Let’s look at a way to make bussing more productive and not wasteful. This would be a great opportunity for City of Decatur Schools to be on the forefront of being green. We’ve received, as a city, the rewards of being green. And we should continue. Find creative ways for bussing to REALLY work. Many folks who are too far away to walk to the 4 and 5 Academy will want to get a bus ride, but at a reasonable time, not an hour before school starts.

I would suggest a competition from Decatur High, GA Tech, or Emory students to come up with a solution. Possibly using alternative energy? Or a better walking/bike route? What about a shuttle system like Emory has its Clif Bus. This would be an opportunity for sponsorships as well.

And I believe I’ve read that more than 80% of these kids from “under-resourced communities” go to college. Now, of course these aren’t elementary school kids, but still. Sorta interesting since many of us grew up in a culture that strongly defends down-time.

But I do think that a few private schools have some instructional methods that CSD could easily implement with the main cost being the continued training and education of its already excellent teachers and enforcing implementation on the ground level. Some of those private schools are super-expensive, super-advanced technique schools for children with special needs, e.g. autism spectrum, highly gifted, dyslexia, other learning disorders, ADD or ADHD, all of which have a ton of overlap and a wide spectrum which actually includes many of our typical learners too–their parents and teachers just don’t realize it. But some more typical-instruction private schools, e.g. Woodward, are starting to offer some of that instruction as an adjunct for students who need it, during the school day so it’s not just one more tutoring class, one more thing that adds to student fatigue and resistance. (My guess is that it’s at additional cost too!) As I continue to read and learn about the new neuroscience of the learning brain, I am convinced that all of our children could better reach their potential–in fact maybe their potential is a lot higher than we realized–if only we could better use their time in school. But education, like any huge field and set of institutions, moves slowly while meanwhile our children’s brains grow quickly and soon it’s too late to easily change the learning trajectory. This is where private schools, even those that deal with the children who struggle the most, have an advantage IF they choose to use it–they can be lighter on their feet, less incumbered by massive mandates like NCLB, less hierarchical, less vulnerable to politics and the economy. But I wouldn’t pay the kind of tuition that these schools charge–from $10,000 to $40,000 per year depending on the type and prestige of the school–without being sure that the particular school provided the right fit and value-added for my child. That’s why I love Burble’s idea of looking at what successful private schools do and identifying those few strategies, curricula, techniques that CSD isn’t currently offering but would greatly benefit its students. The idea is take our exceptional teachers and give them tools to improve instruction and our children’s potential without adding to their workload or incurring long-term cost.