Numa/West End

I've heard numerous rumors today that there are plans in the works to transfer all non-RIFd teachers and all students from West End (which is probably closing) to Numa. These rumors state that essentially West End staff/students will be replacing Numa staff/students. Has anyone else heard that?

Here is the info I have gotten through the grape vine.

They are planning on moving all of the West End teachers and students to Numa. They are planning on making ALL Numa teachers have to re-interview to keep a job in the district at all. The kids that have gone to Numa since Kindergarten like my kids will be farmed out to the other district schools.

They are validating this because West End has higher test scores. West End is the choice of the Fallon upper class. So the majority of the students come from English language speaking homes, and homes of many of Fallon's college educated parents.

Numa's primary student population is ELL (English Language Learners) and a lot of poverty level students. These kids are not DUMB, they have a lot to deal with. Home drama, having to learn the language while being immersed in our education system. So the scores are low, yes that is a fact. It is not due to ineffective teachers or student fault. The kids at Numa make progress EVERY year!!

They are hoping that the replacement of our Numa teachers with teachers from a proven high scoring school such as West End. ALONG with their students will raise the scores at Numa after the change is complete. Which will result in it "APPEARING" as if the removal of our Numa teachers caused the schools scores to improve dramatically. Therefore validating the ripping apart of a VERY good school with the most amazing teachers in the district.

I think we need to say NO WAY!

As parents we need to put our feet down and demand that they deal with the closure of West End in the proper way. The teachers at West End do not have priority over any other teachers in the district. They need to go to available positions at all the other schools, not just take over another school. The students at West End should be recommended new schools based on the district elementary school that is closest to their home address only.

When any of us react emotionally to rumors we lessen our credibility. Everything that will or won't happen to West End will happen during open session of the school board meetings. During these open discussions public comments will be heard. Each person will be limited to 3 minutes.

Please don't spread rumors like this, and that is just what this is-a rumor. I also believe it to be false. Just like the one last week that enough money had been "found" to only eliminate five teachers. That is false also.

If you have legitimate suggestions put them on paper and bring them to the board meeting. The agenda is posted on Monday on the district website so you can see what will be discussed.

The above post by Anna is not just a rumor. I work for CCSD also... one of the schools has already been told they are moving and the other has gotten confirmation from the superintendent that this is what they intend to do with their school. Go to the board meeting on Thurs...it will be proposed. But from what the superintendent said it is basically a done deal. UNLESS...the NUMA parents step up and say it is not OKAY for their school to be taken apart in this way.

I am highly upset that there is talk about moving westend into numa and pushing the numa kids and teachers out. What idiot thought of this? We have outstanding teachers at the numa school why would they have to interview to keep there jobs. The numa teachers love their school and their kids but I can guarantee you if west end is allowed to take over why would any numa teachers want to stay there? This needs to be stopped. My kids have gone to numa for the last 10 years and I truely love that school. I love the teachers and I am willing to do all I can to help save that school from west end taking over. I truely hope that this is dealt with in the right way and that they handle the west end closure properly. This decision here is not proper though so hopefully they will rethink it.

friendofjesus wrote:The above post by Anna is not just a rumor. I work for CCSD also... one of the schools has already been told they are moving and the other has gotten confirmation from the superintendent that this is what they intend to do with their school. Go to the board meeting on Thurs...it will be proposed. But from what the superintendent said it is basically a done deal. UNLESS...the NUMA parents step up and say it is not OKAY for their school to be taken apart in this way.

Thank you so much for posting this. I have been trying to get the info out on Facebook since I found out yesterday and I have people basically calling me a liar. All I am trying to do with the information is get more parents to the meeting on the 6th. Our kids are no less important than the west end kids because of our income. Leave our teachers and students where they are!

Thank you for backing me up. I am not just spreading a rumor, this is truly a plan in the works for the district. BUT it is not final!! We need to do something about this. i had the guts to post this because I feel strongly that we need to stop this before it becomes fact.

I got some clarification this morning on some of the facts.

The teachers at Numa do not have to interview for the entire district. The teachers at Numa (no matter how many years they have been teaching at Numa) will have to interview to keep their positions at Numa.

Teachers with RIF's don't even get considered at this point.

Lets not focus on who said what and why. Also it is not the teachers at West End who are pushing for this, they are being told this is what will happen. Please, I want to stop this before it happens. It has a simple solution. Lets focus on what we can do to solve this the right way.


