STATEMENT OF NO CONFIDENCE
In the Avon Public Schools Superintendent & Chair of Avon's Board of Education:
We, the undersigned, lack confidence in the leadership of our public schools as a result of:
- The Administration’s decision to eliminate all Social Workers from our public schools;
- Avon High School has dropped in state and national rankings below that of the other Farmington Valley high schools during their tenure. Our high school has fallen from 4th in the state to 22nd in the most recent rankings.
We find that the leadership that has led to these unfortunate developments is not in the best interests of our public school children and the community as a whole because:
- The community was not given an opportunity to provide input during the decision-making that led to the elimination of all school social workers;
- We have not received a full, transparent explanation for their decision to compromise the mental health support services resulting from the elimination of the social workers;
- The decision to eliminate the social workers does not reflect long recognized best practices that address how to support the mental well-being of our students and community and we are opposed to the untested experimentation with the mental well-being of our public student children caused by the absence of social workers;
- All other school districts in the Farmington Valley and similar socio-economic districts follow best practices and will continue to have social workers working in their schools. For decades, Avon Public Schools have had social workers;
- The opinions of professional mental health providers who were opposed to the decision to eliminate social workers were ignored by the Administration;
- Ridding the district of social workers is inconsistent with the State’s Sandy Hook Advisory Commission's recommendations regarding the need for social workers;
- The drop in the prestige of the high school diminishes our town and schools’ stature and negatively impacts our property values.
Updates
July 31, 2015
I have been hearing from so many of you who are just as heartbroken as I am about losing our social workers. Behind the scenes I am gathering documentation to present at the next board meeting because our children deserve better than this silence.
July 31, 2015
Seeing the momentum behind this petition reminds me just how many people in this town truly care about the future of our students. It is clear that we are tired of being kept in the dark while our schools suffer. This level of support proves that our community expects better for our children.
Reached 100 supporters
July 31, 2015
56 Comments
As an Avon taxpayer with MSW degree (though not working in the field) I believe our school board's actions to be unsound, harmful, and financially wasteful. The board has not come forth with any plausible rationale for this move, and should account to students, parents, and taxpayers for this retrograde decision.
The social workers were an amazing part of the Avon schools. My youngest will be a Junior at AHS and he does not use services anymore. I was so fortunate to have the support system and feel badly for the families in town who will not have the superior school system we were able to experience.
As an alumnus of Avon High, it is sad and disappointing to see the consistent slide in the rankings. This once proud school district is going down a steep hill.
Although, we have no children in schools, I totally can support the notion that school district like Avon must be a "benchmark" in all aspects - academic as well as consideration of student welfare.
I hate to say the superintendent of schools has a major, domineering, attitude according to the teachers with whom I have spoke and should be replaced as soon as possible. His attitude toward spending will result in excessive costs and tax increases. His attitude with respect to our teachers is abominable.
The school board does not seem to understand the difference between "change" and "progress" and seem to think that quote-on-quote "modernization" and doing the en vogue thing somehow makes a better school. I'm glad to see that the buck had to stop somewhere before people would get angry enough to do something and I hope this petition shows these changes in policies are no better than window dressing and have done nothing to improve the quality of life for students, the caliber of education and recognition as such. By "fixing" what isn't broken our rankings, metrics and quality control of every kind have suffered in the past few years and I don't see anyway this decline can be reversed without a drastic change in leadership.
As a practicing psychiatrist, I strongly agree that the decision to limit mental health services to one provider type is ill-advised.
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STATEMENT OF NO CONFIDENCE
In the Avon Public Schools Superintendent & Chair of Avon's Board of Education:
We, the undersigned, lack confidence in the leadership of our public schools as a result of:
- The Administration’s decision to eliminate all Social Workers from our public schools;
- Avon High School has dropped in state and national rankings below that of the other Farmington Valley high schools during their tenure. Our high school has fallen from 4th in the state to 22nd in the most recent rankings.
We find that the leadership that has led to these unfortunate developments is not in the best interests of our public school children and the community as a whole because:
- The community was not given an opportunity to provide input during the decision-making that led to the elimination of all school social workers;
- We have not received a full, transparent explanation for their decision to compromise the mental health support services resulting from the elimination of the social workers;
- The decision to eliminate the social workers does not reflect long recognized best practices that address how to support the mental well-being of our students and community and we are opposed to the untested experimentation with the mental well-being of our public student children caused by the absence of social workers;
- All other school districts in the Farmington Valley and similar socio-economic districts follow best practices and will continue to have social workers working in their schools. For decades, Avon Public Schools have had social workers;
- The opinions of professional mental health providers who were opposed to the decision to eliminate social workers were ignored by the Administration;
- Ridding the district of social workers is inconsistent with the State’s Sandy Hook Advisory Commission's recommendations regarding the need for social workers;
- The drop in the prestige of the high school diminishes our town and schools’ stature and negatively impacts our property values.
Updates
July 31, 2015
I have been hearing from so many of you who are just as heartbroken as I am about losing our social workers. Behind the scenes I am gathering documentation to present at the next board meeting because our children deserve better than this silence.
July 31, 2015
Seeing the momentum behind this petition reminds me just how many people in this town truly care about the future of our students. It is clear that we are tired of being kept in the dark while our schools suffer. This level of support proves that our community expects better for our children.
Reached 100 supporters
July 31, 2015
56 Comments
I am very disappointed with the rankings and negative press that our schools have gotten! As a real estate agent, I can tell you that I am hearing it from my buyers. They are choosing other towns over Avon.
As an Avon taxpayer with MSW degree (though not working in the field) I believe our school board's actions to be unsound, harmful, and financially wasteful. The board has not come forth with any plausible rationale for this move, and should account to students, parents, and taxpayers for this retrograde decision.
The social workers were an amazing part of the Avon schools. My youngest will be a Junior at AHS and he does not use services anymore. I was so fortunate to have the support system and feel badly for the families in town who will not have the superior school system we were able to experience.
As an alumnus of Avon High, it is sad and disappointing to see the consistent slide in the rankings. This once proud school district is going down a steep hill.
Although, we have no children in schools, I totally can support the notion that school district like Avon must be a "benchmark" in all aspects - academic as well as consideration of student welfare.
I hate to say the superintendent of schools has a major, domineering, attitude according to the teachers with whom I have spoke and should be replaced as soon as possible. His attitude toward spending will result in excessive costs and tax increases. His attitude with respect to our teachers is abominable.
The school board does not seem to understand the difference between "change" and "progress" and seem to think that quote-on-quote "modernization" and doing the en vogue thing somehow makes a better school. I'm glad to see that the buck had to stop somewhere before people would get angry enough to do something and I hope this petition shows these changes in policies are no better than window dressing and have done nothing to improve the quality of life for students, the caliber of education and recognition as such. By "fixing" what isn't broken our rankings, metrics and quality control of every kind have suffered in the past few years and I don't see anyway this decline can be reversed without a drastic change in leadership.
As a practicing psychiatrist, I strongly agree that the decision to limit mental health services to one provider type is ill-advised.
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I am very disappointed with the rankings and negative press that our schools have gotten! As a real estate agent, I can tell you that I am hearing it from my buyers. They are choosing other towns over Avon.