Reply to APS cancels Summer school for many previously qualified students due to lack of staffing

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Listen, I’ll help you understand. Bridgets letter started with this:

“Even though we provided financial incentive, teachers were not willing to teach summer school.”

This is blame shifting. Translation:  “We tried!! Teachers just won’t do it!’ Be mad at them some more!”

A real leader would have said something like this;

Dear APS Parents and Staff,

As we approach the end of a long and difficult school year, we appreciate the effort everyone in the community has expended to ensure children had as successful a year as possible. Teachers and families have worked together tirelessly this year and we are immensely grateful for all you have done. APS endeavored to create a summer program for students needing additional academic support; however, as previously indicated, [b]the resources available to us were not sufficient to operate a program that could adequately serve the needs of the community[/b]. We regret to tell you that APS is unable to provide in person schooling this summer.”

Had she done that, the information would have been conveyed much more professionally and in a way that put the onus on APS and NOT on already drained teachers who are not obligated to teach summers for pennies. [/quote]

Then parents would have been asking why there weren't sufficient resources, or what resources, and APS would have to say "teachers.  We didn't have enough teachers apply.  We don't have enough teachers interested in teaching this summer."  And we're back to the "teacher blaming."  [/quote]

I think the real problem is that APS invited 62% more elementary students than they could accommodate for summer school. APS should have been able to better predict their staffing for the summer - reversing SS offering for 3300 students is a lot. This is not teachers fault in any way. The administration failed to properly plan AND properly communicate. Many of the communiques since SS was announced in late March did NOT include a caveat on staffing. And when they did it was “some students may need to be waitlisted”. The caveats APS listed were not on par with not being being able to serve 62% of eligible students. That would have said MOST students won’t have a seat.

APS leadership heralded their robust summer school program as the first step towards recovering from the pandemic year AND as the reason they didn’t go four days - bc the kids that need it will be in summer school. It’s an egregious failure. [/quote]
I disagree that it wasn’t made clear that availability was based on ability to staff the program. [/quote]

Because they made the mistake of assuming that parents would have common sense and that they didn’t need to state the damn obvious.[/quote]

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