WEST ELK VOTERS SAY A FIRM "NO" ON TUESDAY

[Sarah]

Angie,
I understand where you're coming from, but I'll tell you where at least "I'm" coming from.  I did vote no.  No, I'm not from Elk county.  Spent my whole life in Christian private schools.  Went to college with a major in Biology and then have been back and forth to college for others things, so I'm by no means an idiot and am well educated.  You own your own business, your husband works, you could get a second job..............that's great.  But I'm a stay at home mom and I'm proud of it.  Only my husband woks and his hours haven't been all that great due to the economy.  We don't have any extra money to throw around, we're living on a shoe string as it is.  If we can't afford to live here, regardless of schools, we'll move where we can.  Do I have any suggestions for the school?  Yes.  Let those that have money.........and there is a lot of it out here in some families.............pay.  There were a lot of people on here stating that money was no object and that they were willing to do whatever it takes to do this, well then do it.  Private schools don't have a lot of money, they don't have fancy buildings, but they also don't have a lot of extracurricular activities that bigger schools do, but they're also not in debt and they don't take government funds and yet somehow, they make it and a some of them are bigger than West Elk and they do it all by what parents pay.  I know that a lot of parents out here can't afford that, the same way they can't afford higher taxes, but there are parents that can.  There are parents that can afford to help.  And there are companies out here that can do some of the work that the buildings need done.

JMO and this is our side of it and after our property tax darn near doubled I'm glad I did vote the way we did as we're already trying to decide if we need to pack up and leave.  There are a lot of places in Kansas where we can own a lot more land and twice the house for what we're going to be paying this year and I see nothing in Elk County to warrant it.  

[momof 2boys]

You say people need to volunteer.  That is all fine and wonderful, but citizens of this community don't even show up for the meetings to get the information on the district's situation.  How you going to get them to care enough to volunteer?

[Lookatmeknow!!]

I understand you Sarah.  I understand that you are a stay at home mom.  That is one reason that I decided to do what I do.  I wanted to stay with my children and not have to pay out the cost of daycare.  I just got the vibe from those, not you, that nothing that Elk county does makes them happy.  I agree to about the taxes.  It's not going to be easy to come up with the money at all for us.  But moving for us is not an option.  We are here for the long haul.  I just thought that the way that some of the people on this thread acted, not you, others was a little uncalled for.  Again, just my opinion.

See, Sarah and I can easily have a disagreement and use no bad words.  And it sounds like a conversation, not an attack on people.

[srkruzich]

You say people need to volunteer.  That is all fine and wonderful, but citizens of this community don't even show up for the meetings to get the information on the district's situation.  How you going to get them to care enough to volunteer?

well you have had several people here volenteer.  It doesn't take 1000 people.

[Sarah]

I understand you Sarah.  I understand that you are a stay at home mom.  That is one reason that I decided to do what I do.  I wanted to stay with my children and not have to pay out the cost of daycare.  I just got the vibe from those, not you, that nothing that Elk county does makes them happy.  I agree to about the taxes.  It's not going to be easy to come up with the money at all for us.  But moving for us is not an option.  We are here for the long haul.  I just thought that the way that some of the people on this thread acted, not you, others was a little uncalled for.  Again, just my opinion.

See, Sarah and I can easily have a disagreement and use no bad words.  And it sounds like a conversation, not an attack on people.

LOL  I get scared to post too.  Nothing like being ran over like a truck at times.   

I don't have anything against Elk County at all.  I actually like it.  It was purely a matter of economics for us.  We're just broke and we own a little tiny house not much bigger than a cracker box and a little tiny bit of land and a shed that we use for a barn and we're paying as much property tax as a great big house else where. 

I wish there was something I could do at home.  Trust me.  I've looked for things.  But we're sort of out of the way.......well, except for the dump trucks......and so not much I can do to make anything extra other than travel around to Farmers Markets which I hope to do next summer, but that doesn't pay much. 

[Lookatmeknow!!]

You say people need to volunteer.  That is all fine and wonderful, but citizens of this community don't even show up for the meetings to get the information on the district's situation.  How you going to get them to care enough to volunteer?

well you have had several people here volenteer.  It doesn't take 1000 people.

But saying and doing are to different things.  Many people don't follow through.  I know first hand what she is talking about.

[jerry wagner]

Either way the repairs to the building do not address the over staffing for the size of the district that is necessary to run three campuses when only one is necessary.  You can repair (and waste money on those repairs) three buildings with cheap or volunteer labor all you want but that will not alleviate the situation whatsoever.  What people need to realize to a degree is that we are currently at MAX LOB, which means next year if the population of students declines and thus the budget received by the state declines so must the LOB since the maximum LOB is a percentage of the total funding, thus people will have to be eliminated to meet that reduced budget and that is where the problem will grow large and will result in eliminated programs and a quick reduction in the quality of education provided by USD 282.

At this point, perhaps the school district should just be dissolved and have the students go to the closest open enrollment schools and watch as the remaining families in Elk county disappear.

[/quote]THey were going to eliminate at least 50% of the jobs anyway by consolidation.  Come on, you don't pay 2 kindergarten  teachers for one class.

[/quote]

Yes that is what they were going to do.... now they will be forced to do that as well as begin to eliminate additional programs when we do not offer that many to begin with.

[srkruzich]

You say people need to volunteer.  That is all fine and wonderful, but citizens of this community don't even show up for the meetings to get the information on the district's situation.  How you going to get them to care enough to volunteer?

well you have had several people here volenteer.  It doesn't take 1000 people.

But saying and doing are to different things.  Many people don't follow through.  I know first hand what she is talking about.

well you can ask Sarah, when i say i will do something come hell or highwater i do it.  
I don't make promises I won't keep.

[jerry wagner]

I think there would be legal liability concerns if the public were to do some of the labor on the repairs of the roof or any other repairs that are necessary.

Oh jeeze. come on.  We can volenteer for habitat for humanity, we can volenteer to build a park in howard now your arguing Liability issues?? 

Certainly I will argue liability issues, and if you do not believe that they would come up then you are dreaming.  For example, in the past the Lions Club had offered to repair pot holes in the City of Howard and were refused because we would have to be covered by the City's insurance policy in case of accident and because of the liability created if we did not do the work properly.

[srkruzich]

well jerry its like this.  You get the core education covered. The basics.  IF you want sports, or band or extra curricular activities then do like i did with my kids,  I paid for them.   And no i wasn't a rich man.  I worked whatever it took to do it.  Just because you don't have band, or music or football, or any of these other programs doesn't mean you won't produce or have students that will excell. The programs don't make the students successful. The Students are successful because they see their future and choose to be successful despite the odds.