March 4th LRPC meeting observations

I wanted to share my observations of this evening’s Long Range Planning Committee meeting.  First off, it felt like I was at a school district holiday party because every decision maker in attendance, with the exception of a few actual parents, was either a teacher or administrator.   However, despite this, it was comforting to see that there was an overwhelming consensus to NOT go forward with the single “Mega High School” (much to the chagrin of some of the consultants). However, it was obvious that they were willing to use this opportunity to make programmatic changes (e.g. theme/magnet) at the expense of the closure of some existing elementary schools.  Pumpkin Delight was mentioned as an acceptable lamb for the slaughter and as some people already know, Live Oaks has already been put up on the chopping block.  SHHHH!, that’s not official of course. 

At one point, Bill Silver stepped up to speak to the committee. I found it very intriguing listening to a registered architect and interior designer try to give the planning committee his own color commentary on the educational benefit of expanding onto Foran and Law to support a specialty or theme-based school.  C’mon, East Shore isn’t even close to being complete Bill. 

Another positive point, was that they are looking for a near-term change to going from our current configuration to a PreK-5, while keeping with the current “2” high schools and “3” middle schools.  This did put me at ease as a parent. However, as I listened further, it was clear that rather than simply phasing in this new configuration and allowing it to root, they are going to jump to shut down schools, causing redistricting, and do the one thing that we wanted to avoid by doing this whole effort, spend more money.

 I felt like I was on a raft in the middle of the Atlantic with all these ups and downs.  In fact, I’m trying to grab a Dramamine right now as I’m writing.

Despite all this, I can’t help but believe there is an underlying agenda going on here, with an already pre-defined design in place.  I’m no conspiracy nut, but based on the consultants’ continuing pitching of “potential alternatives” that require construction, it makes me wonder if the committee’s decision will make any difference once it hits the table of the MBOE.