Ypsilanti Meetings: New Tech High School, Transportation

New Tech High School in Ypsilanti
Tonight, 6/1/2010, and tomorrow, 6/2/2010, are the final parent meetings for the New Tech High School at Ardis. The meetings are at the Ypsilanti High School Media Center (2095 Packard Rd.) at 6 p.m. Enrollment is only open to freshmen. If you are looking for a school of choice (and you are not in the Ypsilanti School District), there are 25 slots available for non-Ypsilanti students.
There are 40+ New Tech High Schools around the country, and 5 are opening in Michigan this coming year. Here is some information about the New Tech programs.

Side note:
Don't you think it is interesting that the high schools have essentially incorporated slang into their names? Technically, shouldn't it be New Technology High School? Is Tech even a word?

Transportation Meeting (Consolidation Discussion & Decision)
The Ypsilanti School Board will have a special meeting on June 7 to discuss the proposed county-wide bus consolidation plan that is being championed by the WISD. [Note: this is not even posted on the YPSD web site calendar, so I don't know the time and place. I will update with that.] I have written about the transportation consolidation issue before (here is my last post on the subject), and this is one area where the devil truly is in the details. At this point, I wouldn't support it. How do you spell M*E*S*S? Ifenough districts do sign on (they need 5, and I think they need Ann Arbor), there is sure to be a mess this summer. Part of the plan involves laying off all of the drivers, and rehiring a portion of them. In the process, all of the unions get dissolved, and the drivers end up with huge pay cuts. At this point, Willow Run is the only district to have voted for the plan to date, and now the Willow Run bus drivers' union has asked (as is their right) to bargain with the school district to see if they can come to an agreement. So the summer is likely to be taken up with school districts bargaining with transportation units, while simultaneously planning for two scenarios. There is, by the way, a SOLUTION. It's called: MORE TIME. Take a year to plan this out properly, with parents and workers (not just administrators) at the table too.