Saturday, March 6, 2010
March 10 Monona Grove Board of Education Meeting
Our next Board meeting will take place at 7pm on March 10 in the Winnequah School IMC. The Board will continue to discuss our administrative budget reduction proposals as well as the possible consolidation of Maywood Elementary and Winnequah School. We will also have discussion on and the possible approval of the location of our district's sixth grade programming. Principal Renee Tennant was very kind to walk me through Glacial Drumlin School this week and gave me a thorough understanding of how consolidating our sixth grade programming would fit into her building. While her well thought out planning eased my concerns about space and crowding issues at GDS, I still have several preoccupations about the move. I have heard from administrators, staff and parents alike that there seems to be an unwritten rule that no secondhand furniture may be used in the building. As the possible consolidation of sixth grade programming is being presented as a cost-neutral non-budget reduction item, I would love to get to the bottom of the plans to furnish two extra classrooms. Based on Patti McGinnis's 4K-8 Grade Configuration Study of 2009, I would make a guess that it may cost upward of 20K. I have asked for the cost projections from administration; hopefully the Board will have a chance to examine these figures before our proposed vote on the issue. I also continue to be concerned that in light of our recent budget reduction discussions, our district will not continue to financially support the Encore programs that make sixth grade an exploratory middle school program. If our programming is to be cut drastically in the near future, is there a true benefit to moving our sixth graders together in an school that is already coming close to capacity? Even more troubling is Superintendent Gerlach's statement that in the event that his proposal to move all of our sixth grade students to GDS is not approved, it is likely that Winnequah's sixth grade students will have an elementary model for programming, while our GDS sixth graders will continue to be offered the full exploratory middle school programming. This is an educational move that I will certainly not support. I cannot understand how having one isolated group of students in a grade level be exposed to one less year of FACE, Tech Ed., Spanish, French and computer instruction could possibly be sound educational practice. Yet this seems to me to be likely in the future if all of our sixth graders aren't brought together now. I will be bringing this concern up at our Board meeting on the 10th.
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I like your opening statement. It shows you are human, humble and consious and most important trying to do the "right thing." As I told a friend if you act and move and stay true to your values at the end of the day-what can be said about you-yes a lot of bad things and good but you stayed true to you.
ReplyDeleteYou are the type of person who still true to your self that is a good thing.
HP
Thanks for doing this- it's refreshing to see someone else's opinion. Speaking of which, there are emails going around that two Board members are pushing to move the Maywood consolidation vote up two weeks. Is that really going to happen?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI have heard about the emails that you have alluded to but, as of yet, I have not read them and so can't comment on the information that they contained. I call tell you, however, that Board members Jason McCutchin and Jill List formally requested moving the possible approval of the consolidation of Maywood and Winnequah to our March 10 Board meeting. It is my understanding that the vote will continue to be scheduled for the 24th of March, as originally presented, decided upon, approved and heavily publicized.
ReplyDeleteAs noted above, both Jason McCutchin and Jill List sent requests this past week requesting that a vote on the possible Maywood-Winnequah consolidation be put on the March 10 agenda. I have consistently stated my view that to move up the vote is inappropriate, since we approved a budget preparation calendar on December 22, 2009, stating that budget reduction items would be acted upon on March 24. Accordingly, the item on Maywood-Winnquah is posted for discussion only on the posted March 10 agenda. By state statute, the Board may not take action on an item unless a possible vote is noted on the agenda at least twenty-four hours before the meeting. Board agendas are prepared, in accordance with policy, by the Superintendent "with the advice of the Board President." My "advice" is not to vote before March 24. I consider the matter closed.
ReplyDeleteI can not believe that this move is cost neutral.
ReplyDeleteAdministration is telling us the move to consolidate our sixth grade programming will be cost-neutral because they expect the cost of busing Monona sixth graders to GDS will be offset by the cost savings of eliminating the need for travelling teachers between the two buildings. Makes sense until we start talking about furniture, moving costs and the likelihood that we will need an additional bus run to GDS the following year.
ReplyDeleteHow can List and McCutchin get away with trying to pull that? Pretty alarming if you ask me!
ReplyDeleteHold on a minute, Anonymous! It is completely okay for Board members to ask for changes in agenda items. I did not support making the change they requested for reasons that I have already stated in this blog and at our last Board meeting, but it is certainly within their rights to do so. I would even go so far as to say it would be their obligation to advocate for their opinion. You may not agree with their opinion, I don't, but that doesn't mean they are doing anything improper.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I am not going to shoot you. it is just important that I pause about certain things or I do not say what needs to be said. It just comes from raw emotion and not the heart and head.
ReplyDeleteI am disappointed in the result-there is little doubt about that and I can not deny that I disappointed in your vote.
I think, you know that I feel that keeping 6th grade here lets us build a strong community and in many ways a better education for our kids.
Clearly, you changed your mind about this issue from when you ran for the board and, while, it is not the only reason I supported you, it is at least one of them. Thus, this is hard probably for both of us and people will react differently. I am guessing that you have found that out.
Mcdoodle asked me once why people hate him so much and more so then Mike Duplee and Nancy Allen-told him-they think your are Judas. I am not sure that is the case with you or how people will react to you but he laughed because I was close to the truth-not saying you are Judas-just people MIGHT
Yes, people do evolve and change their minds, I respect that. Yet, it is just difficult when we disagree about something so very fundamental. I just feel very strongly that Monona needs to educate as many kids here here possible. At this point, imho, close Maywood it make no logical sense to keep it open.
The kids will have a real gym, real choir room and etc. However, I do think all of this is going to push the district to the brink.
In any case, it does not mean that we can not visit about this or that. There were times where I just could not talk to him-he would have gotten raw emotion and that is rarely a good thing. Through the Referendum, I always visited with Mcdoodle and at times yelled at him and we still talk-about schools and politics and disagree-we have a love hate relationshop-sorry I digressed.
So what I am saying, I ain't going to not talk to you-I have never been good at that.
take care of yourself-the baby, boys and Gerald are much more important then school board politics.
shrug
HP
oops,
ReplyDeleteHow about I say I am going to talk to you and still visit about this and that. My last sentance does not make sense.
Hhmmmmmmm, glad you're not going to shoot me
ReplyDeleteyou are the one who asked, lol.
ReplyDeleteThis may not be the right place for these comments but I tried. I am also "not a Bigger!Brighter!Newer!=Better! type of person" Refusing to throw away good ideas and good behaviors in favor of keeping up with the times keeps me on the right track for at least a better track than the one the crowd is treading. So let's keep sand for our playground.
ReplyDeleteI am happy to see that you are keeping to the high ground in that the comments unfriendly to your views are also being aired and answers reasonably. People who say that the old Board was open have been completely snowed. I came to Monona in 2000 and started to attend Board meetings and committee meetings a year or so later. I have been employed in four other school districts and watched their meeting also. I was amazed by the amount not being shown to the public. These meetings were more like social gatherings with many in-jokes and in-comments that could not be interpreted from the outside. Robert's Rules were mandated by the Policy but ignored in practice. Proceedures are definitely better now but the "old crowd" shouldn't be expected to think so. Time is needed for change to take place. Keep up the good work.