Posted By: Prefer to remain anonymous
I too find the actions of the Okemos administration, school leaders, and most members of the school board to be quite troubling. It seems though that some of the discussion here really is conflating those issues with the bond when they might be better approached through school board elections. I wonder about some of the following:
Does it still make sense to maintain separate school systems in Okemos and Haslett? Wouldn't much money be saved by combining the districts without even consolidating any schools simply by reducing the number of administrative positions (could save close to $200,000 per year by just having one superintendent instead of two, could have one director of food services, one transportation director, etc.)? Wouldn't that make more sense than cutting 5th grade strings?
How does it make sense to make a decision about the Montessori middle school program before the vote on the bond, before the election of the two new board members, and before the hiring of the new superintendent unless the desire it to just rush it through at all cost? Mind you, I think it would be wonderful to be able to offer public Montessori if we could afford it. I also think all day kindergarten, year round schools, the international baccalaureate program Valerie von Frank has spoken about, extended school days, and many other innovative curricular programs would be wonderful if we could afford it. What I wonder though is why do we not have adminstrators and a school board who can have an open discussion about all of the possibilities with the community so together we can determine how best to spend the funds we actually have (oh, I forgot, it's the board policy not to engage in dialogue with community members).
How is it that other districts manage to survive on their allocation from the state when they receive less money than Okemos does? It may be that we actually offer a more costly curriculum which benefits the students more fully, but it sure would be nice to hear the explanation.
Similarly, I wonder why the board will not explain how if we can't survive on the money granted by the state, it makes financial sense to build a Montessori program based upon school of choice students who bring in less money per student?
Why does it not make sense to even consider closing an elementary school in any of the three tiers of programs suggested by the board/administration?
Why is it so intolerable to many of our teachers and principals that Judith Barton-MacGuidwin takes her role seriously and won't just rubber stamp everything the administration wants? Is this something peculiar to Okemos/Meridian Township because I see the same thing happens to John Vienstra on the Township Board when he dares to question a staff desire?
Why is it that school board member Jeff Theuer expresses more of an interest to outsource staff than even talk about saving the money by not expanding the Montessori program?
What is particularly troubling, though, is the dearth of quality candidates for the school board. There is only one candidate who I can even contemplate voting for on Tuesday-Valeria von Frank as she is the only one suggesting a broad, democratic approach to thinking about how to move us forward together in thinking about how to prioritize the funding we actually get.