Showdown at the (Not) OK Corral--Part 4 in a series

Sorry that there's been such a delay with the story--the suspense has been building, though, hasn't it? Call it my version of "Who Shot J.R.?" (Yes, I aged myself GREATLY there, didn't I?)

The story last left off with our meeting with the Rantoul City School Board. The synopsis is that we made points, opened some minds, said what we needed to say in the way it should have been done, and then our arch nemesis in all of this, Superintendent Bill Trankina, basically broke out his gold watch and hypnotized the majority of the school boards with jedi mind tricks and numbers that seemed to form out of thin air. At the end, we were deferred to the Gifted Committee who would address our specific issues and be able to make a ruling based on their findings and advisement.

So, we went to the Gifted Committee meeting a couple of weeks after this, and my ex-wife's husband, Mark, myself, my wife Jenny, and my stepfather (who is on the board) attended to talk about this. It was actually done in the gifted program room with the facilitator, Mrs. Holliday, along with more people than we thought--originally, it was supposed to be three teachers, Mrs. Holliday, and Mr. Darth Vader Trankina himself (notice the Star Wars parallels here? Or maybe I should call him the Emperor?) Anyways, I digress....The actual amount of people on the "school side" was about 10 total, with representatives from every school center, Trankina, one principal, one parent advocate, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Mark began to speak to the same sentiments that we had professed all along--the idea of the 12 student limitation being unfair when the other standing rule was that there was no retesting and those entered were grandfathered until the end of the time they had in the gifted program, which leaves no room for those who move into the district or test in at a later date if the maximum has been reached. He again spoke to the sports analogy of having tryouts every year and the best twelve taken, along with the community ideology of the message this sends to people looking to come to Rantoul if they really couldn't have any wiggle room with this situation. Another point that was made was that there seemed to be a strong emphasis on helping disciplinary cases and those that are extremely struggling yet a problem like this wasn't even being considered to foster and nurture those that could be future leaders of Rantoul.

After this was over, we figured that we would be done. But it was actually quite different--the principal, Mr. Mark McCusker, asked if he could ask clarifying questions, to which Trankina just nodded slowly, again not really giving us any heed or respect whatsoever. McCusker asked what we thought should be done, and I think all of us were like "What? WHAT? Someone is going to actually ask our opinion on what the changes should be? After meetings and school boards and now this--we finally get to say "Here's what we think?"

Well, Mark went on to state that he felt that there needed to be retesting done for the school year, and if that couldn't be done, that those children who had qualified previous--we are talking an amount of 2 in Caleb's class and 2 in another class that were on the waiting list--be allowed to be squeezed in for the school year. This provoked a series of questions from the people on staff, most of which I knew from growing up in the town, and they addressed all of us.

My wife, who is a teacher in the Carmel, Indiana school district of 15 years, spoke to the fact that she understood as an educator the issues that they have with this type of thing, especially in a gifted atmosphere. She spoke to the fact that the paperwork given to those on the waiting list was good, but with the amount of time that regular classroom teachers have to spend in terms of running their classes of 20-25 students, with those who need a lot more assistance as well, it leaves very little to what the gifted child needs. She remarked that being in the actual classroom for the gifted program gave her so much of a great feeling of what it enables those of the gifted abilities do and that Caleb would thrive in that atmosphere.

One teacher spoke that she knew of Caleb and that his reasoning and scores were off the chart--she noted that she felt he was a very strong candidate for the program and that his Accelerated Reader scores were something to really take note of; another teacher asked about what types of things had been done or why over the past couple of years the maximum issue was coming about now.

Mrs. Holliday remarked that she knew when the program started that the IQ level was higher than what the level was today; she also noted that there were situations where some classes were not even three quarters full with the idea that as children became better test takers that as they get older more have a tendency to qualify at that point.

I spoke to the fact that Caleb represented a child with a special needs, and that the no child left behind act does not singularly point out gifted children, but it does speak to having those with special needs getting what they have to have to be able to move on and thrive as much as they can, and that Caleb's needs were not being met with this certain particular situation. I argued again with the sports analogy that we put such an emphasis on the competitive nature of this yet we aren't even considering this when it comes to academics--not that any child should ever be left out, but that Rantoul should be doing WHATEVER it needs to accompany this "good problem".

