Letter to the editor: Article one sided

By Sun Advocate

Editor:
This is in response to an article by Richard Shaw titled “Parents protest change in teacher move at Castle Heights” (Sun Advocate Sept. 9, 2008).
First of all, this article seemed very one sided and seemed only to reflect the concerns and opinions of the parents of Castle Heights Elementary students. It appears that only one person was interviewed other than local radio personality Keith Mason and his wife, and that person was only concerned about the long term affect or removing his child from a teacher he’d only known for three weeks.
Keith Mason on the other hand, seemed to make it a case of Castle Heights vs. Wellington Elementary problem. He is quoted as saying, “Many feel that Castle Heights is being penalized.” He is also quoted as saying, “To ask Castle Heights kids to sacrifice when Wellington is the school with the problem seems inappropriate. Castle Height is paying the price for Wellington.”
Well, that entire quote seems inappropriate to me and does nothing to fix the problem at hand and only causes to divide the communities.
There was no interview with any of the parents or staff from Wellington Elementary or any mention of the continued overcrowding in the other grades in that school. There was no mention in the article that the first grade at Wellington lost a first grade class last year and the students were divided between the remaining two classes. There was no mention that the 4th grade classes at Wellington currently has over 30 students in each class. And, there was no mention in the article about the children that are bussed daily from Price to Wellington Elementary. The article however, did mention that a number of students attending Castle Heights Elementary are from Wellington.
Why is this issue being turned into Castle Heights vs. Wellington Elementary when it is all one school district? If anything, it should be parents vs. school district.
All parents from all schools in the district need to band together and force the school district to address the problem face on and fix it. Continuing to turn a blind eye to the ongoing problem will only make it worse. Eventually the problem will get even more out of control and affect all the schools in the area not just one or two.
Don’t make this into a school vs. school problem. That only divides us and does nothing to fix the problem.