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I felt the need to respond to Mr. John Dunn’s letter.
My children also attended Chelsea Schools and were happy with their education. In response I would like to pose my educational list.
All parents have always had the right to speak to the teachers, principals and school boards. That has never changed in my life time. I have trouble understanding why some parents feel that all children shouldn’t have opportunities to learn, but instead attack the schools about what they believe should be the education for all children. The job as parents is to teach your children your values and beliefs for your children. Have good conversations with them.
In your letter Mr. Dunn, you definitely pointed out differences between the eight people running for school board. It is easy to do that. I see it as people who see the world we live in and some who are nostalgic for our past education. I listened to all seven candidates at the forum at City Council Chambers. Some longed for past, like you remember the good old days, reading, math and writing but not extras like, health class, or DBEI because those should not be at the school. In some ways I do agree with you, but the difference is kids do not always feel comfortable talking to their parents about sex, being bullied or when they are not sure who they want to be. Kids have a keen sense of what they perceive their parents will tolerate. I know this because it happened with one of my kids. Some parents are not comfortable speaking to their own kids about the above subjects, for a myriad of reasons. We talked with our kids about everything, yet we didn’t know about the bullying going on. Yes, I know some say everyone gets bullied. That doesn’t make it right. When we got a call from the school we were told he followed all the correct procedures, but the school didn’t step up. They then took responsibility for what they had not done. I give them a lot of credit for that.
You stated 200 families have left this school district. You didn’t say where that number came from. I started to try to find information on that statement, but could not. I do know that some of students were taken out of the school due to bullying or harassment. It was stated by parents on some of the zoom meetings for the school board. If parents don’t think that mental health and belonging is not important, I beg to differ. I have lived here long enough to remember the deaths from drinking in 1988 and suicides in 1989. Those were some bad years. The school didn’t recognize MLK Day even after it was a national holiday. It started to be celebrated in January of 2001 and has been going strong since then. I found at datausa.io
some Chelsea demographics for2020. We had an increase in population by .882%. Income decreased by 20.9%. Our housing costs went from $ 66,000 to a little over $80,000. I am just using round numbers for this. Nothing about schools loses of students. I did find rankings for Chelsea Schools Washtenaw County on Niche. We have an overall grade of A in Academics, teachers, clubs/activities and college prep. C- in diversity and B+ Administration. #3 in Best School Districts in Washtenaw County. All of this to me says our kids are doing pretty good overall. DBEI is teaching we are not all the same. Just because we are different in the ways we do things doesn’t give kids the right to bully because of the way kids look, act, or differences that our kids are not used to seeing. As a parent our job should be to talk with our kids about different people than your family. There is nothing wrong with learning about different cultures or learning to accept people different than us. I know for some people in Chelsea it could be difficult to do that.
We have to move with changes because our children could live anywhere in the world. For us just traveling to different places in the U.S. shows our kids differences from different regions of our country and at the same time find out we are not so different. Most families want their children to be decent citizens, caring about others and have concern for others.
In closing, my biggest wish would be for more parents to volunteer in the schools when you can, go to parent/teacher conferences, even when your child is doing great, don’t blame the teachers for COVID learning because they had to learn on the fly too. It wasn’t ideal but it was better than nothing. Kids are resilient and will come back strong. Teachers go into teaching because it is something they want to do in their heart. Kids know when adults at school and home can be trusted with information they choose to share. Kids find their person at school for the most part. This is not the same world we grew up in, so being nostalgic for the good old days does not pertain anymore. We did not grow up in fear of school shootings. Here our kids went to school mainly with their own kind, so differences for some could be difficult. If you can’t speak to your kids about different subjects but the school provides then call them. They will work with you. Fear is a powerful deterrent, but knowledge is stronger.
Debbie Oborne
