BSVDWatch.org

Our own Louise Benson has a guest opinion in Tuesday's Daily Camera about how the trend towards school consolidation has backfired from its original theory of saving money and creating a better education for our kids. We know this is a trend BVSD subscribes to, however BVSDWatch agrees with Louise that small is better (plenty of stats to support that idea too).

Click here to read the full article.

Article intro: 

"When small Boulder schools closed in 2003, many in Broomfield approved, thinking, "Finally some east-west equity," and some of the savings would come our way. Others here yawned, thinking, "That's not us." Our schools had been bursting at the seams for years, and had older textbooks. Our son's elementary school had 700 children, and his fifth-grade class had 33 kids with a beleaguered teacher who gave little homework.

Our aging subdivision had district-owned land for an elementary school that never got built; we got a K-8 after Broomfield threatened to form its own district with the new city and county. This K-8 school was five miles away by bus. So for middle school, we open-enrolled in a charter school promising small classes and rigorous academics, and some neighborhood kids enrolled to the existing middle school and rode their bikes.

Alas, our charter school adventure turned out poorly, and along the way I became a school activist and learned a tremendous amount about educational ills and reform, both locally and nationally. I began to see that small neighborhood schools with small classes, adequate resources and good teachers were the real answer to achievement and safety."

Click here to read the complete article.