| North Boulder School Closures Revisited |
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| Saturday, 26 January 2008 | |
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Finally, through the bulldog efforts of S.O.S. Boulder Valley and numerous citizens still asking BVSD the reasoning behind the closures of Mapleton and Washington schools, Jean Paxton has asked for, and since received, a response from BVSD about the closures. Jean sent a "Request for Information" form to Chris King December 10th , 2007, and received a reply January 3rd, 2008, the respondents being Glen Segrue and Bill Sutter.
Click on this link to download and read the reply from BVSD. We also have a document that S.O.S. Boulder Valley sent out at the time of the closings, refuting much of the public reasoning BVSD had for the closures. Click here to read their statement on why BVSD should have kept the schools open. BVSDWatch.org supports the efforts of S.O.S. and we hope this is first of many questions BVSD board members will be asking about the closures. We feel the reply from BVSD this month has some important holes and non-truths in it and we recommend you read for yourself.
Some comments from BVSDWatch.org members after reading the BVSD report:
• Closure decisions were based solely on the BVSD staff assumption that enrollment was declining. Enrollment has actually increased.
• This report says that the closure decision was not made on projections of enrollment for any single neighborhood but instead on the determination that Mapleton and Washington did not have the "benefit" of full-time principals and other specialists. This is re-writing history. This issue was never raised by staff. Any parent with kids at Mapleton or Washington will tell you that part-time specialists worked well and were never so problematic that the schools should be closed.
• We find it interesting that BVSD staff still states that Foothills, Flatirons and Whittier can take the overflow from the closures of Washington and Mapleton. Whittier has a lengthy waiting list and has had one for years. Foothills has had and still does have portables, and there was a very well attended meeting at Flatirons last week to address the large class sizes.
If you have questions about the report please contact your BVSD representative from the link to the left.
No. 1 : After reading through Mr. Segrues reply to Ms. Paxton's question regarding the facts around enrollment as a result of the closures, I encourage the board to take this question a step further. Request of your staff a detailed accounting of the cost savings of the closures and consolidations. At these initial closures Mr. DelaCruz, the president of the Board at that time, demanded that if these closures/consolidations were to happen that an accurate accounting and tracking of them must be done. This is how we learn if such contested decisions/actions were in fact worth it. If in fact we we did save the money that we, the public, were told would be saved from such closures/consolidations. I personally do not believe any amount of money saved was worth the divisiveness, distrust and lack of accountability currently perceived by many of BVSD as a result of these ill fated decisions. We at BVSDwatch.org are still receiving emails from folks asking for such an accounting. At the time of the closures DAC gave a presentation of what they projected the cost/savings would be and were summarily dismissed, as it was not in line with what the staff at the time was predicting. I ask BVSD to revisit this DAC report and ask staff to research the actual savings as a result of closures, line by line, item by item. This is the logical next part of Ms Paxtons question of Dec 10th, what are the facts currently as a result of the closures around enrollment AND cost savings. With the current proposed demolition of Columbine and rebuilding it to hold double its current capacity and the same of Casey, it is foreseeable that there will be more closures in the future, how else will these nearly doubled schools be filled? It is imperative to learn exactly how much money was saved from our last round. How much money in savings is worth the TRUST of your community? We were told at the initial closures that the main reasons were money and enrollment. Mr. Segrue has addressed the enrollment, in fact showing that the predictions of BVSD staff at the time of closures did not come to be, as enrollment has not declined as much as anticipated in the areas that schools were closed, leaving schools with issues of overcrowding and portables. Now let us see if the money predictions we were given have played out. |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 28 January 2008 ) |
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