Speak Out Against The Five Year Plan

Support your local High School students by calling, writing or visiting the School and speaking to the Principal about abandoning a program that falls short of encouraging students to graduate from high school in 4 years. Students in surrounding schools know that they have the option of graduating in less than 4 years as long as they have the required credits.  An assembly will give the decision importance and let students and parents know that you acknowledge them. They need encouragement.

The Englewood School District should abandon a current 5 year plan that has caused some students to lag behind in accumulating credits towards graduation. In recent years freshmen have been urged to sign a contract agreeing to complete 130 credits in 5 years. 

This is another way that the students at DMHS have been let down by the district. Students in the Academy program agree to complete a very rigorous career based program in 4 years. The disparity in the expectations for these 2 groups is unacceptable.

This contract is signed without parental presence.and without consulting the parents, I was told  that the program was supposed to begin in the 8th grade,. The Student Handbook says differently. On page 13. Parents did   not even get a copy of the document. The description of the program, clearly states that, "upon entering high school..." High school begins in 9th grade in Englewood. 

It is time for Englewood to stop making excuses. 

It is time for the segregation in the high school to end. 

It is time to provide the equity and excellence in education for all students that was promised when the Academy was formed. The 5 year plan has left students in a real fix. Now we have a Credit Recovery Program that requires those same students that the district has failed to pay for summer school or to pay for the courses that recover the credits needed for graduation. 

Parents must begin to realize that they cannot trust the system. Parents must call for an assembly at the high school where the Administration will inform students that the program has been discarded. The illegal contracts must be destroyed. It is time for everyone to embrace the truth. The Administration, staff and parents must encourage students. Students should feel they have the support of the community and that graduating high school is not such a difficult feat. We must find a way to motivate students so they will want to go to school

Someone whom I love very dearly told me recently that she would be willing to go to a 9th period if it meant that she could take Art or something fun in school. Is anybody listening?


                                               How are the children"