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Early Tuesday evening, Springfield School Superintendent Walter Milton Jr. set out walking the neighborhood near Enos Elementary School, 524 W. Elliott Ave. For the next three hours, he knocked on doors, visited with families and, from time to time, heard some gripes about the Springfield public schools. Milton, who became school superintendent July 1, intends to tour one neighborhood a week as he sets out to learn his way around Springfield. "If I'm going to be the top educator, I really need to know where the children are coming from," Milton said Wednesday. "The purpose of this here is not for self-aggrandizing reasons at all. It's for me to get a feel for the pulse of the community." Milton said he was impressed by the concern for Springfield schools he encountered during home visits with about 15 to 20 families. He met other people on sidewalks and street corners. Some talked about the need for schools to work more closely with disruptive students. "They want to find alternative ways of connecting with, embracing, those children. They don't want them kicked out of school," Milton said. Not all homes he visited housed public school students, he said. Milton was accompanied by Springfield School Board president Erin Conley, district spokeswoman Sarah Watson and Enos teacher Alison Schomburg. He also attended an Oak Ridge Neighborhood Association Meeting at Elliott Avenue Baptist Church Tuesday night. Milton said he'd like to organize his walking tours, a practice he began as a superintendent in other cities, by the board's seven subdistricts. He said the Enos area seemed as good a place as any to begin. "I just wanted to have a starting point," Milton said. "I don't know the city well enough to know where to start." |
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