In an article in the November 15, 2024, issue of this newspaper, readers learned of a “potential six-figure cost of fixing” the problem of lockers for the new middle school, which are too small.
In another article, we learn “the number of [CCHS] students taking the AP exams is on the rise.” Currently between 92 and 94 percent of CCHS students take the AP tests. However, Black students, who make up 3.7 percent of the CCHS student body, “took just 0.83 percent of the school’s AP tests in 2024.” Similar rates are seen among Hispanic students (6.3 percent of the student body took 4.17 percent of the tests) and low-income students (8.5 percent of the student body, 3.4 percent of the tests).
I’ve been reading for years of the increasingly yawning gap between rates of attendance and scholastic achievement for minority students and other students in schools all over this country. It has not been treated as a current problem or one of even greater consequences in our society if it persists. It marks a dropped responsibility by all citizens.
I wonder if we took that six-figure amount for lockers and used it to seriously engage adults and students in all communities CCHS serves: listen to ideas, generate possible solutions, try them out, and come back to discussions and planning if our ideas mostly fall flat. And maybe teachers of CCHS sixth graders could rearrange their education plans so the kids go to their lockers — the ones re-used from the old middle school — more often. It would help mitigate academic anxiety and back pain.
Wouldn’t that be a revolutionary move for the 250th?
David Downing
Concord Greene
