David and Kim Zaiman wrote this letter to the Superintendent and Board of District 622 on 19 January 2008.
We are contacting you regarding the upcoming vote to withdraw 622 from EMID 6067. We have a daughter in 2nd grade at Harambee Community Cultures and Environmental Science Elementary School. The name of her school is very long, and it communicates so much to those who truly look at it. Harambee is a Swahili word meaning “pulling together”. Community Cultures, as opposed to World Cultures, because this is about everybody in our community. Those of different race or culture or religion or whose families were not formed in traditional ways. It is not about some theoretical culture somewhere else in the world. Environmental Science has been the neglected area of this discussion because it is about integration dollars. The campus allows children to immerse themselves in subjects crucial to the future health of our planet. Because the name is so long, most of us have a habit of just saying “Harambee” and we just wanted to remind everyone of the full and true name of my daughter’s school. We are proud that 622 is part of the EMID collaborative and offers our family the opportunity to send our daughter there.
We are concerned about the short timeline that has been involved in this decision process. We are concerned that all of the facts have not been presented and that there has not been enough discussion with stakeholders impacted by the decision. We are concerned that the resulting changes for 622 and any future collaborating district(s) have not been made clear and could be not be ready to implement in a mere 17 months.
As for the funds involved, most parents will continue to send their children to EMID schools, unless forced to use neighborhood schools due to lack of transportation. Therefore 622 will not get the dollar figures that they are currently looking at on paper. The only money guaranteed is the $600k designated as integration program money and it cannot be spent as part of the general fund. According to the state legislature, rules about how these funds are spent are scheduled to be tightened this year.
We are concerned about placement of children that would return to 622 neighborhood schools. The schools are already overcrowded.
We respectfully ask that you postpone this vote until you can collect more information on the impacts, positive and negative, that your decision will have on 622, EMID, and the students and parents that you were elected to represent.