The proper way to deal with West End school closure:

The students need to be redistributed through the district based on home address. This would be the most appropriate way to deal with this. Also, if we were to move the West End students out to the other schools and redistribute them evenly it would give all of our schools a better chance at AYP instead of one "perfect" school as the public has always seen it.

The teachers need to go to other available positions in the district. Not bump other teachers, but the movement will need to happen based on seniority.

Thanks for helping!

I have just heard that the principal at Numa was given his pink slip yesterday, so it appears this is more than just a rumor. What about the classified personnel at Numa and at West End, what is going to happen with them? How can they fire a principal at Numa if he has seniority over other principals in the district?

My kids were at Northside when they closed that school and the principal and teachers weren't just allowed to bump others out of their jobs, they had to apply for open positions within the district, why should it be different with West End?

So here are my thoughts on this situation, First i think it is horrible that we are closing a school at all i think that every school in the district and most of the teachers are a very valuable to our community and our students. With that being said, i think we should sprinkle the west end kids and teachers threw out the district, since west end is apparantly such a high rated school then maybe if there kids and students can benifit the rest of the school district so we can be better as a community. As for doing it by address it would be difficult with numa and EC best they are so close to one another. If they wanted to farm out the kids at numa then they should have closed numa, west end kids and teachers have no more rights then everyone else. However if they are going to make the numa teachers interview for the jobs they already posses then they should be hired by an un byass third party, i dont think that if the pricaple from west end is going to take over for numa that she should be doing the hirring since she will be more likley to hire the west end teachers over the numa teachers.

Note: What is wrong with Numas princapal anyways, that poor man did his best to get parents involved, to keep the pto alive , and to get all the parents teachers and students involved with fundraising.

Please forgive my spelling

I have not heard anything official about West End teachers/students "taking over" Numa. MORE THAN LIKELY, what WILL happen is that West End teachers will take some of the unfilled spots from RIFd/retired teachers at Numa, Lahontan and E.C. Best. The kids who have been students at West End will be distributed throughout the other schools. There is no reason to honestly think that the school district would allow students who are already at Numa (and parents who want their kids there) to be uprooted and sent to another school. That just makes no sense to me. I know our district can sometimes do screwy things, but this is just an asinine idea.

Regarding Numa's principal: the only way the principal at West End would "take over" is if the current principal at Numa retired. Teachers/principals can't replace one another unless there is an open position.

Also, just because this idea has been proposed does not mean it's going to happen.

That is what i am hoping for, we do live in fallon where rumors spread like wild fire. I am just commenting on the off chance that it is true. There is usally some truth to every rumor. LOL I am going to the board meeting so that i can be truly informed and speak my mind if neccesarry

Well, that's what I think is going on...wildfire rumors.

It is always sad when a school is closed, but it happens. Some would say the Numa thing is only a rumor. Sadly once again there is more truth here than rumor. When a rep of the DO goes to a school and makes a statement, even when there is a maybe attached, it has been my experience that it is a fact. That said, it doesn't mean that the school board won't listen to the comments at the meeting on the 6th and override the "decision". The "rumor" also says that there is a split board. If this is true then the people of Fallon need to step up and make their thoughts known. I think that there are ideas swirling around, but that doesn't mean they are the right ideas for CCSD. West End has its backers, but what you should know is that Numa has its too. I agree with the person that said the closing of West End should be handled just like Northside. The outstanding teachers at West End may apply for open positions in the other schools and the children should be dispersed to schools near their homes. In most other areas students go to the school closest to their home. There would be less bussing too. As for Mr.Freeman that is just wrong. I read somewhere that Dave Ash asked whatever happened to Character Counts. Did we expect the kids to learn and live by it, and then not follow the pillars in our own actions with the teachers, staffs and children in our schools?

http://www.nevadareportcard.com/
-- Click to compare schools.
-- Under school, go to Churchill.
-- Under comparison, click "By school"
-- Click one school you want to compare, and add it to the list.
-- Click another school you want to compare, and add it to the list.
-- Click Compare.
-- Put check marks in all the boxes.
By doing this, you can compare two schools test scores, although the most recent data is only from 2008-2009.

Using test scores when there is not equity in the schools we are comparing is like comparing apples and oranges. The profiles show ethnicity and that was interesting because Numa had better average daily attendance. That tells something about the children wanting to be in school. The profile does not show parent education level, incomes, single family homes, or the educational support given to the student, and finally involvement in after school activities. If you go to the California site where they compare schools you will see a number 10 rated school in the state may just be a 6 when compared to other schools with the same profile. Test scores are not a true evaluation of how a school is working. They are basically how great the kids were doing on that particular day compared to the other kids in the state. I have seen kids with problems at home just look out the window during a test. Kids with very high IQs.

