At Wednesday's board meeting the school board received a presentation concerning the appraisal of the Nichols property performed by D.L. Evans. The appraised value was given as $2.36 million, based primarily on the value of the land. It was judged that the buildings added very little value to the property. The appraiser did meet with city officials and discussed development of the property and its historical designation. It was the judgement of the appraiser that any developer would need to retain the the original school building structure- that is the portion of the building built in 1935 facing Monona drive on the corner with Nichols. The developer indicated that without the building the property might be worth significantly more.
Although there are many options for development of the property, most reasonable considerations would call for commercial/retail development along the Monona drive end of the property with residential development towards the other end. The property is zoned as a "Community Designed District" which means that there are not any specific zoning requirements, but any proposals would be individually reviewed for approval by the city.
The appraiser did indicate that it would likely take considerable time to market and sell the property.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Goodbye MGAS, Hello MG21.
The Cap Times is reporting that MG has been awarded a $175,000 implementation grant for the "Monona Grove Liberal Arts Charter School for the 21st Century". This new charter school will replace the current MG Alternative School, a small charter school within the district that serves high school students who have struggled in the traditional high school environment. The grant will be used to enlarge, upgrade and improve the facilities as well as provide technology and support for improved curriculum.
I always urge people to attend the MGAS graduation ceremony at the end of each school year to get a good idea of the value of this program to the students it serves.
Charter school have gained much attention and resources in the last several years as district's and parent search for ways to improve outcomes. But this comprehensive study from Stanford indicates the need to proceed with caution. The report shows that on average charter school students do slightly worse than their traditional school counterparts, and there are a wide variety of factors that effect success. Charter schools do better for elementary than high school students for example, and gains depend on the nature of the charter itself. The first year in a charter school was correlated with a significant decline in academic growth, with improvements in later years. The report indicates that the charter school movement isn't going to provide a magic bullet for academic achievement, and significant consideration needs to go into the design and implementation of charter schools.
The MG21 charter school isn't designed to replace a traditional school, but instead serve a particular segment of the student population who are not well served by the traditional school. It is the sort of arraignment that seems to me is most likely to be succesful.
I always urge people to attend the MGAS graduation ceremony at the end of each school year to get a good idea of the value of this program to the students it serves.
Charter school have gained much attention and resources in the last several years as district's and parent search for ways to improve outcomes. But this comprehensive study from Stanford indicates the need to proceed with caution. The report shows that on average charter school students do slightly worse than their traditional school counterparts, and there are a wide variety of factors that effect success. Charter schools do better for elementary than high school students for example, and gains depend on the nature of the charter itself. The first year in a charter school was correlated with a significant decline in academic growth, with improvements in later years. The report indicates that the charter school movement isn't going to provide a magic bullet for academic achievement, and significant consideration needs to go into the design and implementation of charter schools.
The MG21 charter school isn't designed to replace a traditional school, but instead serve a particular segment of the student population who are not well served by the traditional school. It is the sort of arraignment that seems to me is most likely to be succesful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
