Open Letter to the Englewood Board of Education

Dear Englewood Board of Education,

I fought for 3 years to gain access to Genesis so I could monitor the Academic Success of the children in my home. I was given access to the opening page of the website and was told, there you go, commence monitoring the children's progress. It took half a school year to get the Administration to understand that the only tab on the page that worked for me was the one labeled "Logout". So in effect, I was given access to the opening page and nothing else. Near the end of the 2019-20 school year, the then Superintendent finally gave me access.

The School year 2020-21 may have been horrible for other parents, but it was better for this one. The older child exceeded expectations, because I could monitor her. The younger child was still suffering from the shock of being thrown into a Virtual World with one Teacher and waking up, the next school year, in a Virtual World with 7 Teachers. He was placed in Honors Classes. We never requested this. After 3 weeks of struggling, he commented that having 7 teachers who all gave an assignment everyday was driving him crazy. I could see that it was. It was impossible to help him. He would not accept, nor participate in a discussion of what the problem was. He refused help from me, Guidance and his teachers. His work only improved a tiny bit after he was finally placed in mainstream classes. Part of him remained in the Honors Classes as he continued to communicate with his former classmates privately via Teams Chat.

Added to this problem was the fact that Teams, which was created for businesses has a Social Media Platform as part of it. The Social Media Platform is called "Private Chat". Teachers do not control Private Chat. After much searching, many emails and telephone calls, it was determined that no one in District seemed to understand that this Private Chat Feature could be turned off completely. It could also be left up to the Teacher whether of not to keep it on. Mind you, children could communicate 24 hours a day through this feature. Teachers cannot see the conversations in this Private Chat Room. This means that students may carry on Private Conversations without Supervision of any adult. Not enough energy was spent on trying to solve this problem. I was NEVER satisfied with any of the answers from EPSD regarding this problem. It should also be noted here that Teams offers students the option of being able to contact persons outside of their grade and their schools. I have witnessed this myself. In my ventures inside Teams, I have noticed that this young one was invited to contact students in the high school.

I was told on various occasions that I should go into Teams and check out what was going on. I did this, and quite frankly, I wish I never had. I found conversations that I wish I could unsee. My excursion into his Private Chat world caused problems that he called "an invasion of his privacy". We had verbal battles concerning this invasion of his privacy. Private Chat is still on. Students are sitting in class behind barriers unable to see classmates as they look from right to left, unless they lean back and peer around the barriers. Why? It seems the Administration allowed a Custodian to choose the barriers that sit on the students' desks. These barriers are white and are not transparent to the right and to the left. This leaves the student inside a box able to see straight ahead and into the screen of their laptops. The Teacher is competing with a device that is supposed to be helping them. This is cruel and unusual punishment for both student and teacher. Students should be able to see each other and see the Teacher as she/he moves about the room as demonstrated in this short video where a Superintendent tests the shield in a classroom.

Students are sitting at desks, behind partitions, wearing masks, unable to see their classmates, looking into the screen of a laptop. Please rate this learning environment.

So now there are students who are watching videos, television, surfing the net and conversing in Private Chat while the teacher is trying to teach a class. Some of you might think that the teacher can control this. Think again. Imagine yourself in the same situation. How would you control it?

So, those of  you out there talking about how students are falling behind, please.

Meanwhile, you, School Board members are still conducting Board Meetings on Zoom. You say that more parents may attend, and are attending. You cannot prove that by me. I do see that you are less tolerant of each other than when you were seated at that long table in person. There a hundreds of School Boards around the state and the country who are meeting in person and still streaming to tax payers at home. Figure it out, you have an entire department of capable Tech people who know how to do this. Use them for their strengths. Learn something from the Techies.

Why not this one, with a mask? For my taxes, they could also lose the laptop in class or minimize the use of this tool. Did no one consider that all of the distractions available on the laptop may be transporting students away from the realm of teaching and learning?

Students should be able to see each other. For many years, we have been teaching them to think outside the box. Now we have put them inside one. Why are we expecting them to produce their best work?

...And how are the children?