Continuing to do the same thing and expecting different results is a form of insanity.
We can look at Columbine Elementary many different ways. But the bottom line is it has been an abysmal failure. Yes it has a high proportion of poor students for whom English is a second language. The point remains, the school was not setting their students up for success.
Making small changes on the edges would have been continuing down the same path of ongoing failure. That would have been insane.
BVSD has stepped up and made a drastic change. It may make the school a lot better. It may make it a lot worse. But it absolutely won't remain the same. And since what we had was failure, the downside risk of this change is actually pretty small.
Now we watch closely to see if BVSD can do better. If they do bring about substantial improvement, then we need to support the BVSD administration and encourage them to bring about that improvement across the district. And if they make a bigger mess, then we need to replace them.
Kudos to BVSD for doing this - it's a very brave action politically.
