Yep I agree with Dan and everyone that this is an extremely short time line. We people on the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee had been encouraging the board to do something years ago when the budget crunch first started appearing. Better late than never is what I say. I have problems thinking that this is a put up job by the administration and that everything is preplanned and a for gone conclusion. I like to think that the administration and school board are human beings and subjected to the same problems that we all have. I think when we make our decisions/choices, we should consider not only our own kids, but also those kids that live on the other side of town. As far as where the money is coming from to pay for these consultants, what is the difference as long it is not being taking away from the kids education. If you believe that there is a bias in hiring outside consultants, then the school district should never apply for outside grants, because some may have a negative impact on some kids. In that case all school grants need to be scrutinized. The same is true for money for No Child Left Behind, because some schools are going to be negatively impacted by it. For example, Did you notice that paired schools are in the same boat that the empty classrooms, meaning the majority do not approve of them. That means Lake Harriet upper and lower schools should become unpaired, Hale and Field should also become unpaired and independent of each other. Yet both schools do extremely well, and successful. But that would be conclusion of that first meeting. Have you looked at the attendance of any specific school. Let us say that there are 200 kids K-5. That theoretically is 9 classrooms. Do not count the other rooms as classrooms because they are not actual classrooms. Schools tend to expand into the empty spaces, to become tutoring, special ed music, computer room, media center, art room etc. Do you define them as actual classrooms. In that case we need to get a definetion of what a classroom is before we can say they are classroom, filled or empty. That is the one of the problem with this whole process, everyone has a different concept of the terms used. Magnet programs, such as open school, Spanish Emersion, High Five, Performing Arts, International Baccalaureate, Science and Math all had very low priority, That says to me that , all should be discontinued. Is it possible that the people there thought it was a charter program. I have no idea. We need to have everything defined so everyone can make their choices based not on their own school, but what is best for the whole district. People want diversity, but are not willing to give up anything. People want diversity but be able to walk to their school. Is that a fixable problem. Housing was not important, but they wanted to be able to walk to their school and have diversity. Don't these issues somehow fight with each other. How would you achieve diversity, walk to school, short bus rides, no magnet programs, no pairing, Safety is important but not the age of the building, building maintenance not high priority, but safety is. Isn't building maintenance part of safety. Historical sites are important, but let someone else keep it up. Nothing is static in of itself, but has to looked at in context with other issues. I picked a few items that caught my eye. I have not seen the summary so it should be interest to see the sum total of all the meetings. This is no simple task and I believe that no matter what comes out, someone will blame the school board or administration for not listening to them, They will say that they are not heard and this whole process is/was a waste of time. You all are already saying that. I am trying to be optimistic about the whole process and believe that in the end the kids will benefit from the results. I bear in mind the closing of 18 schools in early 80's. The same furor and upset, but in the end I believe that MPS became one the of better school districts nationally for its programs. Even though we did become one the better school districts, our achievement gap did not get smaller over the years. That is the issue we all should be addressing, how to make EVERYONE" smarter, a thinking and a better person eli kaplan Linden Hills eli kaplan 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.
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