Sample Letter 2
信件樣本
Here is a sample letter, written by Shuang Wen parent Ceci Scott. Please use it as a source of accurate facts and inspiration as you write your own letters to the DOE, Chancellor Klein and all our political leaders on the call/write list. Personal letters are more effective. Thanks for your help.
Dear
I write to express my confusion and concern regarding the recently announced plans to accommodate the growth of the Girls Preparatory Charter School (“Girls Prep”) at the expense of several successful public schools. We have been informed that the Department of Education (“DOE”) has three alternative plans for finding space for the expanding Girls Prep, all of which would require the use of space that is currently being used by public school children. I am a parent of two children at P.S. 184M Shuang Wen School (“Shuang Wen”), one of the affected public schools. I can speak knowledgeably about Shuang Wen only, but know that these arguments apply to all the affected schools.
DOE’s Calculation Of “Available” Space at Shuang Wen Is Erroneous
Shuang Wen cannot be part of the solution to the Girls Prep space problem. First of all, the DOE’s determination that Shuang Wen has 17 under-utilized rooms (and therefore a total capacity of 907 students) has been shown to be erroneous. Indeed, two DOE employees, Debra Kurshan and Daniella Phillips both admitted verbally to one of our parents that the number 17 is incorrect and should be adjusted to nine, and that the 907 number should also be adjusted. As of this writing, however, neither Kurshan nor Phillips have taken formal action to correct the mistake, despite repeated requests of Shuang Wen parents.
DOE Has Not Considered Shuang Wen’s Needs And Projected Future Growth in Composing This Space-sharing Plan
In addition, had the DOE followed the consultation procedure Ms. Kurshan described, it would have learned that the nine “under-utilized” rooms are entirely necessary to the DOE’s own ongoing plans for Shuang Wen. Some history is necessary to understand why this is so. Shuang Wen is an academically successful Pre-K to Eighth Grade public school that is dedicated to fostering fluency and literacy in English and Mandarin Chinese through its unique after-school immersion program. Despite having a mostly immigrant student body that is more than 70% Title I, the school has been repeatedly recognized by the DOE for its success, has consistently ranked within the top ten schools in the city based on student standardized-test scores. Moreover, in 2008, the United States Department of Education named Shuang Wen a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. Shuang Wen is one of five New York City public schools – and 320 schools nationwide – to receive this distinction, which is given to schools that demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement. Schools that receive this award are expected to serve as models for other schools throughout the nation.
This very expectation prompted the DOE, in 2006, to provide Shuang Wen with the former P.S. 137 building, in exchange for Shuang Wen’s promise to expand its program to serve a greater number of children in District One. Shuang Wen has demonstrated its unwavering commitment to fulfill this DOE mandate. In the three years since it moved into the new building, Shuang Wen has grown by 50% from a student body of 454 in 2006 to the current 644 enrolled students. It will continue to grow and provide a stellar education to an increasing student body as long as its space can accommodate such growth. But the DOE’s current plan to move students from another program into the building will make such growth impossible. Already there are concerns about the 2010-2011 school year when a new Fourth Grade section will have to open to accommodate all the current Third Graders and a new First Grade section will be needed to take all the current Kindergartners.
The nine rooms in the Shuang Wen building that the DOE calls “under-utilized” are in fact used every day for academic intervention, ESL (for the large proportion of Shuang Wen students who are not fluent in English), and other purposes. Those uses will have to be displaced as the Shuang Wen student body grows to full capacity as was mandated by the DOE in 2006. If another school were to occupy any of those rooms, Shuang Wen would be forced to turn other rooms into classrooms for its growing student body. Specifically, Shuang Wen would be forced to dismantle its science lab and dance studio (both of which were developed with DOE money when Shuang Wen added a middle school in 2004), a computer-assisted language lab, a music room, and an art room. The latter three rooms were made possible by the hard work of Shuang Wen parents. All five are used daily by Shuang Wen students.
Dismantling Science And Arts Facilities Will Weaken Shuang Wen’s Educational Program And Discourage Parent Involvement
The DOE’s proposed sharing plan to accommodate Girls Prep not only threatens to limit Shuang Wen’s growth, but also to diminish the fine education the school provides and seriously weaken one of the most fundamental supports to its success. As noted above, the school’s science lab, art room, music room, dance studio and computer-assisted language lab would all have to be dismantled in order to permit another school to move into the facility. Of those resources, the art room, music room and language lab were obtained, directly or indirectly, through the hard work of dedicated parent volunteers. As one of those volunteers, I know very well the enormous amount of effort and sacrifice that go into such fund-raising. If the fruits of all that work and commitment are to be so easily lost in this city, then the city cannot expect to see such parent engagement — one of the strongest supports of a successful school system — in the future. Parent involvement in the city’s schools should be cultivated, to ensure that it remains a bulwark of New York public education. The current plan, if implemented, will squelch parent involvement, not only as to Shuang Wen but as to all of the public schools that would have to dismantle existing resources under the DOE’s plans for Girls Prep.
Our Nation’s Educational Needs Require That Schools Like Shuang Wen Be Permitted To Thrive
Finally, dismantling fundamental features of any school’s arts, foreign language or science programs diminishes the education provided by that school. In recent years, we have heard from educators, business leaders and leaders of government and non-profit sectors about the importance of science and art in an effective, empowering education. Time Magazine published an article in 2006 (see How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century by Claudia Wallis, http://www.time/magazine/article/0,9171,1568480,00.html) that summarized this thinking and concluded that U.S. primary and secondary education is woefully deficient in the sciences, arts, and foreign language acquisition, and leaves our children unprepared for the global marketplace. This under-preparation is in disturbing contrast to the high levels of preparation children in other countries are getting in precisely these areas. Kenneth Robinson, a prominent educator in the United Kingdom, has spoken eloquently about the dire need for arts education to ensure that the next generation can apply creativity to solve the problems it will confront. Watch his speech at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
In light of this burgeoning wisdom, it is astonishing that our world-class city would consider weakening arts, science and language programs in at least two public schools that are giving them serious attention. Dismantling the facilities that support scientific and creative innovation as well as the ability to communicate with other cultures would do just that. New York City must not go down in history as having compromised these important initiatives. Rather, I hope it can be remembered for developing programs similar to those at Shuang Wen for all of its schoolchildren.