It seems that if you expect a school to fail then you would do everything in your power to make your expectations reality. That is not true at Numa or West End. The teachers have high expectations for all their students. It is just that the schools do not share the same profiles. "All children learning, all of the time."

For those who are interested in saving Numa Please feel free to add me on Facebook (itsmekelli@msn.com) and join the group, "Save Numa Now". This is an open group where we can discuss what some call rumors and others call fact (or at least partial fact) between now and Thursday and come up with ideas on how to save our school.

Thank you!
Kelli

I posted the scores link because I thought it was interesting.

You may want to check out this website for more information about Obama's proposal for grant monies to Nevada to assist schools in need of improvement. This may provide clarification regarding what may be considered as an option to assist Numa students.
http://www2.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2010/04/04152010c.html

I have found out today @5:00pm there is a emergency meeting at Numa to discuss what is happening with the school. If anyone is interested I would HIGHLY recommend attending. Alan Kalt has asked for parents to get involved and be at the meeting. Teachers that are concerned should also attend at the meeting.

Perhaps was more important when looking at www.nevadareportcard.com is to check out the demographics of each school. You will see that the transiency rate and minority rate at E.C. Best, Lahontan, and Numa is MUCH higher than West End. This is a very important factor to look at, especially when we know it takes an ELL at least 7 years to learn academic English. Also, when we know that the achievement gap is such a prevalent problem in our nation why would their be such an inequality in the demographics of our schools? Our district has historically loaded up Numa with a large ELL population. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but didn't the district get in trouble for this a couple of years ago and then they were told they had to start dispersing these ELL students to other schools? However, it looks like this didn't apply to West End because I am not even sure if they have an ELL teacher at this point in timebecause they did not get enough ELLs at their school (again, someone correct me if I am wrong). The Nevada Report Card does not report on free and reduced lunch but this is also much higher at Numa, E.C. Best and Lahontan. It seems to me as our district has set it up for Numa to appear to be a failing school and now they are being punished for it. All the schools are doing an amazing job educating students, but student population plays a huge role in standardized test scores

The way I see it the district administration and school board set up Numa to fail based on the student population. They have perpetuated the problem letting parents choose schools. Now they are being punished because they do not cater to the upper-middle class Fallon elite. The district should be ashamed of themsleves. It is time to stop these inequalities.

kc11 wrote:They have perpetuated the problem letting parents choose schools. Now they are being punished because they do not cater to the upper-middle class Fallon elite. The district should be ashamed of themselves. It is time to stop these inequalities.

I could not agree with you more! I have seen it all through Fallon, not just in our schools. Have you been to a "majors" game recently at Oats? The teams are stacked on purpose. They claim there was a draft, but if the parents wanted the kids with a specific coach, they got to pick and choose so we get teams with only two or three returning players and the rest new, or all returning players on a team. Then wonder why games come out 11-0 (many did last year).

Perhaps this can be brought up at the meeting today or the board meeting Thursday.. Just a thought...

Thanks for posting that Angela!

When I was in school, I remember there being specific [unspoken] demographics at certain schools. For example, Northside had most of the Mormon community. E.C. Best has most of the Native Americans.

I have heard this same rumor from 2 teachers at West End. Makes you think it really isn't much of a rumor at all. Why don't we just go to the following: Northside as is, Lahontan as 1and 2nd grade, Numa 3rd and 4th grade, E.C. Best as 5th and 6th. Spread the teachers from West End into the mix. That way all students get a couple of years with all the teachers and principles. All these comparisons between elementary schools is useless when you consider the fact of the complete diversity between student populations. Every elementary in Fallon could get the test scores West End had if they had the same student dynamics (i.e. higher income families, minimal ell and special needs) I really don't think it is a matter of the teachers are so much better at West End as the fact that they have a completely different student make-up overall from the other elementary schools. If you have every student go through every school as I suggested earlier, this would be alleviated.

KC11 I had heard that same thing that the NV attorney general was investigating our school district for basically segregating the students because such a large majority of ELL and special needs students were at Numa, while the demographics of West End showed just the opposite...minimal ELL students, minimal special needs, and the lowest free lunch percentage of all the elementary schools.