Open Records Request

I was notified this afternoon that an open records request was made for an e-mail that I sent on 3/1 regarding the addition of an agenda item. The entire original e-mail is below. I stand by my assertion that the pending vote on the Maywood/Winnequah consolidation option has been held to a different process than the other recommendations from the 4k-8 Ad Hoc committee.

As you can see I originally sent the e-mail to Board President, Susan Fox, and Superitendant, Craig Gerlach, as they set the agenda for our meetings. Craig then forwarded the e-mail to the entire board. Additionally, I have an e-mail from a district resident dated 3/9 who informed me they had read my e-mail. The funny thing is that prior to today no one had made an open records request for my e-mail. I am unsure who forwarded my e-mail or the intended purpose behind forwarding it.



toSusan Fox ,
CRAIG GERLACH

dateMon, Mar 1, 2010 at 9:19 PM
subjectConsolidation vote
mailed-bymgschools.net

hide details Mar 1


I will formally ask to put the discussion and possible vote of the Maywood/Winnequah consolidation on the agenda for March 10th.

I am not sure if a vote will happen, but not having the ability of putting this to a vote on the 10th is just another example of different processes for different agenda items. We have held all the listening sessions, we have all of the details and we have the Administrations recommendation. The fact that this potential consolidation is nearly cost neutral this year may mean that it should not even be part of the budget discussion when we make the cuts for this year. Any savings should be looked at, for this year, to help bring up the fund balance. The real savings starts with the budget year after consolidation, whether that happens this year, next year or in 10 years.

I understand that some will think we are fast tracking this, but I don't know how they can make that arguement when we have been discussing this at the Ad Hoc Committee since last year and at the board level for the past 2 months. Do we need to notify the residents of the district? I would say it is in our best interest to send a 1/2 page note home with elementary kids, post it on the district website, notify the City, Town and Village and contact the H-I to let everyone know that this may happen. I am sure the local community access station that broadcasts our meetings would even put a message out. Will some claim they did not know...absolutely. However, we were elected to make these hard choices and the fact that this one has not come before us in the normal process means that we are playing by 2 very different sets of rules depending on the issue. That is not acceptable.

All I ask is that this issue be posted for discussion and possible vote. Regardless of the political magnitude we must follow the process and right now we have 2 different processes being used.

Thank you for considering this.

Jason

Open Enrollment

At the 3/10 Board meeting we received our 1st look at the total requests for Open Enrollment. In total we have 212 requests to transfer In and 41 to transfer Out. The breakdown by school is:

High School - In = 77 and Out = 16
Glacial Drumlin - In = 47 and Out = 8
Cottage Grove - In = 10 and Out = 2
Winnequah - In = 16 and Out = 4
Taylor Prairie - In = 10 and Out = 2
Maywood - In = 17 and Out = 4
Non-Specific (PK-6)- In = 35 and Out = 5

One of the things that I struggle with regarding open enrollment is my philosophical/ethical belief on this issue. I am of the mindset that we educate the students of our district 1st. I also believe that if you accept a student, know matter at which grade they start in our district, that you have now committed to educating them until they graduate.

Furthermore, when reviewing potential students to accept, siblings get a higher priority if space allows and that you have to look at what impact educating those students will have on our buildings at each grade level. If you accept an elementary student how will that impact enrollment at middle school and high school in future years?

Some will say that you accept each and every applicant every year. I completely disagree with this, because I believe that you don't accept an open enrollment student for purely financial reasons. Open enrollment is not a way to balance a budget.