[Vision2020] school facilities discussion

Saundra Lund sslund at adelphia.net
Tue Mar 28 13:35:40 PST 2006


In part, Keely wrote:
"(A note on the alt school:  I think it is a sad commentary on our community
that some of its more "liberal" voices have advocated for the stripping away
of the relocation of the alt school from any of the three bond proposals the
committee has discussed.  Used to be that liberals cared for the underdog,
the poor, the disenfranchised and the marginalized, and if we give up on the
needs of our alternative school students in favor of simply funding
"neighborhood schools," then let's at least recognize that that's a most
illiberal and viciously pragmatic approach not befitting a community like
ours)."

Boy, do I hear you  :-(  I cannot tell you how distressed I was to see that
made crystal clear with the results from the newest survey  :-(((

Great post, too, Keely -- thanks for the insight.  And <gasp>, I think I
agree with everything you wrote  :-)


Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
- Edmund Burke

***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2005, Saundra Lund.
Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the Vision 2020 forum
without the express written permission of the author.*****

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of keely emerinemix
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 12:57 PM
To: areaman at moscow.com; vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] school facilities discussion

Gee . . . I haven't given this much thought . . .

Ha, ha.  In truth, I've been living and breathing this stuff for the last
three years, two on the committee and one off, and I can tell what I bet
most of you already know:  the vocal, survey-answering demographic of Moscow
is polarized.  There are those who ONLY want to remodel/renovate current
schools and there are others who don't want to put another dime into
Russell, West Park, and the High School (the HS not being a significantpoint
of discussion in this recent go-around, which saddens me).  There's lots of
room in the middle -- a middle ground, good-for-the-community move that was
well represented by last year's bond attempt -- but there seems to be little

interest in moving there.   Contact the district office if you want a copy 
of the just-completed survey.

Two things in particular bother me.  One is that this seems to be perceived
as a fascinating matter of public policy and civic involvement, and not
something that directly affects children.  Real children, whether at our
Title 1 (higher percentage of free-and-reduced lunch applications) schools,
our alternative high school, or anywhere else.  (A note on the alt school:  
I think it is a sad commentary on our community that some of its more
"liberal" voices have advocated for the stripping away of the relocation of
the alt school from any of the three bond proposals the committee has
discussed.  Used to be that liberals cared for the underdog, the poor, the
disenfranchised and the marginalized, and if we give up on the needs of our
alternative school students in favor of simply funding "neighborhood
schools," then let's at least recognize that that's a most illiberal and
viciously pragmatic approach not befitting a community like ours).  I love
historical buildings, architecture, walkable neighborhoods and "green" 
planning, but I will always place the needs of real children before
buildings, affluent neighborhoods, or anything else.  And I think we can do
a good job of honoring our children and our taxpayers with well-designed
playfields, trails, schools, creative and mixed-use zoning, green spaces and
other enhancements.  We can't, however, pretend that the tangible needs of
education and the needs of schoolchildren have somehow not changed over the
decades and should thus be subsumed to the subjective, intangible interests
of "neighborhoods."

Two, there's an enormous need for the district to educate people on a few
simple facts that some blogmeisters would rather they not know.  For
example, we run a tight ship budgetwise, but no amount of cuts from our
maintenance and operations budget will allow us to contribute from that
budget toward significant remodeling and new construction.  The State has
allowed for new construction and remodeling to be funded only from bonds --
like it or not, there simply is no legal way to use M and O monies to
remodel or construct, and the December 2005 State Supreme Court decision
calling for a move away from bond monies to fund construction won't change
that.  It will allow for other methods of funding large-scale remodels or
new construction, but there is no decision that the legislature can come up
with that allows us now to "tighten" an already conservative budget and use
the "excess" to build or remodel.  Plant facilities levies can be used for
some large-scale improvements, but significant remodeling and construction
are fundable only by bonds.  Both of those, however, are voter-approved
levies.  No matter what any  of our anti-public schools neighbors tell you,
there isn't a district anywhere that is able to use regular operations money
to fund new construction, and their vitriol toward public schools can't hide
that fact, only muddy the waters.  But if people don't know that, and no one
mounts a large-scale effort to tell them, then the discussion is framed by
those who are counting on the general populace to not know much about school
funding.  MSD has taken a lot of hits and not responded at times; I have
taken a lot of hits and have tried only to respond when facts are in
dispute.  But if a large segment of the voters think we're reckless in our
budgeting and could just as well suck it in and build from the dollars
saved, our efforts will be fruitless.

I remain astonished that there are those in our community who fail to see a
civic-value difference in the building of a new high school on the edge of
town and the building of a Wal Mart Supercenter on the edge of town.  All
growth is not sprawl, and all growth is not the same.  God help us if we
can't differentiate between the community-strengthening value of a school
and the community-killing spectre of a Super Wal Mart, but I wonder if
that's where we've ended up.  If so, be assured that my work will continue,
and always with the belief that what a community's willingness to provide
the best for its schoolchildren is a far more accurate indicator of its
worth and strength than even the most beautiful and walkable tree-lined
streets bordering run-down, inefficient, and inadequate school buildings.

And now, fully aware that I've probably offended people all over the
spectrum, it's time to open my pesto-cranberry tortollini from the Co-Op and
rue the fact that the MSD board meets tonight at the same time as the NSA
CUP hearing.  Sigh.

Contentiously, but kindly,

keely


From: "Area Man" <areaman at moscow.com>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Subject: [Vision2020] school facilities discussion
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 11:50:05 -0800

Maybe I've missed it in all the posts about elections and super wal-marts
and various other topics, but I haven't seen much discussion on the Vizzz
regarding school facilities (this time around).

I'll get the ball rolling (love it or hate it) --

Sell off West Park and Russell, build a new elementary school at the Joseph
Street property, send those kids there.

Some things that *might* happen in this process:
- the U of I purchases the West Park property
- *someone* buys the Russell property and builds the high-rise condos that
some citizens told the New Cities people we wanted, maybe even using the old
school for part of that.
- that makes some money for the SD to build the new school with (not all of
it, of course).

Issues?
- Kids that walk to Russell will have to hoof it to McDonald or Lena, or
take a bus (not really a problem with West Park, since I think most all the
kids ride buses there already).
- all the schools even farther over on the east side of Moscow.  It would be
nice to have one at each corner of town, but I don't see that happening.

This still doesn't fix the problems with the High School, but that's for
another time.  Baby steps . . .

As Tom Hansen would say, "Thoughts?"

DC


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