Tomorrow night (3/18/10) there is a meeting at Ypsilanti High School auditorium at 7 p.m. to hear about the Ypsilanti administrations' proposals for school closings/budget reductions. Read more about it at Mark Maynard's blog. (See the post, Ypsi School Closings Part IV.)
The Ypsilanti school district did lose population after two schools were closed a few years ago. I can't say if the school closings were the reason. Nonetheless, remember that any estimated savings will be hugely affected by losses of students from the district.
From the outside, the thing that would make the most sense to me would be to redistribute the Perry kindergartners into the other elementary schools, but I am definitely looking from the outside in. . .
Information, news, and ideas about Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, and Michigan schools; thoughts about education; and occasionally other stuff too.
Sure wish we knew whether administration had considered the Perry option. Many suggested it, but no response has been given.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow's meeting will be very discouraging, no two ways around it.
- YpsiAnon
Maybe you will find out tomorrow. If not, then you can use FOIA to find out if they analyzed it at all.
ReplyDeleteJust wait until A2 steals 200 ypsi students in schools of choice and see how that hits the budget.
ReplyDeleteOK, so I just got clarification from the annarbor.com article's writer (article link is http://www.annarbor.com/news/chapelle-east-middle-school-to-be-closed-under-proposed-ypsilanti-public-schools-plan/ ) that the YPSD administration proposal, which closes both Chappelle Elementary and East Middle School, and reconfigures grades, estimates its savings based on losing only 50 students due to the reorganization. That seems really, really low to me, given that there are not only school changes, but grade reconfigurations involved. [I say this, even excluding wastewatcher's comment above, which I think is true. Ann Arbor opening schools of choice could--in fact--mean a separate loss of students to Ann Arbor, if Ann Arbor goes with limited schools of choice.]
ReplyDeleteThey could've saved themselves two months' worth of sham meetings and saved the public a lot of emotion and effort if they had just said in January, "This is how it is. Deal with it." That's how open this process was and how responsive the board and administration were.
ReplyDeleteI'm bitterly disappointed by the lack of creativity and forethought displayed by those in charge.
- YpsiAnon
YpsiAnon,
ReplyDeleteI think that is a good point. I wonder why they didn't? If the parent group opposing the closings were to FOIA a lot of documents, we might find out. As it is, this will probably spell more trouble for the Ypsi school district. I don't think people react well to grade reconfigurations and it's kind of a weird reconfiguration--and in addition, I will be very surprised if Ann Arbor doesn't add some school of choice spots tonight--I imagine that will draw from all of their neighbors, including Ypsilanti.
By the way, YpsiAnon, do you know that you can get yourself a Google ID or OpenID and post under YpsiAnon?
ReplyDeleteMy old Google ID stopped working awhile ago, and, after a couple tries, I decided it wasn't worth it. So, here goes...
ReplyDeleteStill not working right! That's seven minutes I'll never get back!
- YpsiAnon
Too funny.
ReplyDeleteI hear good things about Perry. My friends kids who have attended/attend love it. Kids get to meet other kids from around town and because all the kindergartens are there they can do all sorts of innovative things. A couple friends kids are in a montessori classroom.
ReplyDelete