Courtesy of Marissa Sullivan A slide from Marissa Sullivan’s presentation to the Lake Linden-Hubbell School Board about a survey she conducted of district middle and high school students

LAKE LINDEN — About 20 parents brought forth concerns regarding the quality of their children’s school life at the Lake Linden-Hubbell School Board meeting last Monday.

During a public comment period, Beth Krause, mother of a district third-grader, read from a list compiled by multiple parents. The concerns ranged from the loss of students and faculty to other school districts, a presence of bullying amongst students and poor communication from the school personnel.

Dylan Cruickshank, a parent new to the school community, was surprised at the multitude of issues he heard during Krause’s presentation.

“There’s a lot more than I thought,” Cruickshank said. “I knew a few issues we came to speak about, but there were a few things brought up that opened my eyes into other issues that need to be taken cared of.”

Lake Linden has experienced a dip in student population along with a regular exit of teachers and other school staff. The exodus from the school has included teachers that were known to be supportive of students.

The problems of the school are not unnoticed by students and great enough to have inspired recent Lake Linden-Hubbell graduate Marissa Sullivan to conduct a project on school improvement involving a survey open to middle and high school students. The survey conducted in the project showed that students are yearning for more from their schools in a variety of ways and questioned students on bullying, post-graduation plans and extracurricular expansion.

Sullivan has seen students struggle with bullying and isolation and wants to see the creation of new resources for students and improve accessibility to help other students succeed in school and prepare for life after high school.

Sullivan’s survey showed that 89.4% of surveyed students had experienced or witnessed verbal harassment. Other types of bullying have been witnessed in the school including written, online and physical abuse. Last year after a district high-schooler committed suicide, parents were eager to hear of a plan for emotional support for the school community but no such communication was forthcoming.

Parents feel communication between the school and parents is lacking. Many parents claim that the school did not inform them of the tragedies involving their school community as some only learned of their children’s classmate’s suicide and another classmate’s drowning death from their children, not the school.

While some announcements can be found on the school’s website, parents want a more timely and direct method of communication such as email notification or text messages. What parents are aware of going on in the school, however, has them desiring changes.

Academic test scores, attendance and art and music programs are additional focuses of district parents. The district has offered art and music programs sparingly over the past two school years.

The parents realize though that these problems cannot be solved just by the board and want to be part of a solution. They suggested parents could assist with recess, lunch, and teacher and office prep work duties.

Krause said she thought the board was excited and nervous to see so many parents in attendance.

“We’re excited to hear a response from them, and we’ll be back next time,” she said. “They could have just said nothing. I felt they were interested in what we had to say, but will they act is the question.”

School board Trustee Courtney Holzberger was happy to see such a turnout from parents.

“From my personal perspective, I will say that I am very glad to have our parents and community attend meetings and voice their concerns,” she said. “Engagement with the board and board processes is essential to a thriving school district. Our community has always strongly supported our school, and I personally feel that I owe it to our community to listen.”

Holzberger also desires to see meetings arranged which will deal with everything the parents had brought up during the meeting such as community forums.

The board will hold a budget/special meeting at 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 26, in Room 102 of the high school, 601 Calumet St., Lake Linden. The meeting will be focused on approving the revised budgets for the 2023-24 fiscal year and new budgets for the 2024-25 fiscal year but other items may be allowed on the agenda.