One of the teachers asked my stepfather what he thought. He paused, but then without hesitance noted that he felt that regardless of this being a situation in which he had an interest, that he felt that something needed to be done and changed to accommodate these children. That was all, but the conviction he spoke of brought the room to a silence. (I don't think many expected for him to say that in the face of Trankina being right there--again, that's the power this man has over the entire district--I'm not kidding!)

The parent advocate spoke up that she felt that the "sports analogy" was not a good one to use with this, because unlike different things with athletic abilities, that giftedness is just not lost, so that needed to be taken into consideration as one of the main things as to the grandfathering they use. I answered that with an understanding that academics and athletics are indeed different, but the fact is that many of these children aren't even getting a chance to try out, and that's wrong.

Perhaps again, another tell tale sign of what the real issues are in the Rantoul School District Gifted Program came when one of the teachers asked the question to Mrs. Holliday "Don't we allow siblings of those who have been in the program to be entered in?" You could have caught 10 flies with the gaping mouth that Mrs. Holliday had after that question, basically shouting a "No! Heavens no! We've never done that! Never!"

What I gathered from that was that the committee--who was supposed to be the chief of all chiefs with this--may have been just as in the dark as to the whole program inner workings as the school board was. Now, that may be a little harsh, but you get my point--these were decision makers who obviously didn't have all of the facts or impacting that this had done and would be doing.

One of the last things that happened was a teacher who I had known for almost all of my life, who was a good friend of our family, who asked us a series of questions, including what do we do if we "start to squeeze 13 and then 14 and then 15 and then 16 in...when does it stop?" and then "what do we do about the standards that we have in place?" My answer to that was that the problem of squeezing the numbers as they continue to go up is to indeed look at the standards--and that the answer may be in that the rules and qualifications go up and get more stringent, which would in itself then bring the ratio to where it needed to be--the 12 best students in the gifted program.

The last question she asked was one that, in our eyes, should have brought the house down. She asked "I have a situation for you. What do you do with a scenario where, if we go to retesting every year, a seven year old girl comes home and says 'Mommy, I was smart last year, and now I'm not this year!' What do you say to that?"

Mark didn't hesitate. "Well, what do you say to a child who has tested the highest in the district that he can't be in the gifted program--again."

Do you hear that? Is that Stevie Wonder? Yes! It IS! Signed...sealed...delivered...I'm yoouuuuuurrrrs!!!

At least that's the way we saw it. After 45 minutes of this discussion to which we respectfully made points and said what we needed to--again--more pointedly, more rationally, and with merit, we were dismissed for them to discuss. Now, one thing you might have noticed is that throughout this entire meeting--Mr. Trankina said zero, zilch, nada. He sat in his chair making notes and his faced turned as red as Bozo's hair. We didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

But we soon found out a week later in the mail.

You know what that means. Find out who shot JR next week.

TAGS: Being A Dad, Being A Parent, Education, Education Issues, Gifted And Talented, Gifted And Talented Education, Gifted Education, Gifted Program Limitations, Illinois Gifted Education, Parental Responsibilities, Parenthood, Parenting, Raising Children, Rantoul, Rantoul City Schools, Rantoul School District, School, School Policies, Teaching
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[ READER COMMENTS ]

1

Sarah said:

Rock out to Carmel Schools!! Sorry, not much to add, but I'm a proud graduate of Carmel-Clay schools!

Good luck with everything and I hope Caleb gets the classes he needs!

Posted at 09:14 AM, on September 24 2008

2

Tim said:

Hi Sarah! What a small world, that's where my wife teaches, in the Carmel-Clay district, and yes, they do rock! You don't become #1 in the state for education by this type of thinking that Mr. Trankina is pushing, that's for sure, and that's exactly where Carmel is--head of the class! Take care and thanks for reading!! :)))

Posted at 09:21 AM, on September 24 2008

Showdown at the (Not) OK Corral--Part 4 in a series

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