Educational disease in Federal Way | Letters

Published 10:08 am Thursday, October 3, 2013

The Federal Way School Board and its superintendent, who was recently given a hefty pay raise without much public discourse, seem to have forgotten some simple everyday medical advice: when your patient is deathly ill, you “bring in” the specialists.

You don’t take the suffering patient’s chart of symptomatology as you travel from hospital to hospital or clinic to clinic — or in this case, country to country — to find the treatment.

The school board must perform thorough research and locate the specialists who possess a successful track history and are known to provide a workable academic cure, then bring the specialists to our schools where they will properly diagnose and implement a recovery strategy.

The state of education in Federal Way is on the decline. Some say it’s on life support. And our team of supposed local clinicians (school board members) are country hopping and not with their patient. And the leader (superintendent) of this so-called board of education is someone who doesn’t even live in the school district.

That ought to have been a clue and a concern to all of the Federal Way parents with children in Federal Way Public Schools.

I would ask that a log be provided of who the board visited, a report of what they discussed and learned, a financial disclosure of all money spent and reimbursed, and all expenses of the board’s global-hopping adventure.

A more serious concern is that before departing on their glorious travel to points around the world, there was a disclosure of making our children ready for a global future and ensuring that all students upon graduation have a firm grasp of a second language. Surely this was a humorous gesture. This is a request being made in a school district that has over 112 different languages being spoken. The focus should remain on teaching all of those children with English as a second language better English skills as they live in a country where English is the national language and considered as the essential and international global form of communication.

Lynnette Shureb, Federal Way