S.A.N.E.
stands for School Advocates for the North End. We are a group of parents who have seen some areas of inequity and want to help close the education gap for at risk and minority students. We have chosen to focus on four schools in particular - Putnam Elementary, Irish Elementary, Lincoln Middle School, and Poudre High School - both because these schools have high numbers of at risk and minority students and because the elementary schools both feed into Lincoln and Lincoln feeds into Poudre, so we have the opportunity to help students from K-12.
SANE grew out of advocacy groups that formed to prevent the closure of Lincoln, Putnam and Irish. We felt that these schools meet a particular need in our community and they meet it well, though they can always use more support both from the school district and the community. Towards that end, we formed this group to advocate for these schools. Specific areas of concern include:
Positive Feedback from the District: We need help in spreading positive stories about our four schools both because there’s a lot of good stuff happening in them that the community should know about and to mitigate some of the damage the district caused by putting these schools on a closure list. We also believe that the district staff, as well as teachers and personnel in other schools, should at the very least refrain from making negative comments about these four schools.
Closing the Achievement Gap: This requires resources: volunteers, money, access to programs, etc. Members in our group are actively involved in Parent/Teacher Organizations and School Accountability Committees with the goal of seeking out root causes, brainstorming on possible means of addressing those issues, and then supporting the school in making the changes it needs to close the gap. When we feel it is necessary, we also advocate for the school before the district in order to procure additional outside support to reach achievement objectives.
Budgeting: We want to advocate for needs based vs. student based budgeting. We feel that this will more adequately balance support needs for students within the district.
Communication: We see a need for improved communication between PSD and our north end parents, including parents that do not speak English.
School of Choice Mitigation: We have seen inequities in how schools have been able to woo students to their schools. Those that have, have the resources to woo the best and brightest. Those that have not are left with the unwoo-d. We want a better sense of what is and isn’t allowed and we would like some oversight of this to be sure that principals and staff aren’t overstepping their boundaries.
Improving Representation: We want the north side to be equally represented in committees in the school district. Current inequities may stem back to our previously mentioned issue of communication.
Leveling the Playing Field: There are factors that are negatively affecting our schools that could be removed so that the focus can be put squarely upon closing the achievement gap. We hope to identify these factors and help to remove them.
SANE grew out of advocacy groups that formed to prevent the closure of Lincoln, Putnam and Irish. We felt that these schools meet a particular need in our community and they meet it well, though they can always use more support both from the school district and the community. Towards that end, we formed this group to advocate for these schools. Specific areas of concern include:
Positive Feedback from the District: We need help in spreading positive stories about our four schools both because there’s a lot of good stuff happening in them that the community should know about and to mitigate some of the damage the district caused by putting these schools on a closure list. We also believe that the district staff, as well as teachers and personnel in other schools, should at the very least refrain from making negative comments about these four schools.
Closing the Achievement Gap: This requires resources: volunteers, money, access to programs, etc. Members in our group are actively involved in Parent/Teacher Organizations and School Accountability Committees with the goal of seeking out root causes, brainstorming on possible means of addressing those issues, and then supporting the school in making the changes it needs to close the gap. When we feel it is necessary, we also advocate for the school before the district in order to procure additional outside support to reach achievement objectives.
Budgeting: We want to advocate for needs based vs. student based budgeting. We feel that this will more adequately balance support needs for students within the district.
Communication: We see a need for improved communication between PSD and our north end parents, including parents that do not speak English.
School of Choice Mitigation: We have seen inequities in how schools have been able to woo students to their schools. Those that have, have the resources to woo the best and brightest. Those that have not are left with the unwoo-d. We want a better sense of what is and isn’t allowed and we would like some oversight of this to be sure that principals and staff aren’t overstepping their boundaries.
Improving Representation: We want the north side to be equally represented in committees in the school district. Current inequities may stem back to our previously mentioned issue of communication.
Leveling the Playing Field: There are factors that are negatively affecting our schools that could be removed so that the focus can be put squarely upon closing the achievement gap. We hope to identify these factors and help to remove them.
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