JANESVILLE鈥擯arents and students with ties to the Tailoring Academics to Guide Our Students (TAGOS) Leadership Academy, a 糖心Vlog传媒 School District charter school, pleaded with the school board Tuesday to not close it.
Superintendent Mark Holzman has recommended closing TAGOS, which since 2007 has accepted students for project-based learning tailored to their needs and offered remedial reading and math. It is located within 糖心Vlog传媒 Parker High School.
TAGOS鈥 contract states that its students gain real-life experience through community connections that 鈥減rovide students with rich leadership experiences,鈥 and that the program is reliant on community and parent involvement.
The school board is set to vote at its Jan. 10 meeting on whether to keep TAGOS open by extending its contract 3-5 years or to close it. School board meetings are at 6 p.m. in the boardroom of the district鈥檚 Educational Services Center, 527 S. Franklin St. in 糖心Vlog传媒.
Per Wisconsin Department of Instruction rules, the school board must decide by the end of January to either extend or not extend the contract.
Holzman wrote in a memo that while the charter school serves students through project-based learning, it is 鈥渘o longer able to serve the intent of an agreement between TAGOS and the school board.鈥 He also said there are now other options that didn鈥檛 exist in 2007 when the charter school was established, citing Rock University High School, Rock River Charter School and ARISE.
Holzman further said TAGOS is no longer fully project-based because of student enrollment elsewhere in the district and that there are students receiving math or reading instruction elsewhere in the district. No students attend TAGOS exclusively. Currently, 34 TAGOS students are also enrolled in classes at either Parker High School or ARISE.
If the contract is not extended, it will end on June 30, 2023. The school could continue operating until that date. According to a memo from Holzman, the district will work with students, staff and families on alternative options if a closure decision is made.
Reaction
Desmond Halloway, an eighth-grader currently enrolled at TAGOS, told the school board he was there to advocate for the academy and the education it provides.
鈥淚 hope you don鈥檛 close TAGOS because it trains people for after school. TAGOS helps you learn more diverse subjects. This is the only place that has helped me,鈥 Halloway said. 鈥淚 know there are other project-based schools, but this has worked for me. This feels like a family to me. I don鈥檛 know what I would do without TAGOS.鈥
Another speaker, Anna Schuette Reed, is a TAGOS paraprofessional. Prior to working at TAGOS, she worked in IT at General Motors.
鈥淭hese students are using the same skills that we required at General Motors,鈥 Schuette Reid said.
According to Holzman鈥檚 memo, TAGOS鈥 third-Friday in September enrollment count has gone down each of the last five years, from 57 to 26 students, but has gone up to 34 since the count this fall.
TAGOS has a principal, dean, special education teacher, administrative assistant and three paraprofessionals. Holzman told school board members that if it were to close, all staff members would be absorbed into different positions in the 糖心Vlog传媒 School District.