Working hard for our students…

Wow – what a couple of weeks our SEAC rep, Amy McKenzie has had.  Please be sure to read her February report under “Reports”.  Further to this report, below is a copy of a letter we sent to Wayne Joudrie on behalf of our Gifted Students here in Halton.

As always, would truly appreciate your comments!  Oh, and thanks Amy – for working so hard for the kids!

 February 26, 2008 Wayne JoudrieDirector of EducationHalton District School Board 

RE:  Secondary Gifted Placement Options Letter January 2008 

On behalf of the Halton Council of the Home and School Associations, I must bring forward an issue of concern to our membership. As you know, the HDSB recently sent a document to parents of gifted grade eight students outlining the services that will be delivered by the various secondary schools. It outlines which schools will now become “designated schools” for gifted “clustering” and which schools will now become “associated” schools not offering those services.

Home and School has several strong objections to the document and the process in which both parents and students were notified of changes which directly affect their education options. 
1)    The timing of the document was poor. It went home after most parents and students had spent time making decisions on which schools their children would be attending. They participated in school tours, parent nights and investigated which courses each school offered. Many children have made decisions based on a number of factors and have invested themselves in the idea of being at a specific school. It’s scary enough to make the leap to a larger school, but to have to re-think at the last minute is not only inconvenient, but for some students a badly timed obstacle during a difficult transitional period. Gifted students can often be “inflexible” when it comes to change and we are concerned that parents have left their children registered in the home school, in order to avoid the inconvenience and challenge of going through the whole process again.If this consolidation of services continue, we hope the deadlines for the release of Secondary Gifted Placement Options will be toward the beginning of the grade eight year or end of grade seven. This will give the students time to organize their Secondary School strategies.

2)    The ‘message’ has yet to filter down to some of the schools delivering the services. In at least one case, the parent of a gifted student went to the “designated school” and was told that the student was considered “optional attendance” and would therefore not have the right to bussing. Misinformation like this will result in the parents not sending the student to the designated school. The Board’s purpose of removing gifted clusters from certain schools was to consolidate the numbers of students in the classroom. These higher numbers cannot happen if the communication between the Board, the schools, and the parents is not clear from the outset.  3)    The reasoning behind this decision may be flawed. The new designated system for Secondary Gifted Placement is based on the assumption that if the services are removed from some schools, and consolidated in others, most students will choose the clustered option which will raise the numbers in the clusters. However, it may be that the inconvenience of the move will cause many students to choose to attend their home (associated) schools. If so, the end result would be that many gifted children lose their gifted cluster, and that cluster size is not significantly increased at the designated school. We would like know what the numbers of gifted students who remain at their home schools despite the removal of services and the numbers of students who have actually moved are because of the Board’s decision. This information should be available shortly.4)    The decision favours some geographical areas over others. For example (in Oakville), removing T.A. Blakelock’s clustering means a gifted student who lives near Burloak will have to travel more than 13 km in order to receive the same services as a student whose home school is Oakville Trafalgar. In short, HDSB has removed services from the entire lower west quadrant of Oakville. This impacts a student’s ability to participate in after-school activities. In addition, it will certainly affect a parent’s decision to continue receiving Gifted Program services when they are faced with sending their child further a-field to receive the services.

5)    The lack of consultation time directly with SEAC on this issue is frustrating and defeating. Home and School has a representative sitting at the SEAC table in order that, at the very least, information is disseminated to our membership prior to major changes in the delivery of Special Education services. All SEAC reps should have been notified of the changes prior to the letter being sent out to the parents.If there is to be any trust between the members of the Board, SEAC, and the public at large, communication must be transparent and should happen before the decisions and documents are released to the public. SEAC is a Ministry-mandated organization and the Board must treat it as more than a token committee.
Home and School looks forward to your prompt response to our concerns. 

Maureen SmithersPresident, Halton Council of Home and School Associations“The Best for Each Student”