School changes parents want to see

After attending two recent Beaufort County School District town halls, I came away knowledgeable on these issues of concern:

Some teachers do not feel supported by the school administration and want assistance from the school board.

Parents and teachers are concerned by teacher absenteeism resulting in disruptive learning. Finding enough qualified substitutes is a problem.

Parents are not happy with the new school starting times. There are not enough buses or drivers to facilitate this operation. Interestingly, many morning buses have empty seats because many students are driven to school by working parents who are unable to pick up their children because of their jobs. A petition signed by 500 Hilton Head Island parents seeks a return to the old start times.

While the school administration professes improvement in the SAT scores, that was for last year. On the newly revamped SAT, student performance dropped by 20 points, with 67 percent participation.

Parents expressed that there is a lack of trust in the school board because of the trivialization of the Superintendent Jeff Moss ethic situation. Parents do not like the treatment that the “Moss Majority” of board members piles on the board members who ask questions that scrutinize Moss.

Concerns were expressed about the large size of the school district, with a suggestion of separating the county into three districts that would equally share the money and provide more local control.

I was very impressed with the participants, and it will be interesting to see what, if any, improvements come from it.

This story was originally published May 11, 2017 at 2:13 PM with the headline "School changes parents want to see."