Culler parents fight school's negative image

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BY MARGARET REIST/Lincoln Journal Star

The newspaper story — the one that singled Culler Middle School out for not making the federal No Child Left Behind grade — was the proverbial straw.

And the camel’s back? The one that broke?

That would be a group of parents whose children go to Culler, the ones who say their school suffers from an undeserved reputation as a bad place, who are tired of hearing,  “Why do you let your kids go to that school?”

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Culler principal Dan Larson visits with the sixth-grade advisory council members Jeremy Fox (clockwise from lower left), DeAnte' Jones (partially hidden), Jared Putnam, Molly Schumaker, Beth Brock, Chase Wolinski and Maricela Galdamez during a lunch meeting in the media center. (Robert Becker)

Culler principal Dan Larson visits with the sixth-grade advisory council members Jeremy Fox (clockwise from lower left), DeAnte' Jones (partially hidden), Jared Putnam, Molly Schumaker, Beth Brock, Chase Wolinski and Maricela Galdamez during a lunch meeting in the media center. (Robert Becker)

Those parents, who have formed a group called Culler P.R.I.D.E., think it’s time to clear away the shadow hanging over the school they — and their kids — love.

“Culler is outside the box,” said Cheryl Slade, whose son Mikah and daughter Ashlee attend Culler. “My kids are blessed to go here.”

Culler offers great diversity, caring teachers and a small enough environment that students get the attention they need, say the parents.

It’s got a great jazz band. And a Community Learning Center —with teachers offering additional math and reading help after school — that has  an average participation of 100 kids a day.

“The perception people have of Culler is negative and what we as parents think is positive,” said Terri Craig, whose middle daughter, Brianna, is an eighth-grader at Culler.

Schools develop a character, or stereotype, created in part by its students’ socioeconomic status, in part by the area of town in which it sits and in part from something less definitive — like the secret that starts at the beginning of a line and, once whispered from ear to ear, ends up something totally different at the end.

“One of our goals is public perception and helping the public to find out what’s true and not true about our school,” Craig said.

To that end, parents held an open house in December for next year’s sixth-graders and their families, before the January deadline for students to choose to go to a school outside their attendance area.

Normally, such open houses occur closer to the beginning of the school year. But by then, families have already made their decisions.

“We don’t want them to option out and miss out on an opportunity,” said Krista Kuenning, whose daughter Allison is an eighth-grader.

During the open houses, parents answered questions and attempted to dispel stereotypes.

P.R.I.D.E. plans to have a link on the soon-to-be-revamped school Web site with a running update of activities and accomplishments and will work to increase parent involvement overall. The school is also looking for more ways to recognize student achievement and Principal Dan Larson wants to start a Hall of Fame for Culler alumni.

Parents say some families in certain neighborhoods like Meadowlane tend to shy away from Culler and they want to educate those parents on the good things about their school.

“One of our biggest goals is helping people around the northeast community know about the school,” Craig said.

The numbers bear out their concerns: While about 90 students opt in to Culler, 240 opt out, Larson said.

“Our goal is to neutralize those numbers,” he said.

Part of that education is erasing the mark left by No Child Left Behind, the federal mandate that requires schools make “adequate yearly progress” in reading and math.

Culler, as the only Title I middle school in Lincoln, faces sanctions because its special education students failed to meet the federal progress standards for two years in a row.

Those sanctions included offering free transportation for students who wish to transfer, or to pay for tutoring services.

The thing is, 10 other Lincoln schools fell into the same category — including all of

Lincoln’s high schools — mostly because English Language Learners or special education students didn’t meet the targets. But nine of those schools don’t face the same sanctions because they don’t get Title I money.

And overall, Culler met the progress targets, as did most of the other subgroups.

LPS administrators are quick to point out that special education and ELL students face challenges other students do not, especially as they get older.

Besides, the Culler parents said, it’s that diverse population that makes their school special.

Culler’s students speak 40 different languages, they said. As an ELL site, more than 75 of Culler’s 460 students are ELL students.

“How many kids in our city have an opportunity to be in that environment?” Craig said.

Teachers also must work harder to reach all students in an economically and ethnically diverse school. Craig thinks that makes those teachers especially dedicated.

 As a Title I school, nearly 77 percent of its students participate in the free- or reduced-lunch program.

Barbara Jackson-Rush, who has 10 children and stepchildren who attend or have attended Lincoln’s public schools, transferred two of her children to Culler from Scott Middle School.

She transferred the children because Culler was closer to her job, and at first, she said, she had reservations.

“I didn’t know if I really wanted to send my kids to Culler because I’d been hearing things,” she said.

She worried about whether the education her children got would measure up. It did, she said. She heard kids caused problems in class. They didn’t.

“It was the best decision I made,” she said. Her daughter, who is now in the International Baccalaureate program at Lincoln High School, told her mom she preferred Culler.

“At Culler the teachers gave her more attention,” Jackson-Rush said. “That was her perception.”

Her younger daughter, who is now in sixth-grade at Culler, was struggling in math at the beginning of the year. She got into a math intervention class at Culler and now has an A.

“She finds it to be fun,” Jackson-Rush said. “I don’t have to sit down with her at this point and help her with her math homework.”

Although No Child Left Behind requires the district to offer transportation to other schools and tutoring, Larson said only two or three parents have asked to transfer because of NCLB.  And no parents have asked for tutoring.

Parents say the reputation hurts students, who have to defend their school. Allison Kuenning, an eighth-grader, agrees.

“It makes me mad,” she said. “I don’t think people should judge it by what people say and hear. They should come and see it.”

Recently, the parent group asked students to write what they liked about Culler. They talked about caring teachers, good friends, dances and diversity.

“What I like about Culler is its teachers,” wrote one student. “The teachers at Culler care about whether you pass or fail. They want to help you succeed and they don’t just yell at you to do your work, they are nice about helping you.”

Then, of course, there’s the swans. Swans from Wyuka, who have discovered that the Culler courtyard is a nice place to spend the winter.

And swans know a good thing when they see it.

Reach Margaret Reist at 473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com.