Reader Disappointed With Coverage of “Neighborhood Schools” Story

Dear Mary Beth,

I just read the information published by the LF News to promote the concept of “Neighborhood Schools.” I was rather disappointed that none of the information we presented during the public forum was published in the newspaper to show our opposition to the concept. LFISD administration were given a free ride by publishing this one sided view in order to get the community on board. We have several community members who opposed the idea during the informational meeting, on Facebook and during the public forum on November 10, 2014. We believe that LF News should always present a balanced view when debating a very controversial proposition in our school district. Below you will find several valuable points to demonstrate the negative impact this concept might have on our school district. This information was gathered from different online sources. We really appreciate it if you would publish this information in the next edition.

• Neighborhood schools don’t have the benefit of attracting students and families with specific common interests, abilities, or needs.
• There are risks associated with political or ideological agendas and viewpoints that might offend your beliefs or family values.
• Neighborhood schools will segregate students based on poverty level and socio-economic status.
• Segregated schools are highly effective delivery systems for unequal educational opportunities.
• Teachers would more likely transfer to the so-called “good school” in the district to get better students. This might contribute to unintended consequences on creating under-performing schools in the district.
• Rezoning might have a negative effect on the quality of education offered at certain elementary schools.
• Schools with mostly poor students are more likely to be poorly funded and low performing compared to integrated schools.
• The extra cost taxpayers have to pay for a demographer to rezone the district and for the renovation to get the campuses ready for the little ones.
• Research cited by our district was based on “inner city” school districts, not small district like La Feria. Our district is not big enough to create several neighborhood schools.
• The same research shows the negative impact you have when multiple elementary schools feeding to one middle school. Of course, the superintendent didn’t highlight this very crucial point when he addressed transitioning in his presentation.
• The administration mentioned that Los Fresnos recently implemented the concept in their district. This is an invalid comparison since Los Fresnos is three times the size of La Feria. We don’t have real data to see if the implementation at Los Fresnos is working well.

​Respectfully,
Yosef Mughrabi
Community Advocate

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