,

I am starting this petition to stop the "repurposing" of Kennedy k-5.

There are many community and student issues, to keep this short I'll name a few.

    First and foremost our children, many of our kids at Kennedy are low income or at risk who just had their worlds turned upside down in the last year what they need now more than anything is to get back to some kind of normalcy with consistency.  It is proven that smaller schools and smaller class sizes have well documented advantages for lower income and high risk youths like many of these students. Many of these students will also have transportation issues, the school provides busing if you live more then 2.5 miles away that puts many of our young children walking across our busiest streets.   Also what about the schools your moving all these kids too? Larger classrooms benefit neither party.

   If you do move forward with this plan is the building going to be just for early childhood or is there another plan in the works to get other programs in there for more money because I guarantee you would lose much of the early childhood support if that is the case.

  Last but not least some personal experience I grew up in a district where most kids were high risk including myself and I can give you exact moments and words that changed my life and many of my friends that came from a 1st grade teacher or a 5th grade teacher , even a lunch lady and the more kids you pack in to a classroom the less likely these moments that are shaping these lives at such an impressionable age will happen. Its just not possible and there it starts someone's child will be left behind.