All-Day Kindergarten is part of why O.A. Thorp is such a good school
My name is Jeremy Chaet. My wife Margaret and I have been parents at O. A. Scholastic Academy for the past twelve years. Our daughter Josephine graduated two years ago and our son Arthur is currently a seventh grader at the school. My wife and I are both deeply committed to the school, and truly grateful for the excellent education our children have received there. An education, I might add, which began with full day kindergarten.
O. A. Thorp Scholastic Academy is, as you are probably well aware, a high-performing magnet school which serves a diverse population of 820 students with excellent results. That is why I have prepared this statement today — to urge this board to find a way to continue the funding of full-day kindergarten for our school and for all schools.
By cutting kindergarten I think you create a situation which as we move forward can’t help but undermine performance at every grade level. Kindergarten is the foundation on which later performance is built and clearly better education for our children requires more early childhood opportunities not fewer.
Who is to say that the money you will save next year by cutting full-day kindergarten will not lead to greater costs down the line due to the fact that students will be less well prepared.
Kindergarten sets the tone for how a student is to act and what the teacher expects of his/her students. If those students enter first grade unprepared, then they will constantly be trying to catch up.
I have great affection for Thorp school. I feel that my children have been the beneficiaries of a great education. However I think that the shift from a full-day kindergarten to a half-day program can’t help but detract from the excellent work which goes on at Thorp every day.
That is why I implore CPS CEO Ron Huberman and the board members to invest yourselves in this cause. Please seek out a way to continue the funding of full-day kindergarten for our school and for all schools, so that our teachers can continue their excellent work.
I am also very much concerned about the effects on our school should the Board of Education decide, as has been proposed, to cut the busing program at magnet schools next year. We at Thorp are especially proud of the diverse nature of our student population. Students from all races and socioeconomic levels desire to come to Thorp because of its excellent performance and we in the Thorp community cherish this diversity. Without the buses which bring so many of our students to school each day I fear you would cause even greater harm to our school than would the loss of full-day kindergarten.
So please consider both of these important issues. Try if you can to avoid making any changes to a school which has proven, as few have, that it can succeed and allow our teachers and administration to continue moving forward.
Jeremy Chaet
