The 12% Solution

By Emily Berk

Rather than deal with the important issues that affect our students, current school board members react with defensiveness when a member of the public raises issues.

Intermediate School Students	1996	1997
English teacher: Assigns interesting homework.	43	45
Are students well-behaved while in school?	46	53
Math teacher: Treats you with respect?	28	33
Do you get extra help when you need it?	32	34/32
Is the bus stop close enough to your house?	30	33
Social Studies teacher: Grades fairly.	24	21
Are you well-behaved at school?	16	17
Do you feel safe while in school?	9	12

"What does this data mean?," asked a parent at Site Council. "Can it really be that only 12% of students at the intermediate school feel safe?" The governing board member who heard this question at one of the Site Council meetings in late Spring responded, "That survey was taken at the high school." (She was mistaken; the survey was taken at Cunha.)

No further information about this survey was ever given to the parent who persisted in asking for follow-up monthly for nearly a year.

On Oct. 14, 1998, by majority vote, and at the urging of a Governing Board member, Cunha Site Council decided that most students at Cunha feel safe. At that same meeting, that same majority voted to table indefinitely a review of the Site Safety Plan and they voted to NOT request that the Site Administrator provide them copies of the parts of the Satisfaction Survey that relate to safety.