Whisman Needs a Neighborhood School

Thank you again for posting and for carrying us this far, Jessica. I for one apologize for not being as involved as I should have been in the last year. If this new task force recommendation doesn't light a fire under our butts then nothing will!

Unfortunately, not many people from our neighborhood joined the District committtees.

In my estimation, the Whisman Slater neighborhood has about 525 students (combining Theuerkauf D, Monte Loma A, Landel C, Huff A - the traditional boundaries of these schools). It looks like the only neighborhood in the area that has the numbers to support a school except that each school in the area has to borrow students from the Whisman Slater neighborhood to meet their own population numbers. My question to BATF is how many kids does the Whisman Slater neighborhood have to have to justify a school - it seems like the number is going to always move up as kids from our neighborhood keep entering the other schools in the area. We should ask them for more clarity on this.

The rest of the District can thank the Whisman/Slater neighborhood for getting you extra dollars for teachers and supplies and more money from the bond for each school at the expense of the Whisman/Slater having a neighborhood school that would allow us to create community. No one in our community can walk to our neighborhood school. Even though our neighborhood has two district schools in our neighborhood, we get the short end of the stick so that all the other schools in the district can get a higher base level of remodeling from the bond and the programs that the rent from our two elementary schools provide. The district takes the revenue from renting out our two schools and uses it for the whole district, they take kids from our neighborhood to up the population numbers at Landels, Monte Loma at Theuerkauf. Some of us are assigned to Theuerkauf, the lowest performing school in the district and has lost 302 kids to Choice Programs and the Romero Act. It is take, take and take. Where is the equity? I think we should be compensated with priority placement in two choice programs. These decisions really underserve our community.

Meeting will be held in Theuerkauf MUR on Thursday, May 21st. Closed session starts at 5 pm, open board meeting starts at 7 pm and these issues are expected to come up at 7:30.
Julie Muir