The Price of Cuts and Not Enough Teachers

Next week, North Penn finds out how well the cuts that have been made and how the losses in staff the district has taken, will affect the students. I would like to tell you about two of the students and their mother and the immense impact this is having, and is going to have.

The mother, a recent widow, whose children still grieve the loss of their father, have been forced from the elementary school they've attended from the beginning to attend another school in the district.. The reasons? Class size. No one will argue, class sizes in North Penn are tight everywhere. Please understand, this is not about class size, or even redistricting.

The mother applied for the students to attend their elementary school back in March. The school district notified her last week that they were going to be moving her children. As if this weren't bad enough for her children to endure, because of their age, she must find "before" and "after" school care. Less than two weeks before school starts, she must find this care. The school that her children are being sent to, has this care, but it is booked full and has a waiting list. And transportation does not pick up from the affordable daycare she currently has.

This family has had enough to go through. The children have finally started to come to terms with the loss of their father. This is not about "making new friends". This is about taking consistency and security from two children who lost it all. This is all because the school board has not planned well at all for the school district population. Their solution is to regulary just shift children around.

To the members of the school board, and Dr. Dietrich, if you were aware that this possibility existed, as I believe you did, you owed this family more notification than less than two weeks to prepare. You knew of this possibility back in May. She applied for the transfer in March. And how are you helping this family deal with this last minute notification? You aren't. Is this what our families have to look forward to when you start plans to redistrict in 2012?