Tuesday, September 09, 2014

How Stapleton parents were told their children's classes were changing

I am still waiting for some official with the Joplin R-8 School District to say he or she is sorry about something and that mistakes were made.

Changes were made in classes at Stapleton and Irving elementary schools, with more teachers sent to Irving, where some do not have full classrooms (and I am referring to the rooms, not the enrollment) and class sizes being increased at Stapleton.

That was not quite the message that was sent to parents by Stapleton Principal Karen Secrist. The letter that was sent to parents is included on this post.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Secrist says parents can call her with any questions or concerns, but doesn't provide her phone number anywhere on the letter. Sure, parents could look it up, but by providing it she would send the message that parents' calls really are welcome.

Anonymous said...

Randy,

This is not about this article but I wanted to tell you something that I know is happening. A student as today for a hard copy of an assignment so they could work on it and the teacher told them that they were discouraging the use of printed material. This being a day that the internet was not working in the building so they could not get any information to be able to learn. Could you do some digging? The student was also told that this was to save trees. I think it is because they are trying to save money so it can be spent in non educational spaces.

Thank You

Anonymous said...

For 9:34: Someone will want to look at their copying machine contracts/leases for the district. Sometimes, a district (or company) is allowed "x" number of copies per month and anything above that set amount makes each copy more expensive. It sucks for teachers who need to copy assignments, tests, and the occasional parent letter.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous @1:35 PM: One would hope there are special contracts for academia, so that they can make more copies at the beginning of the school year or each term. Of course, even if R-VIII has one of those, that doesn't mean you can't exceed the quota.

Anonymous said...

There's no apology to the parents or compassion for the kids because the people involved don't care what the parents think or what the kids feel. Quit kidding yourselves. Some of the kids aren't even in real rooms now. They might as well be at the high school.
Joplin has been thoroughly fleeced and will continue to be until the parents decide to quit whining and take action. Get moving or shut your pie holes.

Anonymous said...

3:19, the copy numbers don't change with the time of year. That would make sense. Lots of things that make sense don't happen in R8 land.

Anonymous said...

I'm still trying to figure out how making classes at Stapleton bigger and putting at least one class into a room that's not a full sized classroom is better.
Why not just put new teachers at Irving to relieve the class size?
Are they planning to stack a class now so they can put an aide into a classroom at Stapleton?

Anonymous said...

Teachers at the high school have no internet most of the day, but word is they get yelled at by office people if they get caught printing anything for the kids to do, and then they don't have books. That's real state of the art learning like no place else. Explains the scores and the teacher turnover. Is the district so broke it can't even afford paper for the kids? Pathetic.