Open letter to Richard Scherza, superintendent of schools

From the Cranston Herald Letters to the Editor...

I read with dismay some of the comments in the Cranston Herald article about the State of the Schools address that you delivered last week.

First of all, as a concerned and involved parent, I surely would have attended such an important event had I known about it. I am sure that the "scant audience" that evening was due to scant publicity about it. Perhaps notices should be sent to the schools prior to these meetings. I am a member of the Woodridge Elementary School PTO Board, and I send out frequent e-mails to approximately 80 percent of our parents. I would gladly send such information if it were provided to me. I'm sure that would help to increase attendance at these meetings.

Had I been at the meeting, I would have disputed your comments about the class sizes. The article stated, "Although there were 2,020 kindergarten students in 2006 – a significant jump from 2005 numbers – Scherza dismissed it as an “anomaly” tied to changes in minimum age requirements. This year, he pointed out, only 1,681 kindergarteners enrolled – a figure that reflects the overall downward trend."

I respectfully beg to differ. My daughter is currently enrolled in the morning kindergarten class at Woodridge – along with 25 other students. The afternoon class has 25 students. Let's face it, these classes are simply too large for kindergarten, especially.

Kindergarten students come to public school from all sorts of backgrounds – some have had a number of years of pre-school, others have had none. How is it possible for a teacher to challenge those students who are already reading and to meet the needs of those who still need help identifying their letters? It is impossible without leaving some of your students bored and disengaged.

And as large as those numbers are, they don't even tell the whole picture. In fact, I'm told that there are FIVE additional kindergarten students who have been clustered to other schools. And that's kindergarten! What's to happen next year, when those families who send their children to private school so that they can have a full-day kindergarten program (something which is long overdue in the public school sector) want to send their children to their local elementary school?

I'll tell you what will happen, as we know of at least one family in this situation. They will be shut out. They will be offered the option of having their child clustered to another school. And if that child happens to have a sibling already at Woodridge, the parents will be faced with a decision – to have their children at two different schools or to permit out their older child, who has friends and a comfort level at his home school. Not a decision I would want to make. Quite frankly, not a decision that any parent should have to make.

And the situation is no better in some of the other grades in our school. For instance, my son is in a third grade class with 27 students. And, I believe there are 27 in the other third grade class, with an additional eight students being clustered out. Again, way too many. I'm fortunate – thankful, in fact – that he is very involved in the EPIC program. Otherwise, I fear he may not be challenged enough.

I do know why this problem is so acute. It was the wrongful closing of Horton. I was at a number of the School Committee meetings prior to the "decision" to close Horton. And quite frankly, I supported it. But that was based on erroneous information that was given to us. We were led to believe that the classroom numbers would not be so outrageous (promised, in fact, that a third classroom would open in the third grade if the class size exceeded 25 – this obviously never panned out) and that Woodridge's future was in jeopardy if Horton remained open.

At this point, I am becoming very disenchanted with the school system in Cranston. I would appreciate a response.

Thank you.



Amy Blustein

Cranston