Tuesday was the first day of school in the Poughkeepsie Central School District. Lower Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Elias Guerra asked families how the day went.
TRANSCRIPT
Outside of Sojourner Truth Elementary School, I spoke with Genesis, who’s starting third grade.
“It's so much fun at school because you do math and when you grow up you can go be one like you could be a doctor or daycare and everything.”
And her brother Pablo who is starting second grade.
“I like school because school is the best and we got to learn a lot because teachers are good at math and reading and my name is Pablo.”
The parents I spoke to, like Tatiana Garrett, were a little tired after a lengthy dismissal.
“It's just a lot. Nobody wants to stand in line and wait. I just waited for her for like 45 minutes. It's like, come on, I'm tired. I wanna go home.”
But they said they're excited for the new year.
The Poughkeepsie Central School District is undergoing big changes this year.
The Superintendent, Gregory Mott is leaving in February after the District Board of Education voted to terminate him. As board president Jamar Cummings put it, the district is moving in a new direction.
“We're fully invested in the community schools model. and we [are] aligning the curriculum, community schools, so we want to get leadership in that understands that model and can really expand that throughout the district.”
Cummings said the board is preparing to find a replacement for Superintendent Mott and hopes the search will be a community-led effort.
There’s also a new curriculum for students from Kindergarten to 8th grade with the company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, usually called HMH.
One goal for the new curriculum is for all schools in the district to follow the same program, which Erica Martin, whose son Dylan started Kindergarten on Tuesday, said would be a great idea, especially to create stability for students who are disabled.
“I think it's good. It's great. Because then if one child moved from one school to another, with the teaching system, they're able to just move along and it won't be a struggle. I think they implemented the right school curriculum for these children, especially children that have special needs.”
While many parents were aware of the outgoing superintendent and new curriculum, many of them, like Martin, had another issue on their minds.
“You know, technology took over a lot, especially with COVID, unfortunately. But we're moving forward as day by day, not year by year, day by day, but I think technology should be a no.”
Garrett, whose daughter Yarha is starting first grade, said she’s worried about AI and how it could hold children back.
“I just feel like it's a cheat code. And I don't know, maybe could be good for some things, but I feel like when it for kids to just help them use it in school, maybe they should be doing that by their self 'cause back then we used to do everything by hand, so it's just like to expect a kid or just to be like, 'hey, do AI,' that's cheating. 'Cause when it's a test, a big test, like Regents exams, what are you gonna say, 'let me use AI?'"
Martin and other parents emphasized the need for old-school teaching, with books and pens and paper.
“The only technology that we need is for the children that are nonverbal. That's it. I think everything else, computers, laptops, no, they need to know how to write. They don't did they don't need to teach, you know, the cursive now. So how can a child — when on an application, because we're talking about the real world now — an application say 'signature and print.' What, they're gonna print, just print? “
Diane Fernandez, who’s from Ecuador, said technology can be helpful for families who don’t speak English or didn’t learn certain topics where they grew up.
"Sí estaría mejor porque nos ayudarían a nosotros más que somos de otro país entonces sí estaría mejor porque es mejor para ellos que ellos puedan entender otros idiomas también y algunas de otras cosas más que no hemos aprendido en nuestro país.”
Translation: It would be better because it would help us who are from other countries more. It would be better for them to understand other languages too. And for us to understand other things that we haven't learned in our country.
The district's community schools approach aims to build bridges between school and home to "better guarantee that children find success in and out of school."
