May 26th Ad-Hoc Meeting

Just a reminder to all that tonight the Ad-Hoc committee gets a chance to review and discuss the options and hopefully forward a recommendation to the board. This meeting is @ 6:00 in the District Office at Nichols. While there is no Public Appearances on the agenda your presence is still noticed by the committee, so I would encourage you to attend if you are able.

I got my packet that had all of the e-mails sent in to the committee. In addition the board has received numerous e-mails directly on this issue. THANK YOU to all that got up and spoke your opinions at the Public Forum and to all that have followed up with e-mails. While I am unable to respond to each of you individually, even though I would like to, I want to assure you that your comments are read and heard by me. As a general rule it is my understanding that the School Board President is responsible for responding to e-mails and not the individual members.

Now because these e-mails have been printed and sent to us this is all my perception of them, because we all know how e-mails can be taken out of context or misunderstood. Generally, all of the e-mails had a good tone to them, as I don't recall any "hate mail" type of e-mail. Thank you for being thoughtful and respectful in your comments. The comments at the Public Forum where generally the same as those e-mailed to the committee. Many in favor of modular units in Cottage Grove and opposed to bussing students in general. Some liked the idea of a K-8 community based style, while others wanted to try in merge the students in 6th grade. Many looked at consolidation of Maywood and Winnequah as a viable option to help with the budget deficit we face as a School District.

All of these comments are very much like those that the committee has had at it's meetings over the past 6 months. Tonight will be an interesting meeting as we as a committee try to balance all of the differing view points into a solid recommendation to the committee. It will not be an easy process, but one that I think this group can accomplish.

I will try to post the results of the meeting either tonight or tomorrow morning.

Have a great 4 day work week.