Their questions were simply verbal leaders that allowed Lori to pump up the sales pitch. Then Gayle and Aldo got into the act, the Board Members started posturing, and the rest is history.
Now I don't get frustrated/angry too often with the Board, but this has got to be one of the most bone headed things the district has done since I have been watching these district politics. The district community schools have many challenges, and here we go "de-worsifying" and losing focus. What are they thinking?
Let's see...
- demographics are shifting in the wrong direction in our neighborhood schools
- so we set up another "escape pod" to drain off more of their engaged parents/students
- closing the "gap" is supposed to be critical, and here are dropping those kids again
- the district staff is tight, so we start them working to set up a new school, with new curriculum
- we are tight on money so we open another school which means another school staff
- an 8 yr payback, who would make that investment other than a gov't entity
- etc, etc, etc...
I sure hope these folks know more than I do. By the way, being an Engineer I totally support the STEM curriculum concept, so let's upgrade the community schools... Not set up one more odd duck to maintain. Thoughts?
Agenda with links to supporting docs
Dec 5th Meeting Video
RAS STEAM Magnet
Comm Solutions STEAM
STEM School Blog
STEAM site
4 comments:
I totally agree John. Here are my thoughts:
RAS 12-5-2011 Board Meeting – Decisions!!
I disagree with the decision to open a STEAM magnet school at Olson site. The reasons are;
1.) The over $2,200,000 cumulative cost is not fully paid back for 10 years.
2.) The money used is being TAKEN from other programs, which could be used to reduce the LARGE opportunity/achievement gap.
3.) The District needs to concentrate on its current student’s achievement, not on creating another lottery based school that benefits a few (500) at the cost of MANY (thousands) students!!
The proposal of a school within a school for STEM/STEAM is a better use of limited resources that will benefit many more students, cost less and allow for two additional EXCESS buildings (Olson & Pilgrim Lane) to be sold, which will create additional revenue to be used to pay for Northport or Lakeview or other capital costs.
I believe that the FIRST responsibility of our school district is to provide a great education to all students, not a select few. Education of students is the primary function of public education and NOT employment for adults.
I encourage all residents of RAS to contact the Superintendent and all school board members to express your feeling directly.
Also, check out this link to the GV Patch http://goldenvalley.patch.com/articles/lettter-to-the-editor-why-i-m-against-steam .
I was hesitant to even look at the financial details, assuming they would seem weak at best.
At work we talk of the Internal Rate of Return and Net Present Value of a project, because money has a time value. I don't see any of these terms in these financials.
Just Payback, and that may not be completely accurate if you are correct that not all the costs are being accounted for.
Wiki Capital Budgeting
Then again. maybe they believe money and the use of it is free... Look at how long they have been holding and maintaining all these unnecessary properties... The sale of those probably could have covered a significant amount of the cost of fixing up Lakeview and Northport.
Then again if you can keep taxes high, why sell your assets? Maybe they are wiser than I thought.
Applying a little Peter Schweizer, it's time to throw them all out. Oddly, I continue to think Sicoli is actually opposed to this. Obviously he must submit to the Board's will and look as happy as he can about it.
The unanswered question: why did the Technology Learning Campus concept fail? It was abruptly ended, supposedly because it had become a white flight haven. (Just like RSI!)
Why won't STEAM do the same?
You have me stumped... I just don't see an adequate upside... And I see a significant down side...
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