Customer service falls short in our schools

Facts taken from Racine Unified’s Annual Report; these are the overall results of the Customer Satisfaction Survey given to the parents of children enrolled in RUSD:


- 88% of elementary schools are performing at or above minimum expectations

- 46% of middle schools are performing at or above minimum expectations

- 44% of high schools are performing at or above minimum expectations


This data should be of no surprise to any parent of a RUSD student. For the most part, we are all quite satisfied with the elementary schools in the district. We love the teachers, the building administrators and staff! Our elementary schools clearly work, why don’t the middle and high schools yield the same results?

I’m sure there are many mitigating circumstances, but I would guess one of the biggest reasons why our middle and high schools do not function as well as the elementary schools is the fact we have too many children in these buildings for those schools to function effectively.

Putting 2200-2300 students in a building designed for 1400 is a recipe for disaster, yet we have dealt with this major overcrowding since the 1983-1984 school year (the year we moved 9th grade to HS).

Everyone knows the simplest solution would be to move the 9th graders back to junior high, which in turn would push the 6th graders back to elementary. Of course this move would entail building new elementary schools, but elementary schools are relatively inexpensive to build (compared with high schools). While I do not believe the public would support another referendum for operational expenses, I think a capital referendum to build new schools would pass overwhelmingly.

But do we have any action on this? No, the board and administration have decided to defer the decision to reconfigure the grades (again!!). Maybe if they spent less time talking about trees, they could focus on some real improvements for the district.