Weighing in on the neighborhood schools discussion in our community

Dear President Addiego and ELSB Memebers:

You have done an admirable job with very difficult decisions concerning the future of our K-8 facilities.  Your public participation process has been exemplary.  It is obvious that this process has benefited the Board significantly.

My wife and I moved to East Lansing in 1999 and were immediately attracted to the Glencairn Neighborhood because of its intrinsic beauty, proximity to downtown and MSU and because of Glencairn Elementary School which was K-5 at the time.  Our son, Jacob, was born in 1999 and by the time he was old enough to attend Glencairn Elementary it was reconfigured to a Grade 5-6 school.  For our son's first day of school, he rode a bus two miles to Marble Elementary School. Our daughter Antonia was born in 2004 and when she was school age, she got on the same bus.  We have never experienced neighborhood schools.

I know you have received ample input on the benefits of neighborhood schools, so I want to let you know how we benefited from having our children go to a school that was not in our neighborhood.  Given that we have quality teachers at all of our schools, the main benefit for our family has been the diversity of the student body. On a community level, East Lansing is better off when each of our students is provided the opportunity to associate with a broad range of other students.  It lifts the community up when students of different economic, cultural and racial backgrounds are able to befriend each other at an early age.  This is the world that our children are growing up in.  

On a personal level, my children are African American and as they search for their own identity it is equally important that they have the opportunity to not be the only child of color in their classroom, especially since on the whole we have a rather diverse student body.  It is also important that they have the opportunity to have instructors and administrators of color so that they can broaden their aspirations through these role models.  My daughter looks up to and is very fond of her Principal, Ms. Ruth Riddle.

While at Marble Elementary, my children were still one of the few children of color in their respective classes, but they were not alone.  With Glencairn and Marble Neighborhood students mixed my children were provided much more cultural, economic and racial diversity than they would have received if they had attended Glencairn Elementary for five years.  Increased diversity has been a significant benefit of having our current school configuration.

I applaud your recent decision to mix the the Red Cedar Elementary student body with the Glencairn Elementary student body as a K-5 Glencairn Elementary school. When Jacob went to Glencairn as a 5th and 6th grade student (2009-2011) it was wonderful to see him in an environment that neared fifty percent children of color in the classroom  (I would feel this way if I had European American children as well).  The racial configuration was very diverse with fellow students representing a variety of cultures and colors as well as economic situations.  While the mix would not be the same since the Marble student body would not be included in the new reconfiguration, it would none the less be significantly more diverse than if Glencairn Elementary was only populated by the surrounding neighborhood.  This move not only benefits Glencairn Neighborhood Students, but it also benefits the Flower Pot Neighborhood students as well as MSU International Students' children.  All of our students come together at MacDonald Middle School.  Early integration of both European American Students and non European American students allows for a much more productive, cohesive and rich middle and high school experience which will benefit each student who attends our school district and the world that they enter upon graduation. I know the Red Cedar Elementary School has a reputation as an outstanding international academy.  I am looking forward to my daughter benefiting from those same values and programs as they are shared with the Glencairn  Elementary student body. 

Warmly,

Erich