12/13/98
Opelika * Auburn News* THE NEWSPAPER OF EAST ALABAMA*12/13/98
Letter: Reader: ACS using deception
I have been watching with interest the debate between ACS Administration and the rest of the community at large and Year Round Schools (YRS). I have come to the belief that the ACS has conducted a pattern of deception with the Auburn community that, taken together, can no longer be viewed as either innocent mistakes or oversights by ACS administration, since ALL of the "mistakes" err in favor of YRS. These include:
1 ) Initial estimates of the cost of YRS that were gross underestimates, $45,000, com pared with $500,000-$1,700,000 now. The issue of the initial $45,000 estimate might be referred to as a "foot-in-the-door" technique or "bait and switch" often practiced by salesmen.
2) Rewriting of the "facts committee" report put to YRS in a more favorable light (Fact Sheet 1 versus Fact Sheet 2).
3) Misrepresentation of the literature on Channel 5 TV as claiming academic benefits o f YRS.
4) Claim that YRS will help at-risk students in the Facts Committee report. None of the studies cited by ACS support such a claim.
5) Citations to specific studies in the O-A I newspaper insert said to support benefits to | at-risk students despite having been specifically told that the cited studies fail to sup port such claim and that one study ACS cited probably included fabricated data.
6) In that same news insert they claimed | that two school systems in Alabama, Muscle Shoals and Hartselle City School systems, I are both ranked higher than Auburn and are on YRS. These two school systems were called. The claim by ACS is falseÛ they are NOT on YRS!
7) Errors in describing the calendar on the survey that served to minimize the negative impact of YRS to the community and to families.
8) Errors in the survey design that clearly provided a bias in favor of YRS against the traditional calendar.
9) Implication that only 40/242 teachers endorsed the traditional calendar, when the traditional calendar was not even an option on many of the teachers' surveys.
10) Reading a description of YRS to Drake students before the Drake survey, that | promised dance, rock climbing, music lessons | and a host of other fun activities that will happen if YRS is approved.
There are more discretions that ACS has conducted, but space limits their inclusion here. What is most disheartening is that in | their zealousness to get YRS stuffed down the throats of Auburn citizens, the ACS Administration has destroyed the most important ingredient in educationÛ the trust between parents and their children's schools. I hope that the ACS is happy with their efforts.
Al BradleyAuburn