School Changes

[Tobina+1]

Steve; sounds like if they don't have someone already in the schools who can take care of this stuff, they now know who to go to!   

[pepelect]

If you home schooled and feel that you need an IEP, do you write it your self just to spend more time with your self concentrating on the issues that you have or do you just write it to get more funding for yourself? 

I would state in mine that long first class plane rides to tropical places would help achieve greater insight on the world and how the different ecosystems affect both plants and animals which would help me to relate to the other humans that I coexist with but can't stand in the central states fauna.

[srkruzich]

If you home schooled and feel that you need an IEP, do you write it your self just to spend more time with your self concentrating on the issues that you have or do you just write it to get more funding for yourself? 

I have done that. I wrote it myself and no i didn't get funding.   The funding was out of  my pocket.
But you know, homeschooling IMO is much more effective than the Government education out there. But thats just my opinion.   I learned and am still learning that every single day everything in that day is a lesson.   For a good example, when i work with the beehives, i can stop and show a youngster things about that hive.  One thing is carpentry.  in building the hive you can involve math, even physics to some degree explaining how things work, then in the hive you can explain biology and entemology, things like that.  Walking through a field you can show herbs, weeds, things like that.

The whole world is a classroom.

[pepelect]

If we spent half the time that we have been hashing out the details of the school situation on something productive like actually teaching our kids we would have 347 Einsteins loose in the area.  I would not call it unproductive but at times it seems that if you had a million dollars and were going to give in to 100 charities you would get 1million reasons not to do it and 1million requests for more money.

[pepelect]

If you are driving along a get a flat tire you would stop and for about ten bucks you would fix it right?  You would not keep airing it up for two or three more years thinking that as long as it holds air while I am driving it will be fine.  You stop taking long trips because you don't trust that the tire will make the trip.  You start carrying a can of fix a flat just in case.  You can drive on a tire that in not property inflated but it is not safe.  You take that chance and keep filling the tire with air knowing full well that the tire is shot and needs replaced.  You get a couple more miles out of it and wham.  You are hit by a truck broadside and total the vehicle.  Thank goodness you didn't spend the ten bucks to get the tire fixed.

We need to fix our school issue.  It has a slow leak.  It has been draining us for thirty years.   It is time to change the tire.  Before something comes along and destroys the entire institution.

[indygal]

Great analogy. Or the one I like is "pay me now or pay me later." The Powers That Be from yesteryear chose not to pay, and now it's later. And a lot more expensive.

[pepelect]

If you can't come up with a viable alternative then the only recourse is to go negative. 

I love how the debate has turned from denying the facts, ignoring the history, and inability to grasp common mathematics to straight up raw emotion and sentiment.   If this was a national election we would next pull the race card.  I will not do that because I am not sure which race would be the minority.  The human race would lose...not loose...hands down. 

We are not talking about putting a man on the moon.   It is very simple.  We are broke.  We do not have enough money to keep three buildings open.   Our current bond and interest mill levy is 0.00 mills.  Which means as a district we have no debt.  We have maxed out the LOB just to maintain our current financial position.  Our budget is shrinking every year.  There is a decrease in enrollment from about 1998 to current.   With every year with less enrollment means a smaller budget to work with.  We need to become more efficient with our very valuable current dollars and assume that they will be less of them in the future. 

We need to down size.  We need to save more money by spending less every year for the foreseeable future.  We can do this a number of ways.  One is to cut programs.  Teach less things to a smaller number of students for less money.  Eliminate extracurricular activities expenses to the point where they are self supporting.  Just teach the basics.  No frills.  No college prep.  No fluff.  Bare bones meat and potatoes kind of school that will last about six months.


What we have currently chosen to do is to eliminate duplicate teaching positions, reconfigure our elementary model, and plan for a consolidated campus.
The advantages are few other than the building are already paid for, remodeled, paid for again, remodeled, paid for again,  and still need major improvements. Neither building is big enough for our current 200+ student load. Neither have adequate physical fitness, auditorium, or music rooms that won't need many dollars worth of remodeling.   
  We have teachers bouncing from one elementary school to the other to teach.  We still have three buildings, three lunch rooms, and three sets of utilities.  The maintenance issues are on the back burner.  There are no program expansion plans in place and no viable funding for the long term.  The current model will not work.  It has too much waste and redundancy. 


