A Process, Not An Event

Great meeting last night with the committee providing a much improved Plan #3 that eliminates the "balloons-in-a-room" madness that was the defining feature of the "springboard" proposal for Brown MS feeder elementary schools.

THIS ISN'T DONE. I think it is unlikely that they would undo what is now a very minimum impact plan #3 for the Brown Middle School feeder. My faith in the common sense of the committee is very high. However, nothing is finalized so I will be staying in touch with the process.

We had great attendance from the PTO, Paula Jean Park and from the Shadowood area in the SE part of our boundary despite the fact that many of us knew the boundary was restored. One parent with 5 kids in IH who would have been moved to Reedville noted during public comments that we were very happy with the updated maps followed by a little light applause from the Indian Hills parents. Carlos said "OK, on that note, let's end the meeting now!"

The PTO questioned how many kids were being added on the East boundary and the answer was currently 44. Current enrollment is 383 as a snapshot today, that would bring total enrollment up to 427. Carlos stated that student teacher rations would be 26:1 for all schools even if they needed to move resources around.

Misc Notes
I met one of the parents moving out of Ladd Acres at last week's meeting, she is really nice and has been at every meeting. She spoke up last night and questioned why it was so easy to move their blocks of homes from Ladd Acres to Indian Hills to Tobias. The answer from the committee was that they are already on buses and sort of 'portable'. She is still concerned about the process but has a conflict with the next committee meeting so she asked me to let her know if anything changes.

The most upset parents in the meeting were from Eastwood and Brookwood Elementary, they are getting major changes in Plan #3 and some of the parents were very agitated. Based on my own observations of those who have influenced things, I would encourage them to get their input to the committee on paper and let common sense prevail. Stay engaged, speak to the facts.

A parent from David Hill elementary noted that her kids were not just losing an elementary but kids in her area were the only ones being asked to change all 3 schools, elementary, middle school and high school. That is one tough pill to swallow and I'm sure it weighs heavy on the committee.

Side note: Deputy Superintendent Carlos Pérez was a counselor at JB Thomas and Evergreen Jr High [edit - and Vice Principal, we got out her old yearbooks] during the time my wife attended there, she recognized him immediately. The meeting last night was in the library at Evergreen and she recalled working at the school as a summer job, scraping gum off the bottom of tables and doing landscaping. Ahhh, good times, good times.