School gets low marks

Regarding your Jan. 5 article, “Oak Park Neighborhood School honored with Golden Bell Award,” I can only say that the fact the award was given to the Oak Park Community School reflects on the poor state of our schools statewide.

I cannot speak to all the classes at the school, but nine of 16 children in my daughter's class have left the school, presumably in favor of better local alternatives. Most of the parents I have spoken with indicate that their children simply were not learning anything in the class.

Our unfortunate experience with the school has been that a confident, outgoing 3-year-old entered the school and during the four months of attendance became more and more subdued, less selfconfident and less self-sufficient at home (not to mention recurring episodes of head lice). Within a couple of weeks of her withdrawal from the school, she has returned to being herself again. David Nation Oak Park