Dear State School Reform/Redesign Office Team,

Oakland University’s School of Education and Human Services has been fortunate to be engaged in partnership with the School District of the City of Pontiac for the last 2.5 years. During this time, we have had the pleasure to work alongside and partner with administrators, teachers and staff who are working for the benefit of Pontiac students. We feel strongly that closing any of Pontiac’s schools while they are diligently working and making exceptional, ongoing improvements, would set the district back in their efforts, and be ultimately damaging to Pontiac children.

First, closing these schools will create undue hardships for the remaining schools that will need to absorb those students. Classroom overcrowding would increase the burden of providing high-quality instruction, and thwart their hard-earned progress. Such an influx of students reduces student achievement, teacher positivity, and instructional climate (Brummet, 2014; Pianta, La Paro, Payne, Cox, & Bradley, 2002).

Second, the close proximity of neighborhood schools makes it easier for parents to get to school to partner with teachers, and for children to attend before/after school activities. Closing a neighborhood school and moving children to schools in other neighborhoods makes it more difficult for children and their parents to have this full access. Through our partnership work with Pontiac Schools, we know that access to reliable transportation is already a great need and concern for parents, so just getting children to school may become a problem. Currently, there are ongoing collaborative efforts amongst Pontiac schools, Oakland University, and several churches to improve parent support and home-school connections. Closing neighborhood schools would negatively impact these efforts.

Third, school closures disrupt neighborhood cohesion, which is positively related to school outcomes. Our survey of Pontiac parents found that families have stronger cohesion than national average. This strength should be supported by maintaining neighborhood schools. The closing of neighborhood schools is likely to not only disrupt neighborhood cohesion, but may have a negative impact on family cohesion as well.  

Fourth, closing any of the Pontiac schools would be a bitter blow to the morale of Pontiac teachers, staff, and administrators who have been working tirelessly on the behalf of Pontiac students and their parents. It would wrongly send the message that their efforts are in vain and their achievements are unrecognized.  Low teacher morale negatively impacts school climate and student achievement (MacNeil, Prater, & Busch, 2009).

Pontiac Schools have made great progress across the past few years. They have improved student achievement on standard test scores, raised graduation rates from 55% to 69%, reduced their budget deficit by an impressive 50%, and renovated schools to create better learning environments for students. They have also developed strong partnerships such as the federally-funded REACH grant to improve nutrition and physical activity within Pontiac schools, which is being implemented in conjunction with Oakland University’s School of Health Sciences. This is critical not only for students’ health, but improved health is also related to higher academic achievement (Langford et al., 2014). Closing Pontiac schools will disrupt and potentially displace critical partnership programs such as these, to the detriment of Pontiac children.

Those of us working with teachers and administrators in the School District of the City of Pontiac are witnessing the improvements in pedagogical practices, and have confidence that these will yield even better student outcomes in the years to come. Closing any of Pontiac’s schools would only thwart the momentum of this progress. As you know, progress is a gradual phenomenon. The School District of the City of Pontiac, Oakland Schools, Oakland University, and others are actively engaged in productive partnerships that will continue to help Pontiac children. We trust that you will continue to assist us in our efforts to put Pontiac children and families first. 

Sincerely,

Dr. Tanya Christ

Associate Professor of Reading and Language Arts

Anica Bowe

Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology

S. Rebecca Leigh

Associate Professor of Reading and Language Arts

Gwendolyn Thompson McMillon

Professor of Literacy

Dr. Jennifer Lucarelli

Associate Professor of Health Sciences

Dr. Danielle Ligocki

Assistant Professor of Education, TDES

Dr. Anthony Tuf Francis

Assistant Professor of Education, TDES

Dr. Robert A. Wiggins

Professor, Department of Teacher Development and Educational Studies

Scott L. Crabill, Ph.D.

Interim Associate Dean, School of Health

Mark Stone

Associate Professor of Music

David Secord

Partnership Coordinator, School of Education and Human Services (SEHS)

Garry J. Gilbert

Journalism Program Director

Adviser to The Oakland Post

Carol Bacak-Egbo

Special Lecturer, Teacher Development and Educational Studies

Laura Gabrion

Special Lecturer, Writing and Rhetoric

Suzanne Rossi

MPA Program Coordinator

Co-Chair, OU-Pontiac Capacity Building for Nonprofits and Neighbors

Sheryl Ruszkiewicz

Special Lecturer, Writing and Rhetoric

Chaturi Edrisinha, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Associate Professor, Human Development and Child Studies

Director-Research, Oakland University Center for Autism

Pauline L. Walker

School and Field Services

Dr. John E. McEneaney, Professor and Chair

Department of Reading and Language Arts

Mary K. Lose, Associate Professor and Director

Reading Recovery Center of Michigan

Department of Reading and Language Arts

Dr. Ji-Eun Lee, Associate Professor and Chair

Department of Teacher Development and Educational Studies

Dr. Mary Stein, Professor

Department of Teacher Development and Educational Studies

Anne Switzer

Outreach & Social Sciences Librarian

Dr. Tomoko Wakabayashi, Associate Professor

Department of Human Development & Child Studies

Dr. Paul Morsink

Assistant Professor of Reading and Language Arts

Dr. Todd Leibert, Associate Professor

Department of Counseling

David A. Dulio

Professor and Chair

Department of Political Science

Amanda Nichols Hess

Education Librarian, Oakland University Libraries

Dawnelle J. Henretty, Special Lecturer

Department of Reading and Language Arts

Nicholas Lauer, Ph.D.

Special Instructor

Human Development and Child Studies

Alan Epstein

Religious Studies Director

Daniel L. Majeske

Supervisor for Student Teaching Interns STEP and MAT Programs

School and Field Services

Dr. William Solomonson, Associate Professor

Department of Organizational Leadership

Dr. Linda M. Pavonetti, Professor

Department of Reading and Language Arts

References

Brummet, Q. (2014). The effect of school closings on student achievement. Journal of Public Economics, 119, 108-124.

Langford R., Bonell C. P., Jones H. E., Pouliou T., Murphy S. M., Waters E., Komro K. A., Gibbs L. F., Magnus D., Campbell R. (2014). The WHO Health Promoting School framework for improving the health and well-being of students and their academic achievement. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 4, Art. No.: CD008958.

MacNeil, A. J., Prater, D. L., & Busch, S. (2009). The effects of school culture and climate on student achievement. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 12(1), 73-84.

Pianta, R. C., La Paro, K. M., Payne, C., Cox, M. J., & Bradley, R. (2002). The relation of kindergarten classroom environment to teacher, family, and school characteristics and child outcomes. The Elementary School Journal, 102(3), 225-238.