changes coming at Morton High Schools

[Shelley]

A friend of mine who works at Morton sent me this e-mail.  Any thoughts??

I thought you would be interested in this.  It's funny that there has not been anything in the newspaper about these HUGE changes.  There is a meeting for Morton's PTO (which has MAYBE 40 members...), but nothing for the community members who may/will be having children attending Morton in the future. 

The Board of Education has determined that Morton East and Morton West will be restructured beginning August 2005.  What remains to be decided is which of two models will be used and how much time will be allowed to implement the model. 

The two models being considered are small autonomous schools and smaller learning communities.  Under the small autonomous schools model, Morton East and Morton West would CEASE to exist.  Each campus would be subdivided into four completely autonomous high schools.  Each small high school would have its own principal, administration, faculty, budget and curriculum.  Students could ONLY move between schools by transferring.  Under the smaller learning communities model, Morton East and Morton West would continue to exist.  Each large high school would contain four smaller learning communities (which would end up not so small since there are 8,000 total students).  Students could take courses outside of their community.  This is the High Schools that Work recommendation.

On Thursday, November 3, 2005, the Board of Education will hold a special meeting at 6PM.  at Morton East.  The Executive Board (Teacher's Union) will make a presentation supporting smaller learning communities PHASED in over several years as the EDUCATIONALLY RESPONSIBLE choice.  This is a public meeting and there is an audience comment portion of the meeting after the discussion.  We encourage you to attend this meeting and comment. 

We also encourage you to attend the Regular Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, November 9th at 7 pm at Morton East.  The School Board is going to choose the model and time frame of implementation at this meeting. 

For those of you who live in the District, the regulare PTO meeting will take place at 7 pm in the Morton West Staff Cafeteria on Wednesday, November 7th.  Dr. Cunneen will discuss the restructuring issue at this meeting."

I think it is time this community became as involved in the schools as we are in the politics of this town.   Please alert anyone you know that works at the schools or would be "in the know" about the pros and cons of both of the models suggested.  Maybe we could get a few new voices on this board to help clarify the issues and the suggested changes.  Either way, I think breaking down these large high schools into smaller schools or communities is a good idea.  Not sure how the economics of the different languages (communities vs. schools) works.  Anyone able to attend the meetings and report back to this board??  I think there are a few typos in the e-mail regarding the dates.  I'll try to clarify soon.  

[Berwyn Patsy]

Why such short notice?? Who are the school board members of district 201?   Did any of the faculty of the high schools have any input ?  It does sound like a good idea, but we do need people to attend these meetings. You are absolutley right as to the school board is just as important as the city politics.

[OakParkSpartan]

The short notice seems odd to me...public comments then a decision 6 days later?  No revision of the plan?

[ruffian]

I think this is outrageous.  We will have to pay for 3 extra principles, administrations, etc. ?  Boy those administrative golf outings are gonna just get bigger and bigger.

I cannot understand how something this dramatic could go under the radar without a PEEP from the City. 

Looks to me like they are just trying to put more people on the gravy train payroll.  You mean to tell me that one principal/administration, etc. cannot oversee division into four parts?  Wholly mackrel.  They can subtract, multiply and divide all they want, I just can't see FOUR principals and FOUR administrations.  Whose gonna be one of the principals?  Marzullo's son, Jerry?

[BlackDog]

I think dividing Morton into smaller schools is a great idea.  We are DINKs (who live just north of 26th) who always vote for referendums for parks, library & schools.  I'm tired of seeing good neighbors move away because Morton is not considered to be a good high school.  Improving education in Berwyn is improving the quality of life & property values. 

[ruffian]

And it takes four principles and four administrations to do it?  Come ... use some common sense. 

[Just Me]

Smalls schools is great... IF done correctly.  To do it right it seems like MUCH more time should be taken.  Why such a rush?  Talk has also been made about seperating into Unit Districts... East would be a Unit District with the Cicero grade schools, while West would be a Unit District with the Berwyn grade schools.  But this would mean seperating the sports... which needs to be done anyways... I mean, how big are they going to allow the schools to get and STILL have one sports team for 3 campuses??  Over 8,000 students now.  How big is too big? 

[Juliet]

Their website is pitiful.  http://www.jsmortonhs.com/main.html   There isn't a calendar or update section unless there is another site.  I really hope there is another website, because this one is an embarassment.  Where is a section to email teachers or administrators?  Does anyone know of another web addy for them?

The only email address you can send your questions to that I see is District201@JSMorton.org

[Terri]

I also checked the Morton site, nothing updated. The Board of Education members are as follows: Dr. Margaret Kelly, Pres., Jerry Chlada, V-P, Roberto Garcia, Sec., and members Pat Fortunato, Joe Keating, Laura Salazar and Thomas Santoro. How can a model be chosen with such as short time frame, this had to have been in the works for some time. Wouldn't a legal notice need to be published in the paper? I read them and never noticed anything relating to Morton H.S. like this.

[Bear]

The web site is almost comical in it's graphic and content lameness.
It looks like a bad Japanese monster movie from the '60's

[ruffian]

Blackdog, the problem with some DINKS is that although they are educated, have money, they seem to lack the common sense to come in out of the rain.

The politicians in this town want things both ways.  They did nothing to stop the overcrowding and now they are at a loss to explain why they cannot seem to enforce laws on the books and provide to you basic accomodations like a parking spot in front of your house.  They only saw all the money they could make on stickers, etc. and real estate deals with their fat cat buddies.

They also didn't have their crystal ball turned on when schools would be affected.  The reason your kids cannot get the great education you hoped for is that there are too many kids.  8,000 of em.

