Posted By: Parent of Two Okemos Children
Thank you for posting the comments by pro-bond school board candidate Mary Graham regarding the Montessouri figures. I agree with your analysis that the 3 and 4 year old Montessouri students are not comparable to kindergarten-age and older Montessouri students. In fact, there is a begindergarten program at Bennett Woods for 3 and 4 year olds, who come from all over the district and from outside of the district. A large number of the Bennett Woods begindergarten students, and perhaps a majority, do not attend Bennett Woods for kindergarten. This begindergarten program could be housed anywhere that there is space, just like the 3-year-old and 4-year-old Montessouri program. In fact, Montessouri itself has been housed at two other schools in the past, including Central before the move to Edgewood.
But Ms. Graham is correct in at least once sense. We should carefully try to allocate accounting entries to the appropriate program. For example, I understand that the recent capital costs for Edgewood School (for the new gym floor, roof and carpetting) came from the sinking fund. Shouldn't those costs be allocated to the Montessouri program? For that matter, should those expenditures have been used instead for purchasing school buses?