Home -----PTSA PTSA Questions -------- Walden & Downtown - - - - - - Letter from Staff - - - - Contact - - - -Expenditures
February 17, 2004
1012 Center Street
Racine, Wisconsin 53403
Dear Oprah,
We have seen your show before, and how you help many people in need. We live in Racine, Wisconsin and attend Walden Middle/High School. You might have heard about the closing of it because we're a nationally and internationally recognized school, the only one of its kind in this country. The reason they are moving our program and closing the building is because we don't have enough money for our school district. The school board says that they have made all the "other" cuts they can make, so now they need to close buildings. Our building was chosen because it is very old (circa 1860) and they have not fixed it up for many years. Several other programs have been targeted for moving also. These programs, along with ours, are the most successful programs in our district!
We are very worried about what will happen to these programs if they are moved into buildings with other, regular education programs. The uniqueness of the ways our teachers teach us, the freedoms we are granted that help to make us responsible, our classroom outside the classroom are all threatened. We're also deeply worried about the neighborhoods that will be hurt by the closing of these schools. All the schools that are to be closed are in Racine's fragile, inner city neighborhoods. The entire south side of our city will be left without a school.
This especially concerns us because our school is very active in our community. We are partners with the Racine Art Museum, the Bray Center, Headstart, peer mentoring at one of the other inner city schools that's targeted for closing, Racine Heritage Museum, Cops and Kids reading program (which your friend Julia Burney founded and for which you remodeled the building. Our school is just a few short blocks away from the Cops 'N Kids Reading Center.) We also work with Toys for Tots, we have the biggest food drive in the city of Racine even though we are the smallest school, we donate funds and goods to many other Racine projects and programs that need help. Our downtown, fragile neighborhood IS our classroom and moving us from here will hurt both our program and this neighborhood.
At this point, the school district is not saying that they will shut down our programs, but that they will move them into other buildings with other, more traditional programs. We and staff from the other schools know that this solution will not work, but the district is not listening to us rather they are listening to a consultant from outside our community who came and looked and numbers. WHAT HAPPENED TO DOING WHAT IS BEST FOR KIDS? Numbers don't tell the real stories of what goes on in schools, students do. Our whole country needs to look at the schools and what is happening to them, and we feel you are the person to make this a national and positive focus.
Students and teachers from our school are working hard to save our programs. We have met with the city council, the mayor, our alderman, and all of the downtown businesses. All of them want us to stay in our neighborhood and want us to continue our classroom outside of the classroom approach to education. We have picketed and spoken at all of the meetings that have been held regarding our school situation. We are taking a group of students to Madison to express our concerns to the governor of WI, and we're currently seeking an audience with our Lt. Governor.
If you think there is anyway you can help us, if you would like to learn more about us, if you would like to hear our story, please feel free to look at our website or to contact us via phone. Our website address is www.waldeniii.org, our phone is 262.664.6250. Fax us at: 262.664.6255.
Thank you for taking the time to read our letter. Know that we would appreciate anything you could do for us and for all the other students in our city and in this country who love their schools and who want to participate in their own educations.
Your friends, Julia Spieker, Tegan Dunk, Leonora Gomez 8th grade Walden Middle school students
Home -----PTSA PTSA Questions -------- Walden & Downtown - - - - - - Letter from Staff - - - - Contact - - - -Expenditures