Parents will be getting surveys soon regarding changes for the Davenport Community School District.
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This comes as the district looks at its long range plan for its campuses.
“I feel like a broken record stating this all the time,” Davenport School Board President Daniel Gosa said. “I feel like there’s a lot of misconception out there I’ve heard from city council members this board has not had any discussions on pathways. It has been through the Long Range Planning and Facilites Committee, which included a staff member and parent from every school.”
Parents with kids at Walcott Elementary School have been the most outspoken about what the long range plan could mean.
Walcott Elementary is the only K-8 school in the Davenport school system.
Options introduced Monday night could change Walcott to a junior high school from 5th through 8th grades or 6th through 8th grades.
Supporters of keeping Walcott as-is organized themselves, starting a petition and collecting more than 2,000 signatures.
They’re also showing up at board meetings to make their case.
Here are a sampling of the comments:
- “We are begging you to please be transparent and find out what those proposed boundries will be. We keep hearing that you don’t know what they will be, so as a parent and Davenport alum, please put some time into that piece and complete the puzzle.”
- “I look back at myself walking to school and carrying my backpacks and saxophone, looking in both directions as I cross the street, passing by my neighbors I knew well and walking by. Now I look at my daughter thinking how great it is to experience what I did growing up. The options in front of us are putting our children on buses for up to an hour to start and end their day. Can you imagine an hour commmute every day to your job? Now imagine the same scenario when you are only five years old.”
The school board’s Long Range Facilties Committee said Monday that surveys for families are being printed and will go out this week.
Responses to those surveys could be considered in the planning process.