You may remember my mentions of the BKPS being in imminent danger of closing...
As of September 21, 2007 the community has collected $1,420,581.90. They held fundraisers all weekend long and the Department of Education has, apparently, agreed to restructure $450,000 of the total 2 million dollars. Now, they just have to survive the hearing today and all will be well. Of course, there's always a chance that the Dept. of Education will be anal, accept the money and close the doors anyway. I wouldn't put it past them.
How sad is that? The Dept. of Education now sits on a level with thieving bastards in my mind. And truth be told... as shoddy as they often perform... it's not really that far of a leap. And I have noticed, in all their 'restructuring" of our school systems... not a single well to do school has been annexed, despite the fact that some of them perform a hell of a lot worse than the poorer districts. One would think that after having the system of funding declared unconstitutional once, the Dept would at least attempt to restructure based on performance. It seems the logical course to me.
But then again, I don't work for the Dept. of Education either.
I just can't get over the lengths the community has gone too to save the school. It's truly awesome to watch it unfold. One community of 3,500, in a month and a half, has raised nearly 1.5 million? People have mortgaged their homes, spent every dime that they didn't need to survive and attended every single fundraiser for the sake of a school.
It rather makes me wonder... if every community was like that, what would the public education system look like?
It's certainly something to ponder. I doubt it could be much worse than it is at this point, at any rate.
On a final note, if the Dept. of Education decides that their efforts haven't been enough and moves forward with their plans to close the school; all money raised will be refunded. Let us just hope though, that the Dept. of Education pulls their heads out of their asses for once in their existence and does the thing that makes the most sense in the most ways and keeps the school open.
I pity the kids should it go the other way today.
5:40pm Update The state Board of Education voted unanimously today to leave the school open for the time being. They apparently agree that the ability of the community to raise 1.5 million dollars in a month is nothing short of phenomenal and have agreed to wait until after a Nov. sales tax increase vote to decide the permanent fate of the school. News stories here and here
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this is why on a greater level-- I believe that this country can always pull through its tough times but yet again, I wonder if all communities are like this.
truth be told, the general apathetic feeling in some areas is shocking and saddening
I think of this often and question why don't people care?
and many answers come to mind so I'm always led to answering my questions yet they still don't satisfy me.
"Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right."
http://www.progressiveu.org/231615-this-is-a-muslim-girls-plight
" "love em all,trust a few,and fear none"....thats wassup.one love. peace." mos def
Who's leading this brocade, may I ask? It sounds exactly what happened to my high school a couple years before I graduated.
The town couldn't really get the money and the attorney they hired wasn't all that great (ended up firing him, if I remember right), though. The Superintendent was a shady bastard, and only closed down part of the school, since the school joined the local district on the terms that if it ever got shut down, it would immediately be given back to the town (gotta love the local rich-out-the-wazoo oil family that owned the area back in the late 1800s to mid 1900s).
The high school section (the school was K-12) got shut down for two years under the supposed reasoning of saving money (though how keeping the entire building open for half the students is still beyond me) before the town was able to convince the School Board to just shut the school down entirely and allow the town to have it back.
My old English teacher is now the Principal and CEO (and although that kind of scares me, knowing some of the things that go through his head, I doubt there could be a better Principal) of what is now the local charter school and last I heard they are doing quite well.
You guys aren't alone in that situation and you can do something about the matter. I wish you guys luck. =)
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
They've set up a SOS task force led by parents and teachers. Hopefully all of the hard work will pay off and the school won't be closed today. We're still waiting to hear how it's going to turn out. It will be a complete disaster if it does close. There's just no school in the area that can take on 1300 students, especially with so many of them being special needs students.
The education system is so screwed. Maybe a charter school is the way to go if nothing else works. Thanks for the thought. :)
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~Fallon~
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau
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Special needs kids was one of the main reasons the people at my school fought so hard to keep it open and it's probably one of the big things the current charter school supports, since one of the Principal/CEO's sons is a special needs student.
Again, I wish you luck.
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
*Cheers* Yay! That's awesome to hear. It doesn't sound like you're out of the water yet, but you're off to a good start!
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?