"THE ANSWER IS BLOWING IN THE WIND" peter paul & mary

"Attended last nights Board of Education Meeting"

As I asked the board and administration about the change in the Painesville Public Schools change in the gifted program. I questioned the reason for the change, yes PCLS would lose funding for this program from the state under it's present operation.

I was told the students will be served not only by their classroom teacher at their home school but the gifted teacher will visit every school once a week. They will be served in this manner.
not only the elementary schools but the middle as well as the high school.

Seems like an awful lot to expect from one teacher as well as all the classroom teacher's. but the board as well as the administration assured me that the new system will be successful. I like the makeup of the present board as well as the administration but it seems like a heady goal we will see the good or bad results in say less than six years.

My post about this drew one of the strangest responses to a post. Many times I get this is not for publication for many reasons, but this one drew the most some from parents , teachers, even  a person that claimed to be in the administration? Don't know if there legit but all seemed unhappy with the new policy.

I met a parent at last nights meeting that was happy with the new policy? Well at least I had a face to go with their comment.

Look everyone I know that seems to want Painesville to return to somewhat of it's former glory whether it's a streetscape project, improved public services, historical districts no matter what the plan . The foundation for any successful community is a successful school system. New building are great, but the bottom line to most new home buyers seems to be the quality of education a community has that they will provide to their children. A good example might me new immigrants to the city being told the system can take care of their children. I even have been told that parents in the Riverside district send their children here because Riverside claims we have the tools to educate them.

I will admit that going to the meeting was not going to change anything that was going to happen in the next school year, only that some parents may chose other options as well as some residents watching what was going on in the district. A final thought I left them with was this policy change should have been brought to the whole community and not just a meeting with the parents of the students, a letter home to students involved even a discussion of the subject at a round table event. You have Television and web access please in the future use it. Transparency is so important.