[Speed Gibson,
Friday December 21, 2007 at 1:19am]
Public Hearing - Part 3
This little project of mine started small, exploring public school financing using my own District 281. It's getting more interesting by the day.
Tonight was a School Board work session to review the Public Hearing input and presumably work toward a consensus on trimming $5 million from the 2008-09 budget. They reported receiving a considerable amount of e-Mail and telephone messages, some of it a bit heated, some of it a bit personal. (If that's you, enough. You're not helping.)
"Pairing" where elementary schools would teach either K-2 or 3-5 was taken off the table (Scenario G). It was hugely unpopular. So presumably that left us with Scenario A - close Northport without pairing. Only now, Scenario C (close Pilgrim Lane Elementary) rose from the dead, and two new Scenarios H (close Sonnesyn Elementary) and I (close none, just raise class sizes) were added. Pilgrim Lane had been brought up at the Public Hearing and I toured it this afternoon, in fact. Now I see I'll have to visit Sonnesyn, too. I might as well see them all when school resumes next year.
This meeting was supposed to eliminate options, maybe even reach agreement, not add options. Me, I'm happy on two counts. The best answer (in my opinion) is now on the table and for the right reasons, which a couple on the Board expressed. Raising class sizes is a reversible decision; closing a school is not.
This reinforces my prior post's assertion that such decisions take more time than is legally available to them. To truly do it right means addressing year 2009-10, which will need another $4 million in budget cuts, which takes still more time. Superintendent Mack would argue that's been done, but at least one on the Board disagrees as do I.
The next discussion is a work session on January 14, though we may learn a little more at the next Board meeting January 7. I will submit my own amicus curiae brief to the Board, but there won't otherwise be much happening until next year.
Until then, I'll shift gears to related matters, including the most important of all. Considerable time was spent on the East side - West side matter. Those of us in the East have watched the center of gravity move West over the past 30 years or so. If Northport indeed closes, Brooklyn Center ceases to be anything but territory served. Robbinsdale has bought some time, but unless something changes the trend line, Lakeview will close within 5 years as well. There will be no facilities east of West Broadway.
That's perhaps the biggest problem of all - the trend line. The District is slowly losing enrollment. With the exception of Forest, every building is at least 35 years old.
Can this District be saved?
Tonight was a School Board work session to review the Public Hearing input and presumably work toward a consensus on trimming $5 million from the 2008-09 budget. They reported receiving a considerable amount of e-Mail and telephone messages, some of it a bit heated, some of it a bit personal. (If that's you, enough. You're not helping.)
"Pairing" where elementary schools would teach either K-2 or 3-5 was taken off the table (Scenario G). It was hugely unpopular. So presumably that left us with Scenario A - close Northport without pairing. Only now, Scenario C (close Pilgrim Lane Elementary) rose from the dead, and two new Scenarios H (close Sonnesyn Elementary) and I (close none, just raise class sizes) were added. Pilgrim Lane had been brought up at the Public Hearing and I toured it this afternoon, in fact. Now I see I'll have to visit Sonnesyn, too. I might as well see them all when school resumes next year.
This meeting was supposed to eliminate options, maybe even reach agreement, not add options. Me, I'm happy on two counts. The best answer (in my opinion) is now on the table and for the right reasons, which a couple on the Board expressed. Raising class sizes is a reversible decision; closing a school is not.
This reinforces my prior post's assertion that such decisions take more time than is legally available to them. To truly do it right means addressing year 2009-10, which will need another $4 million in budget cuts, which takes still more time. Superintendent Mack would argue that's been done, but at least one on the Board disagrees as do I.
The next discussion is a work session on January 14, though we may learn a little more at the next Board meeting January 7. I will submit my own amicus curiae brief to the Board, but there won't otherwise be much happening until next year.
Until then, I'll shift gears to related matters, including the most important of all. Considerable time was spent on the East side - West side matter. Those of us in the East have watched the center of gravity move West over the past 30 years or so. If Northport indeed closes, Brooklyn Center ceases to be anything but territory served. Robbinsdale has bought some time, but unless something changes the trend line, Lakeview will close within 5 years as well. There will be no facilities east of West Broadway.
That's perhaps the biggest problem of all - the trend line. The District is slowly losing enrollment. With the exception of Forest, every building is at least 35 years old.
Can this District be saved?
Maybe it's time to look for a cut in the number of teachers, since enrollment is declining anyway? It's the quickest way to get the cuts.