To the Editor:

My name is Soran Adams. I’m a sixth grader at Agnes Gray. I heard you were looking for stories about the transition we were forced into.

Let me start by saying the Paris Elementary School building is beautiful. Mrs Pollino, my teacher, went out of her way to make sure our classroom was decorated and welcoming. So did the other Agnes Gray teachers for their rooms. Lots of the Paris teachers and staff are very kind but many of them talk down to me as if I were a first grader. That never happened in Agnes Gray.

Teachers at Paris all are so quick to specify that it is their school, not ours, and to point out when we make mistakes because we don’t know all the rules yet. But these are the same people who say we need to forget about Agnes Gray and integrate into their school.

Mrs. Cooke, Agnes Gray’s school counselor, was assigned to only Guy E. Rowe, which is awful, because a lot of the other kids (kindergarteners, first graders, fifth graders, and sixth graders) need help, too. Especially now that we’ve lost so much help that we are not getting. Paris has a school counselor who is just now seeing some Agnes Gray kids, but the sixth graders have had five different counselors in 3 years. That’s a lot of big changes and new people to get to know.

The main issue is the fact that our school has been torn in three. I never get to see my friends in other grades or the teachers I know and love at all. That was my Agnes Gray family and it’s been ripped to shreds. I miss Agnes Gray.

Soran Adams

An Agnes Gray 6th grader

West Paris