[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: Reaction to School Closings

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
Reaction to School Closings
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1233975043.shtml


   If I've learned nothing else from my past year of reporting and
   involvement with my public school district, it's that you really have
   to invest that much time to really make sense of what's really going
   on. What Rush Limbaugh calls "drive by" reporting and reaction won't
   do. Consider this letter in the Sun Post (1/29):

     "District 281 taxpayers paid $70,000 for the Wold Company to
     provide analysis, support it with data and draw the best facilities
     conclusion. Yet, the report was so limited in scope and so much
     analysis was not done that a final data-driven conclusion could not
     be made. But Wold, district administrators and the school board did
     it anyway."

   I was at almost every scheduled public meeting. I took dozens of pages
   of notes, including public input. I heard a few make claims like the
   above, that there wasn't enough data, the analysis was flawed, and the
   outcome was predetermined. I heard no competent substantiation of any
   of this. Another Sun Post letter (2/5) states:

     "Are you buying what District 281 School Board and administrators
     are selling? I'm not. While conducting this recent facilities
     study, they collectively have claimed to be transparent and
     thorough. My personal opinion is that this process continues to be
     half-transparent and half-complete. Now we have a half-solution.
     Where is the thorough plan to make Northport and Lakeview viable
     buildings?"

   I'll give this writer a little more credit, in that yes, Northport and
   Lakeview's fate is unknown at this point. But if you had watched this
   process unfold, you know why. Solutions like "K-6" that kept all the
   western elementary schools open were so skewed geographically that it
   forced absurd ideas like herding most of the Northport and Lakeview
   students into a mega-elementary in the old Robbinsdale High School
   building. That's why Wold didn't recommend this. That's why 6 of the 7
   Board members wouldn't vote for it.
   Consider this from a recent [1]Taxpayers League of Minnesota eUpdate
   (1/26):

     "For over a year Robbinsdale school district 281 has been working
     on how to solve their lowering enrollment problems. Last year they
     decided against closing three schools to save money, and then asked
     for more money via 2 referendums on the November ballot.
     It seemed that the fear of their kidsâ schools closing got the best
     of Robbinsdale parents because the 2 referendums (totaling $22
     million in additional revenue over seven years) passed November 4th
     with flying colors. But now, just a few short months later, the
     school board has all but officially voted on closing three schools
     anyway."

   The Taxpayers League is a great organization, but even they got a few
   details wrong. Last year, yes, Robbinsdale looked at closing one,
   possibly two schools in reaction to the failed 2007 Referendum. The
   District had assumed it would pass like all the others, had made no
   contingency plans, and thus was suddenly scrambling. The School Board
   finally decided to make other cuts in order to understand the
   situation better.
   Once the situation was better understood, the closing of at least one
   building was clearly going to have to happen given the dropping
   enrollment. The 2008 Referendum advocates didn't present their case as
   clearly or accurately as I would have liked, but nowhere was a promise
   made not to close schools if passed. Like many others, the Taxpayers
   League made a faulty correlation with the events of a year ago and
   now, seemingly unaware of the intervening months of study and
   analysis.
   Budget summaries and enrollment projections are pretty dry stuff, but
   school closings are immediately felt and understood. You have to
   follow it all if you're going to draw any meaningful conclusions.
   That said, the public schools in Minnesota have much to do in the
   areas of transparency, accountability, and communications. Given their
   near monopoly status, these aren't going to be high priorities,
   especially with the DFL in control. If you want to know what's truly
   going on in your district, you're going to have to spend some time
   attending meetings and reading the web sites.

References

   1. http://www.taxpayersleague.org/eupdates/2009/285-eupdate-012609.html