the Institute of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, learning walks offer a snapshot of the kinds of teaching taking place at any given moment. They are not meant to be an exhaustive analysis of a school's instructional style, nor are they designed to replace the important information gleaned through testing.
Rather, the walks are a way for outsiders, especially people from central administration, to see what's happening at individual schools.
The notion of what makes a good teacher has changed dramatically since today's parents were students. The classic lecture format is no longer considered the ideal model. If anything, the pendulum has shifted away from the so-called talk-and-chalk approach, according to Bianca Gray, Central's redesign coach.
In Christine Fisher's English class, students are working in small groups, depending on their ability. In the main classroom, a half-dozen special-needs students are working on their obituaries with teacher Brenda Breault. In a smaller room, a handful of students are doing independent reading. Each student is working with a different novel, depending on their reading ability.
With this program, called Read 180, students move from one activity to another. While one group of students works on basic reading skills on the computer, another works with the teacher while a third reads on its own. The off-the-shelf-program is aimed at helping students who are performing below grade level catch up to their peers.
Jump to the Hanley Career & Technical Center, next to Central High School. In a cosmetology class whose equipment is ripped from the 1960s, two dozen students are having an animated discussion about cold waves and how acid and alkaline chemicals affect hair.
The entire class cracks up when Michael Lauro, the district's new math coordinator, asks, "What can you do for me?" Lauro is balding.
Back in Central, the visiting team stops by Michael Malardo's English class, where half of the students are working on rough drafts of essays while the rest polish their work on laptops.
One young woman has created a political satire that spoofs President Bush and the war in Iraq. The essay, 11 pages long, is peppered with humorous dialogue involving Uncle Bush and his many malapropisms.
"One of our strengths at Central, in spite of its size, is that you have a variety of instructional approaches to make sure students don't fall through the cracks," Gray said.
Almagno explained that the staff changed the Read 180 program after looking at the first semester's results. The school now offers double periods of English one day and double periods of Read 180 the next. Those students who are reading far below grade level get even more reading instruction than that.
After visiting a dozen classes at Hanley and Central, the team gets together to share its observations.
"I certainly think that teachers had the attention of their students," Lauro said, "that the classes were focused and the teachers' expectations were clear."
But what about rigor? Is the work challenging enough? Are teachers demanding enough of their students?
Gray said that it's difficult to measure rigor when the observer catches only a glimpse of the lesson.
"One of the limitations of this review is the time element," she said. "We didn't take the time to see a teacher develop a lesson or display students' work. That's where the substance of great teaching lies."
In a later interview, Claire Pollard, a math resource teacher, said that she "didn't hear enough kids' voices. If you knew we were coming, couldn't you stop and get the kids engaged in a conversation?"
Pollard also said that she would like to see students challenged more in Algebra I and geometry: "Kids are doing the work that is assigned, but it's not at the level we'd like it to be."
Gray, however, said that she saw teachers who were tweaking their instruction to accommodate students of different abilities. She applauded teachers for humanizing a packaged program such as Read 180 by making sure that each student is challenged.
"Sometimes," she said, "the small victories are important. With such a diverse, complicated and needy population, it's great to see kids working and wanting to do well."
With 1,600 students in an aging building, Central tries to make learning less anonymous. Ninth-graders are broken into teams, in which groups of students share the same teachers.
But Gray thinks that it's impossible to truly create personal learning environments in a school this size.
"If you are talking about real engagement where a teacher knows every kid and his learning style, you have to think smaller schools," she said. "I don't think schools like ourselves can have a learning community because it's simply too big. I can walk the hallways and after four years, I still don't know all of the kids."
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