Letter from RHS teacher

Letter for the blog:

I teach at RHS and live in Southridge. After attending the meeting at
RHS, it is obvious there are three points of contention: 1) Southridge,
Forrestridge, and Montecito want to attend Guyer, 2) the 380 corridor
residents want to attend Ryan, 3) the school district does not want
DHS to become an inner city school.

If the 3rd point is the most important, (which I believe is the case),
we are in an uphill battle. Actually, it is like the battle is at the
top of Mt. Everest and we are gathering rocks in the foothills of Tibet.

I think we need to ally with the people of the 380 corridor and present
a single, unified modification. The modification needs to be an
alternative map. In order to make this map, we need the actual income
density data that the school is using.

There are several issues with the proposed map as I see it. Since it
looks like gerrymandering is in play to make the economic status
similar, (ie: 380 going similar then they did a poor job. Low
socio-economic levels of 16% for Guyer, 34% for RHS and 39% for DHS
doesn't seem very equitable to me. Bussing high income all around as
the only solution is very one sided. Bussing low income around should
also be on the table to get these things evened out. It seems like a
neighborhood "feel" could be more easily achieved by bussing inner
Denton students a shorter distance than outer Denton students longer
distances.

The main point I have to make is the school board needs to see a map
that has our sub-divisions at Guyer and still has an even socio-economic
breakdown of the schools. If we can't do that then we have no chance of
going to school across the street.

I find it hard to believe that teachers at DHS are thrilled with this
map. A 15% increase in your low socio-economic student base is not a
prayer answered. The fact is that these kids generally have more on
their plate. Academia simply can't take precedence over survival. I
realize these are generalizations and politically unsound, and that
every child has his or her own story, but typically these parents are
both working many hours, these kids are working or watching siblings and
school is 3rd, 4th or 5th on the list of priorities. It is a tougher
student body to reach. The students of Southridge, Forrestridge and
Montecito have different pressures.

Scott Dean
Southridge resident
RHS teacher