To the Editor,

Tecumseh elementary school buildings are performing a juggling act!  I think it is fair to say that this school year (for some elementary students) is an absolute circus and only having one week’s notice as to where your child(ren) might be moved.  I received letters on Saturday, August 22, from our superintendent of schools, Mike McAran and Herrick Park Elementary School informing me that my kindergartner and 4th grader will be going to Herrick Park.  It makes no sense to me if there are transportation (with budgeting) issues to run three buses through my subdivision.  Yes, that’s correct.  One bus for Sutton, one for Tecumseh Acres and one for Herrick Park.  These are the questions I have... 1) Why would School of Choice kids from Adrian get their requests fulfilled first?
2) Why would Building of Choice kids get their requests fulfilled?  
3) Why are a subdivision of kids going into three different directions?  
4) What was the basis of the decision?
I don’t have any questions about the quality of teachers at Herrick Park.  But why pull a child who has been at a school for the past four years and ship her to a different one? And, why wait until a week before school starts?  We weren’t even given the option of filling out paperwork for Building of Choice.  Why would we?  We presumed we would be staying at our school.  It wasn’t necessary to fill out the request.

After visiting principals, the superintendent and attending the school board meeting, I still have no answers as to why any particular child was chosen to be moved.  According to Mr. McAran and the board, not all School of Choice kids were granted their request.  They also said that not all Building of Choice kids requests were granted but some were due to certain circumstances which cannot be provided due to privacy, etc.  The only answer about the three different buses is that they are accommodating the necessary move of the children.  According to the board president, they could not give specific criteria as to how the decisions were made to individual parents to remove and place children from one building to another.  Apparently there are reasons behind the decision but they are not willing to state exactly what they were per individual family.  

In the end, I’m truly disappointed in lack of communication with the parents about major changes with the schools that directly affect our children.

Julie Rowe
Past PTO Treasurer