Parents and teachers passionately and sometimes emotionally confronted officials recently about changes at the East Aurora School District 131 magnet school.
Dozens gathered outside before a Tuesday night school board meeting for what turned into a conversation with former interim superintendent Marion Hoyda and some school board members about the changes at the Fred Rodgers Magnet Academy.
They then packed the meeting, some telling administrators and board members the changes were unfair to teachers and parents, effectively took away the classes that had made the magnet school unique and revealed communication problems at the highly-touted school.
Interim Superintendent Mark McDonald apologized to magnet academy staff, students and new principal David Ballard, who was moved to Fred Rodgers in August from an elementary school after the former magnet principal resigned.
“What happened to them was unfair,” he said.
The concerns center around changes to the schedule at the third- through eighth-grade magnet school. As a result, the number of a type of elective courses students could take each day — which have included courses such as robotics and horticulture — went from five down to one or two this year, McDonald said.
Less than a week before teachers were scheduled to report to school and 11 days before the start of classes for students, Ballard learned there were problems with the school’s master schedule, McDonald said in a presentation. Ballard and other administrators worked for several days on the schedule, and eventually determined it “could not be salvaged.” Ballard set out to rebuild it, McDonald said.
Every student at the magnet school also had less time for core instruction than students at other schools, McDonald said. Over time, core class minutes were traded for the elective classes, he said. Magnet school students should be able to complete honors level algebra and geometry before starting high school, and need enough math instruction time to be able to do that. They should have the same time for language arts as students across the district, McDonald said.
Questions about the schedule had been raised previously, and administrators had begun discussing the schedule with the former magnet school principal last year, McDonald said. The plan at that time was to first make adjustments to the time allotted for fifth-grade language arts.
During the gathering before the meeting, parents said the situation was “frustrating” and they were “concerned” and “upset.” They said without the special elective classes, there was no difference between the magnet school and students’ home schools. They expressed frustration with their interactions with the current principal.
They told the school board teachers were not taken into consideration when the changes were made, and some questioned what test data showed the school’s curriculum needed a change.
Some teachers told the board they had spent the summer preparing for courses only to find out days before the start of school they would be teaching something different. Several became emotional while they were speaking.
Rebecca Carver said though a teacher may be certified to teach many grade levels, they are passionate about and prepared for certain courses.
Karina Suarez-Darden, who said she has a child at the school, questioned why parents would want to enroll their children at the magnet school, which is typically farther away than a student’s home school, if it offers the same courses as any other in the district.
Melinda Adams, who said she would have taught food science and horticulture before the changes were put in place, cried as she told the board the work she did for her classes.
“To say that our (elective) minutes are not important is insulting to me as a professional,” she said.
Hoyda, who submitted her resignation last week, said during the gathering before the meeting she was not happy with the situation that has occurred.
“Clearly, we have missed the mark,” she said.
Board members asked for additional information about the changes. Member Bruce Schubert, who has a child at the magnet school, said it was the board’s responsibility to learn how the situation at the magnet school occurred and monitor the response.
“Those changes were made without consideration of our teachers, our families and our students,” he said.
Schubert called the special elective classes the school’s identity. He expressed concern about the repositioning of staff days before the start of school.
A committee of administrators, teachers and union members has been working on the schedule changes and support for teachers, McDonald said.
