One thing that worries me about consolidation is that if we ended up with a rotten school board like the current and recently past one, we would ruin not only K-8 but the high school as well. So I’m thankful that our current (D65) board, who is spending close to $70 million (including interest and architect fees) on building a K-5 school while they let all of their other schools rot, does not also have jurisdiction over the high school. When I’ve been in ETHS to take my kids to swimming lessons, I’m always impressed with the well kept landscaping, the interior condition of the building, as well as the decor and displays of athletic teams in that hallway. D65 has no clue on what impact the condition of schools and how their aesthetics affect students (and teachers).
Thank you for this correction and clarity. I am very interested to learn what has been attempted in the past, and why it did not succeed. Also interested to know if one district can have a multi-tiered system- I suspect the unions would have something to say about this, but then again, they haven’t pushed the gender pay gap issue very successfully. At the end of the day, two things are clear: we have an elementary school district with a huge budget, yet they can’t seem to educate all them and they have completely mismanaged the finances to terrible effect. The second thing we know is that we can’t spend money to save money- even for good intentions. We can’t spend money to equal the pay field between the two districts in order to save money from a district that can’t seem to operate in a fiscally sound manner. Just look what attempting to save a measly $3M in bussing costs have done to us.
One thing that worries me about consolidation is that if we ended up with a rotten school board like the current and recently past one, we would ruin not only K-8 but the high school as well. So I’m thankful that our current (D65) board, who is spending close to $70 million (including interest and architect fees) on building a K-5 school while they let all of their other schools rot, does not also have jurisdiction over the high school. When I’ve been in ETHS to take my kids to swimming lessons, I’m always impressed with the well kept landscaping, the interior condition of the building, as well as the decor and displays of athletic teams in that hallway. D65 has no clue on what impact the condition of schools and how their aesthetics affect students (and teachers).
Thank you for this correction and clarity. I am very interested to learn what has been attempted in the past, and why it did not succeed. Also interested to know if one district can have a multi-tiered system- I suspect the unions would have something to say about this, but then again, they haven’t pushed the gender pay gap issue very successfully. At the end of the day, two things are clear: we have an elementary school district with a huge budget, yet they can’t seem to educate all them and they have completely mismanaged the finances to terrible effect. The second thing we know is that we can’t spend money to save money- even for good intentions. We can’t spend money to equal the pay field between the two districts in order to save money from a district that can’t seem to operate in a fiscally sound manner. Just look what attempting to save a measly $3M in bussing costs have done to us.