1. John Welke moved to establish an interim student capacity (maximum capacity) for each
elementary school by using the number of dedicated educational classrooms with even grade
distribution times the current class target size plus two. Motion carried 7-0.
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| This is it. This is the entire response provided by the elementary principals in response to the three motions made by the Elementary Task Force. |
report with recommendations for each elementary school capacity if it's different than the
interim capacity. Motion carried 7-0.
3. John Welke moved to direct administration to prepare, as desired, a different model for
establishing elementary school capacities and present it to the Elementary Task Force
Committee. Motion carried 7-0.
Loaded with qualifiers.
- "...theoretically possible"
- "...practically...next to impossible"
- "...it would NOT be best"
- "...we would NOT be as effective as Instructional Leaders"
Really? This is what we get from the $100K club?
These folks are all pretty much card carrying members of the $100K salary club (or at the very least total compensation). This is the best we get from this group? No header, no identifying information....hell one wouldn't even know it came from them if it wasn't in BoardDocs.
How do you think any student would fare if they turned in a 249 word paper when a "report" was requested? Maybe...just maybe...if they were the most concise but explanatory words ever strung together. Just maybe 249 words would cut it. But we doubt it. They didn't even put their name on their paper.
Was it even their work?
Some have theorized that the response came from somewhere on high (3 guesses) and the elementary school principals were forced to present it as their own. Perhaps adding to that, the "author" of the document on BoardDocs is not any of the elementary principals but none other than the Secretary for Business Services. It would seem unlikely that the principals would write their "report" in an e-mail, which had to be copied into a document. But, if they presented their "report" in some word processor document, why wouldn't that have just been "PDF'd", carrying the author's name with it?
Just askin'....
An answer for everything
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| OK...truth be told, building a new school was the ONLY idea which was NOT met with a response of, "That's not what's best for the kids" |
No compromise. No discussion. Just a flat, "that's not what's best for the kids. And the Elementary Task Force (well, those members other than the administrative team) came up with dozens of really good ideas representing ex-box thinking, including:
- move some (or even all) 5th graders to the middle schools
- move 7th graders into CHUMS
- reconfigure the grades in elementary schools: maybe four schools serve as K-2 and three schools serve as 3-5.
- relocate the 80 or so kids in the PPA and use the PPA building as a new elementary school.
- make better use of the old administration building (near the CHUMS)
- look for a building which can be converted to a new school, rather than build from scratch,
- make the next elementary school a charter or magnet school
- re-tool boundary lines to ease "crowding" in Horizon, Eastside, Bird and Northside
Perhaps these ideas will be explored at a later date. Of course...what would be the point, seeing as our elementary principals don't see anything on that list as being "best for the kids".
We're disappointed. You should be too.
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