I heartily agree with the Ostrow's that this year's discussion should not be
"limited to which schools are closed
and which schools stay open." The board has rightly decided to broaden the discussion
to include community values before
moving ahead. But, as I've said before, and will say yet again, the 'fact' that
there are 800 empty classrooms,
wherever they are, does not necessarily mean that the wisest course of action is to
close schools. The decision to close
was made before the discussion about the facts and what they mean. How much does it
actually cost to heat an empty
classroom? Is that amount worth the cost of eliminating the possibilities that the
empty room provides?
A much more detailed accounting of where those empty classrooms actually are
needs to be presented to the whole
community, including parents and teachers, before any decision about which schools get
axed. Maintaining a thoughtful,
deliberative, and inclusive process is imperative for civil life, especially in times
of high need. Any attempt at a fix
without all the details, and in a big rush is suspect.
Yesterday afternoon, on my way home from seeing "Clifford's Big Movie" at
Southdale, my 4 year old fell asleep in the
back seat, and since his older sister's craft party was not due to breakup for another
hour, I was afforded a leisurely
Sunday drive. I wandered past Armatage, Kenny, Burroughs, Ramsey, Northrop, Ericsson,
Hiawatha, Howe, Cooper, and
Sanford. One of my first observations, after being reminded of how beautiful our city
truly is, was - why are there
portables in use at Kenny if this school is not overcrowded? Why are there portables
still being used anywhere - at
Ericsson, Hiawatha, and Longfellow, if we have 800 extra classrooms?
The next thing I noticed was all of the great playground equipment at most of the
schools, except for Sanford and
Ericsson, the sites where students were to be moved. I would never suggest that
decisions on building viability be made
on existing placement of playground equipment, but the existing placement is more than
random. Often in life, and
especially in times of stress, we need to be mindful of the commitments we, and we
collectively, have made in the past.
The decision to build and maintain a school in a particular place and then subsequent
reaffirmations of that decision
over years and generations should not be overturned on two weeks notice.
I will take David's advice and not attempt the murky exercise of placing a dollar
value on each of the times in the
last eight years that I've made the quick trip down to the "school park," which, in
our family, differentiates the
playground at Ericsson from the playground a few blocks farther away at the "Lake
Park" (Hiawatha Lake.) But many a sun
has eased into the west as I've witnessed another miraculous achievement of height and
speed by one or the other of my
children, not counting the less than miraculous but none-the-less precious moments of
the playground. No, assignment of
a dollar amount is not necessary, but ignoring the value of these buildings and their
grounds in our lives would be more
than foolish. A little more conversation before we shutter them, or worse, is
certainly due.
Dan McGuire
Ericsson
List Manager wrote:
> Strib opinion piece:
>
> http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4634592.html
>
> David Brauer
> List manager
>
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