We took a vote at home with our children (who attend the Bromfield School) the other day. It was a vote of “no confidence” in the quality and care of our school by our School Committee. After watching months of meetings, comments, opinions, and letters on the subject of the teachers contracts go by, we have come to this decision.
We see the destruction of our teachers, of our children’s quality time at school, and of school administration. This has gone on too long and has done its damage.
We love living in Harvard and have enjoyed and admired all its good qualities. It’s been a good place to live. On the whole, we feel good decisions have been made by our town committees in the past to support this. We don’t see this happening with the School Committee. We have seen sides being taken—them versus us; we see few negotiating talks and no third nonpartisan party to move negotiations along; we see little leadership in our administration; and we see our children suffer for it. That is the hardest part.
After-school help, close relations with teachers, and our school pride and confidence have been replaced with less time and support for the children, a great amount of stress felt by students, parents, and the teachers, and a decline of our once-proud school system.
We are concerned about what will happen next year when some of this year’s teachers move on. What will attract quality teachers to our school system? The lack of a contract, poor teacher–administration relations, and the existing turmoil will not.
We need to move on, settle the contracts, and salvage what we can of our school system and staff.
One of our sons asked us, “What is happening to our school? I’m kind of worried, Mom.” What kind of an answer can we give him?
Lynn Cooke
Depot Road
