Another batch of the letters received by the board can be found here:
https://acrobat.com/#d=*FRhfNwTgmogj28vLiR-qw
The numbers are getting larger, so I've included a link rather than including the text. Let me know if I missed yours.
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24 comments:
For Maywood, things change and change is difficult but the dire predictions about what will happen if Maywood and Winnequah are merged are not based on any facts. When GD was proposed, many Monona people asserted that families with kids would not want to live in Monona. Now several years after GD was opened many of the same people are saying that Monona is exploding with babies and if we close Maywood it will be death of families in Monona.
Hmm....maybe we should bus more kids to Cottage Grove as that seems to have increased young families in Monona. ;-)
My, my. I do not believe there has been any discussion about Maywood being sold only closed until such time as it is needed for classroom space. If I understand the administration and some programs currently being run in rented space would move into Maywood.
As for Nichols, maybe now is the time to sell.
I would love to know more about what will really happen to Maywood. I purchased a home a year and a half ago, and have a 3 1/2 year old son. Monona was ideal for us because of it being a safe community with a great school system. We plan on sending our son to IHM for the 4K program in the Fall (because of the wraparound care offered that Maywood does not) but were planning on sending him to Maywood for Kindergarten. We have heard such wonderful things about Maywood. I am totally distressed about this school closing. I don't believe that these young children should be in schools with older children, and truthfully, I would not send my 5 year old on a bus to Cottage Grove or drive my son to CG. My husband and I both work downtown for the U. These big decisions that the school board have to make can really alter people's lives, because now we are considering moving out of Monona. Where can I write an official letter voicing my concerns? I think young families are moving into Monona, because slowly houses are coming available.
Kindergartners shouldn't be in schools with 5th graders? Really? Why is that? Good heavens, that is the way most schools are. They do not send them to recess or to lunch at the same time. Does this mean that kindergartners should not have older siblings? What message are you sending your kid by having the attitude that older kids are somehow scary?
My kids went to Maywood and what made it special was not the k-2 configuration - it was the fantastic staff. That staff is not going anywhere - unless we do not get our budget priorities in order. In fact, I would have preferred a k-5 or k-6 configuration because it was very inconvenient having my kids at two separate buildings sometimes. Also Winnequah once upon a time housed kindergartners and older kids. I suspect those people who are now young adults are doing just fine and no worse for the wear.
For many of us (parents of small children in Monona), the concern is not just that the two schools might merge, but how it is being handled. On one hand we are being told that we "shouldn't be surprised because this was talked about for years," but on the other hand we are told that this will likely happen next year, and the justification for not telling parents sooner was that "this was just proposed for the first time this month at a school board meeting." Which one is it? There are parents who are planning to send their kids to Maywood for 4K next year (as we did). I would NOT have done this in a school with 5th graders. These are major decisions for families, and they deserve time to decide what is best for them. Just finding out now about these major changes for this fall doesn't give them enough time. As soon as this was being seriously considered, families should have been notified. The potential change for next year has been being discussed for months without parents knowing.
With due respect, I think the lesson here is that nobody will spoon feed information to you. It is very important to read the local newspaper as much information is there, and the Maywood situation was discussed in previous articles in that paper. Second, the PTO was asleep at the wheel on the budget problems. For decades in this community it has been the PTO that has been the fist to inform parents of hot button issues. Previous PTOs have had a member attend each meeting, especially when important stuff like budget cuts were in the works. Previous superintendents met with PTO leaders monthly. If the current superintendent has not continued that tradition, the PTO leaders should request this. I know the PTO isn't much use to parents whose oldest child is going into 4K next year, but at risk of being annoyingly patronizing, these sorts of changes are something young parents must get accustomed to in public education. It does not matter the district you choose, as your child grows up things will change (a lot!) from the day you chose that district.
What is the problem with having a 4K program in a building that has older kids? There can be positives, like having a "reading buddy" from an older grade level. These sorts of interactions can actually help them deal with older kids if they are not used to it. Our early childhood staff is wonderful - they would not support this move if they thought is going to be a problem.
I honestly think the parents are having more difficult adjusting to this Maywood/Winnequah merger than the kids will.
You can think what you want, and you can do with your children what you will.
However, we as parents have the RIGHT to make decisions that we are comfortable with FOR OUR CHILDREN.
We aren't just talking about a few older kids here - they are going to put nearly 500 kids in the same building, who range in age from 4 years old to 11 years old.
They are planning on CUTTING administration accordingly.
This does not serve the interest of our youngest students well. Or our Special Ed students. Or our Gifted and Talented students.
It is time for many of us to start considering alternatives. Which is unfortunate, because we moved her to GET THE SMALL SCHOOL experience for our child. We certainly looked all over. And we could have gotten WAY more house in Cottage Grove.
We chose MONONA, but now it looks like it isn't going to matter.
"I honestly think the parents are having more difficult adjusting to this Maywood/Winnequah merger than the kids will."
