Rita Miller wrote: "At the East Area Parent Advisory Council meeting on Monday night, the district announced its intentions to close three to four schools in the East Area."
Catherine Shreves responded: "I was not at the meeting on Monday night, so I can't speak to what was said there. However, only the school board can vote to close schools, and there has been very little discussion about this possibility (except with respect to one school, Morris Park), so any assumption that the board has decided to close schools is at best, premature." As I responded to Audrey Johnson, who also said she was unaware of this decision, the district announced this on Monday, March 11, at the Parent Advisory Council. Birch Jones confirmed this at our Hiawatha PTO meeting on Tuesday, March 12. I am very surprised that the board did not know about this. As I said to Audrey, we are getting pretty disheartened in this area. Catherine Shreves wrote: "We do have some concerns with some of the really small schools that are experiencing declining enrollment, and we have been in conversation with these schools for a couple of years. The school district is convening an East Area River Schools Task Force to make recommendations to possibly close or merge facilities in a manner consistent with the realities of declining enrollment . . . " The "reality of declining enrollment" in the small community schools is a reality that was created by the district. The small schools were given a much smaller attendance area than the magnet schools, successful programs were taken out of community schools, and the district has disenfranchised parents by its lack of support of community schools. This is the district's reality. Our reality is that we have dramatically increased the percentage of neighborhood enrollment at the community schools, many highly involved families would still choose the community schools if the district were to adequately support them, and more people with children would move into the neighborhood if the community schools were thriving. The closing of community schools is going to cause flight faster than anything else. What is the district's plan? To have all magnet schools? And how is this going to help the problem of transportation costs? Transportation is now at a $6 million cost overrun. Are we closing community schools so that the district can subsidize busing? Rita Miller Hiawatha resident _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
