"No Confidence" Petition Circulating Avon

A new petition, created in response to the district’s decision to replace school social workers with psychologists and Avon’s falling rankings, is circulating Avon, reports the Hartford Courant.

Residents are frustrated by the Board of Education’s refusal to reverse the decision and want to keep the issue alive.

The petition stems from a meeting on July 9 that organizers said was attended by about 45 people, including students, parents, and other residents. That meeting was scheduled after the board of education held a three-hour public hearing on the issue on July 1 but took no action.

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The petition reads:

“We, the undersigned, lack confidence in the leadership of our public schools as a result of:

• The Administration’s decision to eliminate all Social Workers from our public schools;
• Avon High School has dropped in state and national rankings below that of the other Farmington Valley high schools during their tenure. Our high school has fallen from 4th in the state to 22nd in the most recent rankings.

We find that the leadership that has led to these unfortunate developments is not in the best interests of our public school children and the community as a whole because:

• The community was not given an opportunity to provide input during the decision-making that led to the elimination of all school social workers;
• We have not received a full, transparent explanation for their decision to compromise the mental health support services resulting from the elimination of the social workers;
• The decision to eliminate the social workers does not reflect long recognized best practicesthat address how to support the mental well-being of our students and community and we are opposed to the untested experimentation with the mental well-being of our public student children caused by the absence of social workers;
• All other school districts in the Farmington Valley and similar socio-economic districts follow best practices and will continue to have social workers working in their schools. For decades, Avon Public Schools have had social workers;
• The opinions of professional mental health providers who were opposed to the decision to eliminate social workers were ignored by the Administration;
• Ridding the district of social workers is inconsistent with the State’s Sandy Hook Advisory Commission’s recommendations regarding the need for social workers;
• The drop in the prestige of the high school diminishes our town and schools’ stature andnegatively impacts our property values.”

School administrators have said they think school psychologists can provide a wider range of services to students. Board of Education Chairwoman Peggy Roell said the issue of the school social workers will likely be on the board’s agenda when it meets later in August.

To read the full Courant story, click here.