Odyssey Charter School American Fork Utah - You Gotta Be Kidding Me.
November 8th, 2007 | by Administrator |We have had children at Odyssey Charter School in American Fork Utah since the school opened. I firmly believe Odyssey offers a better educational experience than our local school’s standard curriculum. (With the recent changes in the curriculum, I don’t know if the educational experience is better or not. At this point, I wonder especially in grades over 3rd if this is really the case. ) This last week Odyssey did something that would be laughable if it was not disruptive to class.
School is scheduled to start at 8:15 in the morning. As far as I understand, the Dean of Community Outreach (a title that seems funny in relation to what is happening) is behind a campaign to help students arrive on time for class. Now maybe it is because I dont have an MBA degree, but the following wording seems odd at best -
Students should arrive between 7:50 – 8:10
Class BEGINS at 8:15.
Students who arrive after 8:10 will be late for class.
Now a table has been put out in front of the entrance where students who arrive after 8:10 are stopped and marked down, thus making them late for class. Consider the fact that my child could exit our car at 8:12 and easily be seated in her class ready for the class to begin at 8:15. Now, if we were to arrive at 8:10 or later our child is stopped at the table, marked late, and then is late for class.
Sadly, unlike a larger school district where stuff like this is better vetted before going into effect, this seems to be an ongoing issue at least here.
2 Responses to “Odyssey Charter School American Fork Utah - You Gotta Be Kidding Me.”
By educator on Mar 24, 2008 | Reply
Sadly it sounds like things at Odyssey are not changing. We had our kids there the first and second year and were involved before the building site was finalized. We have since moved to one of the many other high quality charter schools in the area and never looked back.
I was amazed at one of the initial founders and Chairman of the Board’s attitude towards others. The attitude of its my way or the highway seemed to be the perspective in my opinion. Parents were strongly encouraged to put in the required volunteer hours but not give their opinions regarding things they would like to see implemented at the school. It was much like being a part of Alpine School District where the Board ignored parents concerns except at Odyssey you still had to put in volunteer hours.
I had hoped things might change when some parents I had grown to respect deeply were put on the Board and this particular Board member left. Regrettably it became clear not much would change as I experienced another founder (who was then hired on as a staff member) yell and disrespect one of these new Board members because they did not agree with the founders opinion. It seemed to me the attitude of put in your hours to make us a success but do so silently was still running strong.
This combined with a Director who I felt did not relate well with the kids, a schedule that did not include structured PE or any computer time, and teachers that seemed to be unsupervised all led us to go elsewhere. The result has been great. We have found the Board at our current school to be very friendly and open. We now feel part of a community rather than a dictatorship and our kids love going to school. While I believe Odyssey has potential, I believe there are a number of better choices until some attitudes and perspectives (and probably some staff members) change.
By Administrator on Mar 26, 2008 | Reply
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with Odyssey. Hopefully things continue to work out well where you moved to. I think a number of the issues discussed in this article (http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=1210082A2FMK) are indicative of the issues Odyssey needs to resolve or possibly see the same results.