[Vision2020] school facilities discussion

Tue Mar 28 18:20:47 PST 2006

Unfortunately, the survey option with the least support was the one I 
favored -- remodeling West Park, building a new two-sections-per-grade 
elementary on Joseph Street (with core spaces for eventual expansion to 
three sections) to alleviate overcrowding at McDonald and Lena Whitmore, and 
turning Russell into PCRHS.  I am committed to doing what we can to keep a 
school on the west side of town, but the survey indicated even less support 
for that than for the other two.  It's in those two (basically, remodel WP 
and Russell, find a new building for PCRHS; or sell WP OR Russell, use the 
other for PCRHS, build new on Joseph) that we have polarization and, 
consensus builder that I am (she said modestly), I liked the mix of new and 
remodeled, as well as the geographic positioning of the schools.

It's not just about cost but about what's good for kids, and certainly many, 
many children are currently walking to Lena and McDonald and would just as 
easily walk to a Joseph Street site with some safety changes to Mountain 
View (a large number, of course, live east of Mountain View and wouldn't 
cross to get to Joseph Street's site).  Currently very few walk to WP, but 
that may be due to the K-3 configuration; Russell is home to a significant 
number of kids bused in.

Both Russell and WP have very small footprints, which would make gutting and 
rebuilding not only very expensive, but not give us the space increase, 
particularly at Russell, that some people say we need.

Again, I would urge you all to check with the district for more info on 
options, the survey, the committee, etc., and let the committee know what 
concerns you about Moscow's public school buildings.

keely

From: "Bruce and Jean Livingston" <jeanlivingston at turbonet.com>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] school facilities discussion
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 16:01:53 -0800

Dan, good question.

I much prefer the use of neighborhood schools for elementary school kids.  A 
single junior and senior high school seems OK to me, but the elementary 
schools ought to be closer to the kids and allow walking to school.  I favor 
walkable schools in our neighborhoods.  In my opinion, gutting and 
re-building our most out-moded schools, Russell and West Park, seems 
preferable to a proposed new elementary school on Joseph St. far from those 
kids' neighborhoods.  If not the retrofitting solution, then let's 
contemplate figuring out how to build a new elementary school on the west 
side of town, not the east side.   But it seems to me that the more 
knowledgeable folk who studied this stuff on the Facilities Committee have 
concluded that the retrofit was the preferable if we were to retain west 
side elelmentary schools.   So I will suupport that option.

I also think that the proposed Joseph Street location for a larger and brand 
new elementary school is a bad idea for several reasons.   First, it would 
make Lena Whitmore, on what once was the eastern edge of town, the 
western-most elementary school.  Second, it is surrounded on two sides by 
the creek and presumably is in a flood plain.  Third, the land is perfect 
for parks and ball fields, and the City of Moscow ought to address our 
shortcomings in those areas by discussing some long range solution in terms 
of lease or sale with the School District or a multi-player deal including a 
third party.

While I deplore the lack of funding for the Alternative School in the 
current bond discussions, it seems to me that the lesson from the last 
election is to build a case for the most needed replacement first, and get 
it passed.  The elementary schools seem to be in more critical condition.

I do think that the community needs to thank Dr. Weitz mightily for his 
efforts on behalf of the alternative school, and that we as a community need 
to plan on funding an alternative school and a vocational school in the 
future.  But I can't see asking for such a large bond to do all of that at 
once, given the last election.  Let's see if the community will pull 
together on behalf of the most needed elementary schools.  As Chris Storhok 
said, we may have to do this incrementally.

Bruce Livingston

----- Original Message ----- From: "Debbie Gray" <dgray at uidaho.edu>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>; "Area Man" <areaman at moscow.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 12:00 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] school facilities discussion

>I've also been curious about 2020 feedback about this issue.
>While I think they should look at the issue of the elementary
>schools w/out tagging the alternative high school to it, that
>probably won't happen any time soon... I do want to say that my
>2nd grader attends West Park and I would disagree that most kids
>at West Park are bussed there. Lots of the kids are children of
>students who live right on campus and there are lots of children
>who walk and are dropped off by parents. Bill Marineau,
>principal of west park, could probably give more accurate
>figures but that's just my quick feedback about that.
>
>Debbie
>
>On 28 Mar 2006 at 11:50, Area Man wrote:
>
>>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
>>
>>
>>_____________________________________________________
>>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>>                http://www.fsr.net
>>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>>
>
>
>*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
>Debbie Gray dgray at uidaho.edu
>Research Analyst         208-885-4017
>University of Idaho 208-885-5759 (fax)
>Dept of Ag Econ and Rural Sociology
>*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
>
>_____________________________________________________
>List services made available by First Step Internet,
>serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>               http://www.fsr.net
>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

_____________________________________________________
List services made available by First Step Internet, serving the communities 
of the Palouse since 1994.                 http://www.fsr.net                
                 mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
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