Regarding all of the proposed school closings, at least one school MAY have a protection that the other schools don't have.
Last year, PPERRIA, the Prospect Park East River Road neighborhood association, contributed something like $400,000 to pay for the cost of expanding Pratt School from K-3 to K-5. That remodeling in now underway and, reportedly, is about half-way done. But the protection is not just a claim that all that money for remodeling will been wasted. As part of the ordinary NRP process, contracts are signed with the implementing authority to ensure that the money goes for the purpose designated by the neighborhood. In this case, the implementing authority was the Minneapolis School Board. Presumably, the contract has some kind of quid pro quo with the "quid" being that the neighborhood would kick in the $400K and the "quo" being that the School Board would expand Pratt to K-5. And, if the School Board shuts down Pratt, that clearly doesn't qualify as "expanding to K-5." The School Board will then have violated it contract with NRP and that is actionable in court. NRP has been contacted (but not by me so I'm not an insider to what anyone said) and I'd bet that the people at NRP are having their lawyers review their contract with the School Board. Assuming that it says what we believe it says, then the NRP's lawyers are probably going to be calling the School Board's lawyers to hand them a valentine saying "there's an itty-bitty problem with your plan to close Pratt." In any case, money is currently being spent as you read this to remodel Pratt for the new use scheduled for next fall. It will be a waste of money in major proportions if the remodeling work is completed just in time for the start of the demolition of the building. Steve Cross Prospect Park REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
