Charter School Parent: We Need To Come Together On Behalf Of Our Kids

Parents are frustrated about the controversy involving the charter group the Board of Education removed from managing low-performing Dunbar School. But are they willing to walk away from the charter school movement where they say progress has taken place? Here’s one perspective from charter school parent Tina Stevens:

In the summer of 2009, I moved with my three children from Yonkers to Bridgeport. We moved to Connecticut because I really believed we would be able to find a better life. That August, my daughter Sakura started the second grade at Curiale and she was doing really well. She used to come home from school every day, letting me know kids were punching her in the stomach and picking on her. My daughter was bullied for doing well in school.

My daughter has always been on the honor roll no matter where she went to school. But her education has always been a challenge. Getting her through the first few years of school was really hard. We had to move her from school to school to school being at such a young age and she was not learning the way I wanted her to learn. And as a parent, I didn’t know any better.

When my daughter made the honor roll at Curiale, her teacher was afraid to tell us because he didn’t want other parents to know and didn’t want her to be picked on. That same school year, the Principal at Curiale told me to move my children from Curiale to Roosevelt School so all of my children could be together in the same building.

When Sakura got to Roosevelt, her teachers noticed her talent. They pleaded with me to send her to a different school and they took it upon themselves to apply for her transfer to the John Winthrop School talented and gifted program. At Winthrop, she excelled, but something wasn’t quite right.

Last year when she was about to start the 5th grade, my daughter was accepted to Achievement First Bridgeport Academy Middle School. She is being challenged and at home in her classroom. She really found herself at AFBA. Thanks to the support from her teachers, Sakura is finally proud of her success and comfortable in her own skin.

I want to share my story because my family and I have been through a lot in order to gain access to the best possible school environment. I know I’m not the only parent in Bridgeport with a child who was trapped in a school that could not challenge her. Things would have been going great, if they weren’t going so badly.

My recent experiences as a Bridgeport public school parent remind me at the end of the day, I am the only guaranteed advocate for my children. It’s no secret our schools are struggling. Across our district in many schools, teachers are overworked, funding is scarce, there is no accountability, and inclusive parent input has all but disappeared at the individual school level. I was the PAC president at Curiale, and now as a parent of children in charter schools I struggle to make my voice heard by other public school parents.

I worry about the way we as community members and parents continue to fight amongst each other. This is not about charter schools, or a mistake another adult made on behalf of our kids. School change is not movement about individuals, it is about better schools for every kid in Bridgeport. We have no time to waste. Every day, we lose another student. As a community, we need to come together on behalf of all our kids.