I completely agree, and that's as it should be...we, as parents, have the responsibility of being more aware of the potential issues than our children. I can easily send my 6-year-old child there and tell him it will be okay (even if I didn't think it would). Ignorance is often bliss, as they say. And children are (thankfully) blissfully ignorant.
Would you really be okay with your 4-year-old being on the same BUS with 5th graders?
Those who are concerned or complain about the lack of long-term planning re. schools and budgets need to understand this:
Our school district (all school districts in Wisconsin, really) are wards of the state.
Half of the money that this district spends to educate children (and that amounts to well over $30 million) comes directly from the state. The other half comes from local property taxes, and the district cannot (because of state-imposed property tax caps) simply raise local taxes to make up for shortfalls in the state's share (absent a local refernedum).
The financial fate of the district, on a year-to-year basis, is tied directly and entirely to the fortunes of the state, and decisions by state lawmakers about how much they want to spend on local schools.
That's the major reason why these budget decisions seem (for those who disagree with them) ill-planned, or rushed, or ill-advised. Districts can make all the long-term plans in the world, but they won't mean much in the face of a major state (national) recession that depletes the money available for schools.
Ever since the state signed off on its budget for schools last summer, I think the board and district adminstration have been working extremely hard to figure a way out of this budget mess. But that's how much time they've had to prepare for a big drop in the state's share of the district's budget. Really, within a few months of that, the board was talking publicly about hard budget choices.
Could I point out to Stephanie that when her child is in 4K at IHM next year, he'll be in a building with Kindergarten through 8th graders? And I'm sure he'll do fine.
Having had two children go through Maywood, I can completely understand how current parents feel about it. It's a wonderful place. However, it is the staff, not the building that is important. Frankly, if we do cut the programs that are on the chopping block so we can keep a building open, all the children in the district are going to suffer for it.
My older daughter attended 3rd grade at Winnequah in the early 90's because at that point Nichols was closed due to lack of enrollment. She didn't suffer at all from being with 4th-8th graders. The schools make an effort to keep the different age groups separate, with different recesses, lunches, etc.
I would hate to see young families moving out of Monona due to Maywood closing. Their children will be attending a school that's 2 blocks away with the same staff that's now at Maywood. We're not talking about sending them to Cottage Grove. Monona is a great place to raise a family for many reasons, not just one building.
"I would hate to see young families moving out of Monona due to Maywood closing."
Everyone predicted this when Glacial Drumlin was built. What has actually happened is that the number of young families has increased - or at least that is what people are claiming.
One thing you give up when you send your kid to public school is a great deal of control. Before then, you get to choose their daycare, pre-school, and just about every aspect of their life. But the first day he/she climbs on that yellow bus, things change drastically. You no longer have a personal say in a lot of things. Much of it is dictated to you. Luckily, it is largely dictated by people who care about kids and who are professional educators. But if you want control over ever detail of your child's education, best to home school or find a way to afford private school.
Yes, you are right. If my child goes to 4k at IHM, they are in a building with 4k through 8. However, there are 100 kids instead of 500 kids, and that is the largest difference. And, the middle school is separated from the elementary, just as they are proposing at Winnequah.
Same thing, but a smaller environment. Key thing when you are trying to educate 4 and 5 year olds.
And, IHM won't have the same special ed challenges that Winnequah will.
Reading some of the posts gives me the impression that some think Winnequah is the run-down, over-crowded middle school it was a few years ago.
Winnequah is now a very organized, remolded and polished elementary school. It is roomy. There are enough classrooms now (probably 10 empty ones), and if 6th graders move to Glacial Drumlin, there would be even extra.
The district estimates there is enough space for about 550 kids. When it was a middle school it had a 750 kid capacity and had 775-800 students. I think the total size of Maywood and Winnequah would be around 475 kids, much less then our bad memories, or the new estimate for capacity.
Elementary students are not in the halls all day long like middle school students. The main times they interact are before and after school, and these are well monitored by staff.
For now, Winnequah does have 6th graders, but they are downstairs and quite separate from the rest of pre-teens. It does not have 7th and 8th graders. It was this age bracket and high schoolers that scared me in kindergarten, not 3rd-5th graders. If the 6th grade moves
I would assume the configuration would be adjusted yet again to keep the 5th graders father away from the 4k classes.
For the youngest, the class size would be pretty similar between Maywood-Winnequah and IHM, around 15 kids. It is class size, not school size that gives teachers the chance to do so well with these kids. At IHM the 15 kids/class stays pretty much the same each year and that could be good or bad.
For many children, it will help to get in slightly larger classes each year, instead of switching from 15 to 25+ while a freshmen. The same goes for building size. I don't want my kids to go from a 100 student building to 1000 student building when they're 14.
I would also like them to meet a few different children each year, and develop friends with a variety of interests. Having a school with 3-4 classes per grade lets this happen.
