I want to thank Kelly Herold for entering the conversation
regarding the WALC. We need to hear the district's thinking. I wish to take
issue with just a bit of his analysis, however.
While it is true that Minnesota taxpayers in total provide
facilities support to charter schools through the Lease Aid program that program
is not "similar" to the levy-supported lease arrangement being considered for
the ALC. Lease Aid for all Minnesota carter schools is supplied by the state,
which spreads the cost of that program throughout the entire state of
Minnesota. Charter schools do not and cannot levy local property taxpayers for
lease aid.
That might be a quibble, but the two programs are sufficiently
different in the way in which they are funded that I think your comparison with
local charter schools is a bit unfair and intended to redirect criticism.
Neverrtheless, since charter school Lease Aid has been brought into the
conversation, I'll lend some additional information (that might or might not be
relevent):
1. Annual Lease aid is the lesser of $1500 per student
($1200 per student for new charters) or 90% of the lease amount.
2.The district is proposing about $1600/student
annually for the ALC.
The proposal for the WALC may well be a good one. I'm not
posting this message to argue that case either way. I only ask that you don't
connect charter lease aid to your decision-making process. That program is not a
"similar" program in that Winona taxpayers are not being asked to pay the entire
amount of local charter Lease Aid.
Charter schools have often been used by district 861
representatives to "deflect" concerns or to justify 861budget conditions. The
cost of transportation and Special Education tuition billing are perhaps
the best recent examples that come to my mind. These two examples have been
cited without offering clarity to the public with respect to the revenues
that district 861 receives to support transportation of charter students
(about $124,500 last year) and Special Education tuition billing through Excess
Cost Aid (about $888,300 last year). Charter schools receive Special Education
Aid but do not receive Excess Cost Aid. The resident (regular) districts receive
this aid because they have the ultimate responsibility for Special
Education.
I am supportive of district 861's initiatives. For instance, I
serve on the district's Curriculum Committee. I have not made a decision
with respect to the WALC issue. I am one of those people, however, who trust the
school board administration to make right decisions and I approach my analysis
of district decisions from that perspective. I also understand how a complete
and comprehensive decision-making process can completely backfire because of a
failure to "connect the dots" for stakeholders so that they can see the big
picture.
So please, Kelly, connect the dots for us and leave charter
schools out of the dicsussion.
Thanks,
-Leslie Hittner
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2006 12:47
PM
Subject: Re: [Winona] alc
[Winona Online Democracy]
I offer my apologies
for moving quickly to address the ALC issue or other district issues. As
we address the many needs facing our district it is clear from the public's
response that we need to better balance expediency with increased
input.
I am honored and humbled to serve on the board of directors of
SD 861. I was elected to represent and to help make the tough
decisions to help sustain and/or improve educational opportunities for our
children.
The decisions made by
this school board are made difficult due to inadequate state funding.
Leaving school districts with nearly impossible choices to solve problems. The
partial passage of the referendum passage funded district operations, but our
building and some program needs are unfunded resulting in few palatable
solutions.
All problems compete
for immediate attention. We face time and/or inadequate funding
pressures to address Ridgeway, Dakota, all-day kindergarten, busing, an
examination of the 4-period day, the possibility of an IB program, reduction
in class sizes, SOFA's auditorium chair donation, sports needs, title IX
inadequacies, parking, long term planning issues, to name a few. The
need to solve these issues is intense.
We do listen to you
when you express your concerns, from fixing a bathroom stall door to reducing
classroom sizes. We also realize these issues should have to be
addressed yesteryear. Consequently, immediacy to make decisions may have
contributed to the process to solve problems quickly.
In my
opinion, immediacy for action has created tremendous tension between the board
and the community. I am asking that immediacy be replaced with
respectful and thoughtful patience. Better patience practiced by us, and
the community so we can improve community involvement with
decision-making.
That said - the ALC issue has to be
addressed. I have met with the staff and the leadership at the ALC
center and can report that they are an exemplary team. After visiting
the ALC site it is obvious to any reasonable person that having children and
young learners placed in a nasty old bar, that is crowded, and in poor
condition is simply not acceptable. Quite bluntly I find the Big O as an
educational facility an embarrassment for our community.
The ALC
students and staff of deserve a safe, clean, and positive learning
environment. So first I believe we can agree that the Big O is not that
place. Secondly, we face the challenge that the capital improvement part
of the referendum did not pass. Third, where do we place
this valuable program? And finally how do we pay for it?
Our
process to solve this problem led us to consider building a new ALC center to
meet the needs of the 125 ALC students and their staff. The cost of this
new ALC center would be about $200,000 a year - which translates to about 70
cents a month for a home valued at $100,000 --- to $1.50 for a $300,000
home. But why consider this approach? As you may already
know, for years we taxpayers support the 400 or so students attending Dakota,
Bluffview, Ridgeway and Riverway Charter Schools-at about $500,000 a year with
a similar lease -aid program. So that is where I found the basis to
consider supporting the current ALC proposal.
Several sites were
explored but zoning, hazardous materials, logistics, safety, and costs became
a concern. Also, many of the ALC students use services provided by the
state and county - located in Winona, making the costs of shipping students to
and from Rollingstone impractical and costly. So to me the Rollingstone
option didn't make sense. Other locations simply did not want the ALC
program in their neighborhood.
Today I am leaning towards
supporting the proposed ALC center, but I have not made my decision yet.
I have heard from some constituents with ideas like - off peak scheduling -
where the ALC program would start later in the day and use the high school in
late afternoon after high school students were gone for the day. This
needs to be explored. Others may suggestions may come to the table and
we welcome the input.
So - we will take
another shot at this issue. We will try to improve the process, and we
may come up with a new and better solution. We may move forward with the
current proposal depending on what will serve our students best - but I am
convinced it is time to move our children out of the Big O.
Respectfully
Kelly P. Herold
--
Kelly Herold, PhD
Associate Professor of Communication
Studies
Winona State University
Winona, MN
55987
507 - 457 -
5242
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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