Dear Rockwood School District Board of Education,

I know you are faced with a very difficult decision in the coming week.  In light of this decision, I have a few things I would like to say.  I understand that on the surveys, the most popular way of saving money was overwhelmingly to cut the Rockwood gifted program altogether.  I stand strongly against this proposition.

As a student in the Rockwood School District who grew up with this program, I firmly believe that there were points when, without this program, school would have been lost on me.

In elementary school, I looked forward to the day when I got to take the bus ride over to CCL.  Taking a break from routine math tests, monotonous history lessons, and repeated language arts exercises, I, along with many others, got to learn about interesting topics such as organ donations, France, lasers and website production, just to name a few. There is not a thing I learned in that building that I didn’t carry with me into some class, sometime in my career as a student. In CCL, we got to engage with students of the same mindset—learning is fun. And there, my love for school blossomed. Rather than being singled out and having to answer questions no one else knew, we were with a group of twenty other kids who were the same way; we were part of a group. Collaborating on projects, learning interesting things about math, art and much more, I grew to love the program.

I was sad to leave CCL, but was excited when I reached Academic Stretch, the middle school component of the gifted program. In sixth grade, Mrs. Fredrickson let us work on many quarterly projects and work on them in our own way. Sixth hour was my favorite part of the day. I benefited greatly from this class, because it was fast-paced, always kept my attention and taught me things I would not have learned otherwise.  The highlight of my middle school experience with the gifted program was the Rube Goldberg project we did at the end of eighth grade. I didn’t quite get it right, but it was fun, and I learned a lot about the mechanics of what would better my project and how I would approach it if I were to do it again. Mrs. Podgornik was extraordinarily helpful in the process of learning that making a mistake is okay, as long as you learned something from it. Before that, I was of the mindset that if I didn’t do something perfectly, then I had failed. The gifted program, through this experience, taught me otherwise.

Again sad to leave, I moved on to high school, but was not abandoned by this program. I had a hard time adjusting to the fast pace of ALARP, but Hereford wouldn’t let me struggle without trying to help me. When she called me in for my freshman interview, I told her how hard of a time I was having picking a topic for my research project, and she spent all the time it took to have me leaving in a better place than I was in when I came in. She didn’t worry about the list of things she had to do that day, she focused just on me and my problems for the time I was in her office. And she does the same for every student who walks into her office. I never left her office feeling as though she hadn’t helped me. I always felt that Mrs. Hereford and Mrs. Podgornik did everything in their power in order to help me reduce my stress and solve my various problems when they came up.

Last year, when my counselor was bogged down by other students’ scheduling issues, I went to Mrs. Hereford’s office, and she helped me sort out a solution that helped me put all the classes in my schedule that I needed to, which I then told my counselor about. Without her, I wouldn’t be taking any of the classes I wanted to take this year. As the gifted counselors are more accessible, I often head to them if I feel I am struggling at all with any classes.

As office aide to Mrs. Podgornik and Mrs. Hereford this year, I have personally witnessed them do everything they have done for me, for every student who walks into their office. They set up tutoring for those struggling academically. They help seniors applying for college know how to form their application and what to include in their essay.  They help students who struggle with time management set up schedules.

The gifted program does so much for the students involved. The staff who run it are more than qualified, and jump at any opportunity to help a student succeed. Getting rid of this program would only punish the staff for the great job they’ve been doing, and gifted students simply for being gifted.

The mission statement of Rockwood School District clearly states, “We do whatever it takes to ensure all students realize their potential.” If that truly is the mission of the district, getting rid of the gifted program wouldn’t even be in question. Doing whatever it takes to ensure all students realize their potential means offering a program where students can reach their potential. For some students, this means going over things over and over again until they get it right, for others it means putting them in an environment where they feel challenged, welcomed and supported. For some students, realizing their full potential means being part of the gifted program. Please hold true to your values, and do whatever it takes to ensure all students realize their potential.

Sincerely,

Grace Bueckendorf