[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: Public Hearing - Part 3

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
Public Hearing - Part 3
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1198221569.shtml


   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?