What is wrong with looking to the future with an open mind?  With one campus you have gained centralized schooling.    With centralized campus you have centralized busing.  The buses only go to school in the morning and  home in the afternoon.  Unlike current cramped conditions elementary students will be taught in large open well lit classrooms.  They will utilize high efficient HVAC units for their comfort and protection from natures wrath with improved hardened security.  No mold, no asbestos, low VOC paints are just the beginning.  Better lighting has been proven to produce better academic achievement. Money that is spent currently on high utilities, maintenance, and dueling identical buildings could be better utilized.   Lower test scores are achieved by not challenging students.  Not all students are scholars.  Some need the discipline of athletics, the camaraderie of FFA, FCCLA, Scoot, or other yet to be dreamed up programs to challenge them to be better citizens.  The more opportunity that is available to the student the more broad the horizon becomes after high school. A lot of student athletes get their foot in the door at college on athletic scholarships.  We can have more college prep courses designed in line with the future college.  We can offer more vo-tech courses in cooperation with area vocational technical schools to challenge the technically oriented.  Accounting and business courses backed up by the decade long proud history of WE mathematics could produce the next Rhodes Scholar. 



How can you deny our kids the opportunity that they deserve?  If we consolidate the elementary program into one building we can use the academic windfall to improve the entire district.  It is critical that they are getting the best education possible. 

[sixdogsmom]

It is my understanding that Longton elementary school is at risk of being closed by the state even though they have a 'new' elementary school building. It is also my understanding that the same fate may fall to WE no matter if they have a new building or not. If student population drops, the district may very well lose their schools. In my estimation it is foolish to incur eight million dollars plus of debt to build a building. It only makes sense to bite the bullet and close one or the other elementary, and combine the two. I do believe that fifth and sixth grade classes were conducted in the highschool building last year. If neither of the elementary buildings will hold all the students, then part of them should be housed in the highschool building. It doesn't make any difference to school attendance which building is closed; some will be lost from either community no matter what is done. Even if a new building is built, there will be some backlash as far as attendance is concerned.

It makes no sense to me to use every bit of the reserve funds for portables at the Howard site either. According to the most recently hired superintendant, there are 360,000 dollars in the fund that is in reserve for repairs and building expense. And the highschool has to have buckets under the leaks when it rains? Hello? I have to wonder just how far the cute t-shirts might have gone to improve that roof. Where did the money come from to buy those? And why isn't there an 'action' group to protect what the taxpayer has already bitten the 'bullet' to provide education to the youngsters of this district.

[srkruzich]

It is my understanding that Longton elementary school is at risk of being closed by the state even though they have a 'new' elementary school building. It is also my understanding that the same fate may fall to WE no matter if they have a new building or not. If student population drops, the district may very well lose their schools. In my estimation it is foolish to incur eight million dollars plus of debt to build a building. It only makes sense to bite the bullet and close one or the other elementary, and combine the two. I do believe that fifth and sixth grade classes were conducted in the highschool building last year. If neither of the elementary buildings will hold all the students, then part of them should be housed in the highschool building. It doesn't make any difference to school attendance which building is closed; some will be lost from either community no matter what is done. Even if a new building is built, there will be some backlash as far as attendance is concerned.

It makes no sense to me to use every bit of the reserve funds for portables at the Howard site either. According to the most recently hired superintendant, there are 360,000 dollars in the fund that is in reserve for repairs and building expense. And the highschool has to have buckets under the leaks when it rains? Hello? I have to wonder just how far the cute t-shirts might have gone to improve that roof. Where did the money come from to buy those? And why isn't there an 'action' group to protect what the taxpayer has already bitten the 'bullet' to provide education to the youngsters of this district.

The highschool roof is leaking?  Then why is anyone considering building any new buildings when the "ONLY HIGHSCHOOL" is not being maintained?
Where did all the money go for maintainance?

[perkinscreekranch]

Regarding the cute t-shirt remark:
In accordance to state law, the public information committee supporting the USD 282 bond election does not use district funds (i.e. tax payer dollars) in its efforts.  Promotional materials, handouts, flyers, advertising, etc. have all been paid for by donations from patrons and groups of our community.