So now to say they are doing something the school board has come up with this cockamayme scheme to divde each school into four parts.  I have no problem with that part of the plan ....... its the gimmick portion of having 4 principles at East and 4 principles at West ....... that's EIGHT principles .... with eight administrations.  You mean to tell me that one principle cannot appoint four people from existing administration to oversee their respective portion of the pie.  Come on.  This is an old style, old guard scheme, ORrrrrrrrrr these school board members are smokin crack.

Anybody who falls for this needs to have their head examined.

[T-Stan RPCV]

The school system in general deserves full attention.  All our pandering about political solutions to improve Berwyn through development will never work if the schools do not improve.  The two must go hand in hand.

Ruffian - I heard about this plan a few days ago from a Morton East teacher.  My first impression regarding the admin. costs was the same as yours but she indicated that the current staffing would be able to handle it with little or no increase.  Apparently there are plenty of assistant principals/deans and asistants to the assistants.

I honestly do not know enough about the topic to have a handle on the economics.  I believe what the teacher told me because I trust her, but I'm not sure where she got her info.



The web site is comical and embarrassing.

[Berwyn Patsy]

So, if any Board members are reading this web site, how about inventing a new website for our high schools? This could be a start.  You have to admit the present one is kinda tacky.

[Robert Pauly]

How can this move not be applauded?

Notwithstanding our other problems, the school system is the Achilles Heel of Berwyn.  No matter how cute the homes are, where the town is situated - it's proximity to public transportation, etc. - no matter how safe - no matter how cool Berwyn USED to be - if the school system isn't up to snuff, we'll never attract the type of resident who'll help move the community in a FORWARD direction.

This town is too "diverse".  Too many low income residents - we're unbalanced.  Low income = poor school performance.  Poor performance results in the fleeing of the very type of resident we need to retain, and makes our community non-attractive to the type of new resident who can help us grow.

Forget Starbucks - if you want this town to grow, start with the schools.

I'm not an educator and I don't know how to fix the problem, but I do know that doing nothing will get us nothing - therefore, I applaud any change (isn't 4,000 students at West too big - I mean, can this even be debated?).  Perhaps it's Fool's Gold, but with change there's hope, which is more than we have right now.

I love this town - at least my part of it - but I'm out of here in two years if the situation at Morton doesn't improve.  At the very least, these moves give me hope.

[mom]

It sounds like they want to run it like the new middle school in Cicero. For the most part, the idea works quite well. The problems I am aware of have to do with the teachers getting no info from teachers or administration in the other parts of the building and frustrations in reaching teachers and staff. (If you don't know what part of the building they work in, forget reaching them without trying all sectors.)

As for the Morton website, I believe teachers do have e-mail addresses - but they are only available if you ask and have a "valid reason". Morton West has become more of a jail every year. It often took me longer to sign in than it did to drop off or pick up flyers or info from the office!

[mom]

As for moving to find "better schools", be careful of what you ask for. Just because a school system has great test scores, it doesn't mean that it is a great place. I loved it when my friend told me of a mom who moved to LaGrange to avoid our bad schools and came back to get some of our character cirriculm (sp) because of the problems in the new school.

I have said it before - stay here and work to make the schools better. If you are involved and guide your kids they will do just fine here. You will have a hand in helping to turn things around. Of course, it is easier to just runaway...

[Shelley]

Melliman,

I agree.  I think anything short of SWEEPING changes at Morton is unacceptable.  Smaller schools or learning environments will make a great difference in terms of communication with parents, reaching students on a personal level.  The problems mom outlined in Cicero are easily addressed through scheduling, technology (accessible e-mail--meaning on-line computers in every classroom for every teacher, and the organization of the schools/communities.

I posted the original e-mail to outline that these decisions (good or bad) are being made with very little input from the community or even the teachers/staff at the schools.  I am concerned that the models will not be implemented correctly.  I believe that the successful models define "small" as about 400 students.  Dividing Morton into 4 schools means about 1,000 students.  Now, this is better than 4,000, but will the impact be significant as far as test scores, attendance, drop out rates, etc.  If not, is it worth the trouble?  I would like to see all changes made based on proven research and models that exist and can be duplicated.  Any school board member/candidate who campaigned on this platform (sweeping changes based on research and existing models) would get my vote.  I think we should explore both a small schools within a school idea AND seperating the school district into 2.  Berwyn and Cicero have very large and different populations with different needs.  Of the school board members, who is from Cicero and who is from Berwyn? 

Other changes that need to be addressed:  technology, extending the school day to 3:30.

I'll try to make the meetings, but I'm not sure I can.

Shelley

[kurto]

This town is too "diverse".  Too many low income residents - we're unbalanced.  Low income = poor school performance.  Poor performance results in the fleeing of the very type of resident we need to retain, and makes our community non-attractive to the type of new resident who can help us grow.

That's bull!

Im no expert on the matter, but do you know a town that is low on the median household income scale that does have good public schools?
Seems to me there is a high correlation between higher household income and better school performance/rankings.

See OP, LaGrange, Brookfield, Riverside, Naperville, Elmhurst, St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, Downers Grove ...
Then see Berwyn, Maywood, Bellwood, Cicero, Lawndale neighborhood, Austin neighborhood ...

Not a scientific study, but seems logical to me.

[OakParkSpartan]

To see the data yourself:  http://iirc.niu.edu/default.html

I found it interesting when searching by county.  Low income = poor school performance doesn't HAVE to hold true, but a quick eyeball of that site leads me to believe it often does (search on Cook County...I'd say there is a high correlation between low income/minority school districts and performance).  Maybe others will interpret it a different way.

Cheers,
Brian

[Just Me]

The meeting is TONIGHT.  In the first post it said, Wednesday, November 7th.  It starts at 7:00.  This is a PTO meeting.  The community is welcome.  It is in the Morton West Staff Cafe.  Dr. Cunneen will be there to discuss the coming changes.