50 signatures reached
To: Ron Brady and NFCS Leadership
FREE Credit Recovery for NFCS High School Students
Offer free summer credit recovery and reimburse families who have already paid for credit recovery.
Why is this important?
We would like NFCS to offer free credit recovery for all high school students who require it.
COVID-19 has created an extremely difficult experience for all of us, having had to continue to work, support our families, and also learn to be high school teachers, paraprofessionals, etc. Some of us have done this as grandparents on fixed incomes, as parents who have lost employment during this time, as survivors of COVID-19, or just as parents who have been trying to navigate a new terrain of living for which none of us were prepared.
Unfortunately, we are now tasked by New Foundations Charter High School to take on the additional burden of paying for summer school for our students who were not successful during remote learning. We applaud the effort of many teachers but as you can imagine, many of our students were, also, not prepared for this event. Our children were conditioned to learning with reliable assistance, with peers, and the shift to remote learning was difficult. Many of us are caregivers for multiple students in multiple grades, of students with disabilities, and people who have had to try and support our kids while trying to sustain our own livelihood. This is why it is extremely disappointing that we are now having to emotionally support our children through the possibility of retention because some of us are not able to afford the cost of summer school. We need you to understand that their inability to pass these courses was not merely a reflection of their academic abilities and effort; any grading of any student during this pandemic was more a grade on a child’s life circumstances than it was on any single child’s academic ability.
We ask that New Foundations Charter High School pay the cost of summer school for students who are unable to afford it and reimburse the cost of summer school for the students who were required to pay in order to earn credit. To impose such a financial burden on families during a worldwide crisis is unjust and borderline cruel. Our children could, yes, simply be retained next school year but educators are well aware of the long-term research that links retention to adverse outcomes. Students and families should not be penalized because of a crisis that even our government is struggling to manage.
We want nothing more than the best for our students. We are asking that NFCS support us as caregivers with the utmost compassion.
COVID-19 has created an extremely difficult experience for all of us, having had to continue to work, support our families, and also learn to be high school teachers, paraprofessionals, etc. Some of us have done this as grandparents on fixed incomes, as parents who have lost employment during this time, as survivors of COVID-19, or just as parents who have been trying to navigate a new terrain of living for which none of us were prepared.
Unfortunately, we are now tasked by New Foundations Charter High School to take on the additional burden of paying for summer school for our students who were not successful during remote learning. We applaud the effort of many teachers but as you can imagine, many of our students were, also, not prepared for this event. Our children were conditioned to learning with reliable assistance, with peers, and the shift to remote learning was difficult. Many of us are caregivers for multiple students in multiple grades, of students with disabilities, and people who have had to try and support our kids while trying to sustain our own livelihood. This is why it is extremely disappointing that we are now having to emotionally support our children through the possibility of retention because some of us are not able to afford the cost of summer school. We need you to understand that their inability to pass these courses was not merely a reflection of their academic abilities and effort; any grading of any student during this pandemic was more a grade on a child’s life circumstances than it was on any single child’s academic ability.
We ask that New Foundations Charter High School pay the cost of summer school for students who are unable to afford it and reimburse the cost of summer school for the students who were required to pay in order to earn credit. To impose such a financial burden on families during a worldwide crisis is unjust and borderline cruel. Our children could, yes, simply be retained next school year but educators are well aware of the long-term research that links retention to adverse outcomes. Students and families should not be penalized because of a crisis that even our government is struggling to manage.
We want nothing more than the best for our students. We are asking that NFCS support us as caregivers with the utmost compassion.