Woodstock Advocacy Toolkit 2025

Advocacy experts and school board members have advised us that personal stories and specific details that speak to how these changes will negatively impact your family are more effective than the large petitions and signatures. In your letters, give examples such as:

• In your opinion, what makes Woodstock a special place?
• How will the proposed changes impact your student and your family?
• What might the disruptions look like, feel like, or sound like in the classroom? Outside the classroom?

To help with overall consistency, we recommended reinforcing these common themes and talking points wherever appropriate:

Southeast Guiding Coalition’s (“SEGC”) Lingering Impacts and the School District’s Broken Promise:

• Woodstock’s enrollment has declined by almost 200 students over the past five years. This precipitous drop was brought about not merely by the general decline in enrollment across the district, but also by the boundary shifts and middle school changes of the Southeast Guiding Coalition. Woodstock has had to endure the full brunt of SEGC’s effects, losing students and families when our boundary was changed and asking families to adjust to the new reality of split feeder middle schools.
• The district promised SEGC-impacted schools 10 FTE for five years to mitigate the ongoing impacts of the change, and Woodstock continues to need this support to weather the unprecedented changes to our two programs.
• We beg the district to please keep their promise and restore funding to SEGC-impacted schools.

Unprecedented Program Changes in both Neighborhood and Mandarin Immersion Programs:

• Woodstock is slated to lose a staggering 7.67 FTE, which includes six classroom teachers.
• Woodstock has an extremely high teacher retention rate, and we are proud of our professional teaching staff that averages 15.4 years of experience. These are integral members of our community that we cannot replace.
• The program shifts the two programs must undergo to adjust to these cuts are monumental. Seven classroom teachers at Woodstock will be asked to master the curriculum of and teach two grade levels next year.
• Four classroom teachers in our Mandarin Immersion Program will be asked to teach between 50-65 students across two grade levels.
• The school needs additional support to weather the seismic changes to both of our programs in the 2025-2026 school year.

Historical Legacy of Mandarin Immersion Program:

• Woodstock’s Mandarin Immersion Program was founded in 1998. The school is a pioneer in developing a comprehensive Mandarin curriculum that spans from kindergarten through high school. Woodstock’s Mandarin program is routinely sought out by other schools across the state as a model to emulate.
• Woodstock serves native Chinese speaking students from across the city. 26% of the school’s student body are English Language Learners.
• Our Mandarin program is now in competition with newer metro area Mandarin immersion programs for enrollment, and we cannot attract families nor retain our current families without district support. Please demonstrate your commitment to making this a thriving program again.

• Slides from Community Meeting 03/18/2025
• Why We’re Here - Recap of Woodstock Staff Projections - Spring 2025
• What Matters Most - Survey Results and Q&A
• Understanding the PPS Budgeting Process + Comment on the 2025-2026 Budget
• PPS Advocacy Toolkit