Messages

I contacted sedan and they said the bus ride would be no more than 25 min.  We have family that works at sedan and most likely they will ride with them so busing is not an issue right now.  Sedan is also considering going to a four day school week not this year but next year. They sent home letters with each student asking what they thought of a four day school week so that they would have actual numbers before they make a decision. We are for a four day school week anyway. 

The other issue is I don't want my kids seperated and at sedan that won't happen. 
On the repairs for both schools the board said at last meeting they were not going to do any repairs they were going to put everything on the back burner if you will and  if this is a short term fix it really doens't matter. 

We hate to leave the district too but every family does what they think is best for their family and that is what we are doing.

I agree everyone needs to pray and pray a lot!!!!

I left the school board meeting last night feeling very discouraged and disappointed.  I felt that these meetings should have been held before a final decision was ever made.  The Board should have been collecting information about the bus routes, utility costs and everything else for the last several years. 

Debbie Stange said that she went through the bus routes to see how many kids would be bused from one end to the other and the way it stands now there will be 23 kids bused on both ends.  Had they done it the other way with the 1st-3rd at Moline and the 4th-6th at Severy there would only be 16 kids being bused.  This did not seem to be taken into consideration by the majority of the Board.

Bob Black brought up that he knew USD 282 stands to lose 12-15 students from the split on the south end and he wanted to know if that was expected or if we could stand to lose that many and be ok.  Our expected enrollment for next year is 356 and Burt said that if enrollment falls to 320 or less he would recommend that the board close a school because it would cost too much to run both schools with that low of enrollment.  That means if we lose 36 students before August they could very well close a school this summer.

There are a lot of "what ifs" on the table and I feel that a year from now we will be in the same boat, facing a decision of which school to close.  If a bond issue does not pass they will have to close a school next year.  I personally don't think that we need a new school.  I would like to see the annex renovated into the grade school and build a new building to house the Vo-Ag, art room and woods classes.  Does everyone want to do that?  No.  Will it be easy? No probably not.  But with our declining enrollment why would we build a new grade school?  If our enrollment keeps declining and it will, we will probably be able to do what Longton does and have pre-K thru 12th at the high school anyway.   

I thought that Gina Wilson made an excellent point last night about the facts, that if this is a money issue then why aren't we looking at that.  Bert had put together what it cost last year to run both grade schools and Moline was the cheaper one to run with a difference of a little more than $10,000.00.  That should have a lot to do with the decision and it saddens me that it doesn't.  I feel that the decisions that have been made have been based on emotion and politics when they should be based on facts.  What I feel needs to be done is take Severy & Moline out of the equation and go by numbers. 

We have thought long and hard about what to do for our children in the way of their education and what is best for them.  That is why we are probably going to go to Sedan next year and we will most likely not come back to USD 282.  Was this an easy decision to make? No.  Michael & I both graduated from West Elk and we are glad that we did.  But, this is not about us it is about what is best for our children.

I don't think that any kids will be on the upper level of the school.  Especially 2nd and below because it's against state law, at least that's what they said at the last meeting.  We just want it to be over so we know where we stand.

Is it for sure they are having a special board meeting on monday to change what they decided last meeting?
Thanks
Venessa