Also, as the kids grow into upper levels, class size is less important and school size becomes more important. A larger school size allows more funding, so more books, more programs, more current technology. I'm sure the staff at IHM is wonderful, and I bet many of them would love to teach at Winnequah so they're not using Windows 95 (an exaggeration).
I am very willing to spend more money to keep Maywood open, and will vote for an operating referendum when it is on the ballot. I believe that many others would not, now or ever. The politics of our district say we have to cut to the bone before 50% of voters will loosen their wallets. All of these cuts hurt, and Maywood is close to my heart too, but my head says it has the smallest effect of all of the cuts listed.
A very good post above. I would also add that the only anxiety my son had about his school configuration was a pretty some very extreme anxiety in the days before he had was to go to Nichols for 3rd grade after k-2 at Maywood. Nightmares, etc. If he had been in a k-5 building from the beginning this would not have happened. Kids do not think, or care, about the grade configuration of their building when they enter 4k or k. So you see, no grade configuraton is perfect. The way we do it now requires more transitions which can be very hard on some kids as it was for mine.
I am also quite certain that if we had two k-5 buildings currently and the board was proposing to split them up k-2 and 3-5, people would be very upset about that too.
The final school board budget hearing is this Saturday at Winnequah from 10-12. It's preceded by a tour of the school at 9. I urge everyone who is concerned about their children moving to Winnequah from Maywood to check it out. It's really very nice since the remodeling. There are three distinct classroom areas, which would make it easy to group the different grades.
I just toured IHM. Their technology blows away our public schools. Have you ever seen Smart Board technology? Google it. They have smart boards in half their classrooms and intend to expand next year.
Check it out - then we'll talk about archaic technology.
PS Check out how old your 4th graders' history or social studies books are. I think you might be appalled.
While you tour IHM ask about how they are doing in Math and why the enrollment is so low.
The 4K-8 grade configuration study does not consider the cost of modular classrooms in CG. If all Monona students come back to Monona, then the pressure can be relieved on CG elementary schools and save the need for modular classrooms.
What would the cost be for the modular classrooms, called "costly" in one comment on the new memo "Budget background" posted on the district web site and sent home today with kids? Does this not need to be subtracted from the cost of the grade reconfiguration? I bring this up because the board simply looked at the bottom line, but I think further analysis is needed to truly meet the need. Should a referendum be proposed, it should be based around having 4k-8 in each community, not simply plugging the hole.
The cost of modular classrooms is at most $15-$20,000 per room per year. The cost of providing pre-K-through-8th grade education in each community is well over $1 million. To even suggest, in the current budget climate the district and state face, that the board should consider such a move is simply unrealistic. Folks in Monona who continue to advocate such a move really need to get over it and accept that students who live in Monona will be educated for a small portion of their career in Cottage Grove, just as CG students are educated in Monona.
There are "infrastructure costs" that are associated with modular classrooms that make them more "costly" than previously thought. The total cost of all associated work, staff, etc. with modular classrooms must be enumerated and subtracted from the 4k-8 costs.
Those infrastructure costs are one-time costs, easily absorbed in the district budget. K-8 in each community is a $1 million budgetary increase, every year, year after year, without end, simply because a few parents don't want their kids bussed to Cottage Grove (to a wonderful middle school) for a brief period of their academic career.
it was a 1 time cost, far less annually.
To: Jason and others with the "no brain" idea of eliminating school hired custodial services-
Our custodians are vaulable employees who have dedicated many years of hard work to this school district. They are law abiding American citizens who are apart of this community in many ways. They earn their living providing an excellent service to the school district. They communicate continually with staff, parents and Monona residents. They are loyal, uniformed,and accountable men and women who care about how their buildings look and operate. They keep our schools secure.
When the district contracts services out, the money that is
saved, is for cleaning services only. It does not account for the many other tasks required of the district custodians. Our employees set-up and take down for nightly/weekend activites, prompt snow & ice removal, keep our grounds and athletic fields groomed, provide security both during and after school hours. They fix stuck zippers, uplug toliets,
clean up daily vomit and other unconventional accidents
and occurances.
All of these services would cost more money than an initial cleaning bid!
Do you know most contract cleaners in our buildings now do not speak english, can 1/2 of them even read spanish?
ARE THEY AMERICAN CITIZENS?
And you would want to replace our familar custodians with
contract cleaners because
they are cheaper.
How much cheaper in the long run?
Please be aware and investigate more before you decide this is a no brainer... not for my children
or my grandchildren! I want to know who is in the buildings with them, who will understand us and
help us get our child's homework when it is forgotten?
Many of our long term custodians
go above and beyond what is required of their positions.
Wow. You had me until you started the xenophobic crap. The point is not whether they are citizens, but whether they are here legally. Pretty sure my immigrant ancestors worked some crummy jobs to make it possible for me to be an American. Clearly we would not use a contractor who hires illegals.
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