[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: District 281 Facilities Plan 2: Admiring the Solution

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
District 281 Facilities Plan 2: Admiring the Solution
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1230698501.shtml


   I wasn't expecting this until maybe January 2nd, but the Wold team of
   consultants today released its recommendation. Their 73 page report is
   on the [1]District 281 web site, which I'll attempt to summarize here.
   To address [2]the over-capacity issue, they came up with 4 strategies,
   each with a variation. All actions would be effective for the
   2009-2010 school year except as noted. For those unfamiliar with the
   district, the old Robbinsdale High School, now the Robbinsdale Area
   Learning Campus (RALC), houses both the Robbinsdale Middle School
   (RMS) and the Robbinsdale Spanish Immersion (RSI) K-8 program. Schools
   named are elementary schools except as noted.
     * The Two Phases Option closes Pilgram Lane in the southwest and
       Lakeview (or Northport) northeast. A middle school to be
       determined is closed 3 years later.
     * The K-6 Option closes Lakeview and Northport (or Noble), all to
       the east, compensating by adding an elementary to the now closed
       RMS space within the RALC. Grade 6 moves to the elementary level,
       so grades 7-8 now fit in the two remaining middle schools.
     * The K-5 Option closes Pilgrim Lane and moves RSI to Sunny Hollow
       (or Sonnesyn), allowing RMS to expand to use the entire RALC
       building. Sandburg Middle School is closed and re-purposed for
       alternate uses.
     * The K-5 Variation Option closes Pilgrim Lane and Noble (or Neill).
       RSI is moved to a re-purposed Sandburg Middle School, allowing RMS
       to expand to use the entire RALC building.

   The consultants recommend option K-5 as highlighted. I agree with
   their reasoning. In fact, I'm quite impressed with this solution, far
   better than any that I had sketched out.
   There will be perceived winners and losers when closing any school,
   and I'm sure we'll hear from several of them in the meetings to come.
   Most of all, though, we should remember just what has transpired this
   past year.
   One year ago, the public pressed the School Board into thinking a
   second time about closing a school. Those second thoughts coalesced
   into a call for a Strategic Plan, which identified the need for a
   comprehensive Facility Plan. Had the Board simply "done what it said
   to maintain credibility" back then, we would have closed a school the
   experts now say should stay open, be even more geographically
   unbalanced, aggravated the east-west friction, still have too much
   capacity, and perhaps missed out on some additional benefits like
   adding a section to RSI.
   The consultants did a fine job, but maybe the School Board deserves
   the most credit for giving the District the additional time and
   resources to get it right.

References

   1. http://www.rdale.org/
   2. http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1230606195.shtml