A ‘SAVE OUR SCHOOL’ BANNER HANGS IN THE LFG MIDDLE SCHOOL CAFETERIA. SEVENTH GRADER JONATHAN VASQUEZ SPEAKS AGAINST CLOSING LFG MIDDLE SCHOOL CITING THE SCHOOL MOTTO “NEVER GIVE UP.”
Dozens of people attended the school closure community forum held tonight at Leroy F. Greene Middle School.
Natomas Unified School District officials gave an hour-long presentation on the school’s standardized test scores over the past four years and efforts underway to improve the school.
Citing academics, Interim Superintendent Dr. General Davie has recommended the district close the middle school, make all elementary schools K-6 campuses, move next year’s 7th and 8th graders to Natomas Middle School, and rethink how best to use the campus in the future.
Several students, parents as well as teachers from both Leroy F. Green and Natomas middle schools spoke against the proposal at tonight’s meeting, saying the district has not given a program improvement plan already in place a chance. Questions were also raised about whether building repairs at the campus are needed or require the school be closed for them to take place.
A handful of people spoke in favor of closure.
Interim Assistant Superintendent of Education Services Howard Kornblum told the crowd the school’s current school improvement strategies fall short of addressing several areas such as consistent instruction from classroom to classroom. Kornblum admitted district administration had offered little in the way of supporting the middle school improvements this past year.
No Child Left Behind legislation requires the district to decide this year the future of the middle school, according to Carol Brush, Interim Director of State and Federal Programs. The Natomas district, she said, can choose from a limited number of options to address the Leroy F. Green’s ongoing failure to meet academic benchmarks, one of which is to close and restructure the school.
More community meetings on the plan are schedule for March 15 at Natomas Middle School and March 16 at Natomas High School. The school board is expected to make a decision on the proposal at their March 23 meeting.
For more information about the Leroy F. Greene Middle School plan and the ongoing school closure process, click here.
This is simple: LG has little chance to improve enough over the next year to emerge out of Program Improvement Status. From what I heard at this meeting and in past board meetings the district did little to help the school and the bitter relationship with the school administrators and parents only compounds the issue.
Close it down and start fresh. Give the kids a chance to prove that it was the atmosphere at LG that pushed them into program improvement rather than their academic abilities.
Huh? The district has new administration. The school has new administration. Nothing is the same. The previous writer is living in the past. So is the district if they close down Leroy. Leroy does not need to be closed. No school should be closed. Anyone at the meeting knows that Leroy is now returning to the school it once was before Farrar ruined our district schools. A rising star.