To All School Board Members,
At the regular school board meeting of April 18th there was a very large audience of Denfeld parents, students, teachers and principal Sconers. They were in support of the Denfeld community who is demanding equity . They have been asking the board and Mr. Gronseth for 3 years to have equity with East High School and it has fallen on deaf ears.
Just prior the public speaking portion of the meeting started I saw Mr. Gronseth talking quietly with chair Kirby and before the audience participation portion of the meeting began chair Kirby asked the audience to hold their applause because it disrupted other speakers. I believe that Mr. Gronseth didn’t want the viewing public to see the huge support that the Denfeld community has. A parent from East also spoke to the fact that the Denfeld students are being short changed and the East community is in full support of having this change next fall. She had a petition of over 70 parent signatures to see that change has to come.
The other very interesting aspect of the night were the East Middle School Science class students who presented at a competition and won awards for their excellent work. The children shall lead, the two students study on rubber mulch proved that the mulch is harmful to living organisms. Thus harmful to children. The board should remove the rubber mulch from all playgrounds in the district that are using this harmful substance and replace it with wood chips like the Congdon Park School has.
Thank you
And my reply:
Hi xxxx,
Thanks for your thoughts.
I agree that Denfeld has been short changed in recent years although it seems more inadvertent than purposeful and not unlike that poor frog put in a pot of cold water that turns to boiling.
I think its fair to conclude that Chair Kirby was anticipating some demonstrations in response to Denfeld speakers and his comments weren’t uncalled for. However, his call was heeded from the outset which had one unfortunate result. The crowd did not applaud the wonderful achievements of the students whose work was highlighted at the beginning of the meeting.
In fact, the Superintendent and I exchanged a little quiet small talk about that unfortunate non applauding for the students ourselves after it was too late to remedy the situation.
As for me, I don’t mind applause from the public even when it demonstrates dissatisfaction with the School Board. I’d rather hear it at a meeting than experience it when running for reelection. It gives me time to mend my ways.
As to the mulch. I agree.
Harry Welty
