After last Wednesday's meeting the school board is proceeding with the process to reach a decision on consolidating Maywood into Winnequah. The Herald-Independent has coverage here. The district will have a public input session on Saturday December 11th, from 9 to 11 am at Winnequah school and has tentatively planned to vote on this issue at a meeting the evening of Tuesday, December 21st.
In brief, the proposed consolidation will reduce operating expenses by about $259K per year, although there will be one time costs associated with the move of $225-250K for upgrades to Winnequah- mostly from replacing cabinetry and installing sinks in several rooms.
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8 comments:
Peter,
Please comment on Mayor Kahl's idea if you could.
What idea is that?
From Doug Wood's blog:
http://mononadoug.blogspot.com/2010/11/mayor-kahl-offers-mg-plan.html
Thanks for the link - that is the first time I've seen this. I'll consider it and get back to you.
Why does Doug Wood have this on his blog and you don't know about it? The school board uses email, correct?
At the last board meeting Craig briefly noted that the city had expressed interest in putting the senior center in Maywood and MG21 in the community center space. However the letter posted on Doug's blog with the details from the Mayor was not sent to me or the board to the best of my knowledge.
What do I think of it?
1) I have always advocated for cooperative ventures with the other units of local government to maximize use of resources and provide the best return on the taxpayer investments to the community. I think there are some good ideas here if we can make them fit.
2) Air conditioning is the elephant in the room. Maywood is not air conditioned and this would be the major cost of converting the building for use in the summer by administration and the senior center. I think air conditioning would be a requirement for a senior center, but not for MG21 (since they aren't in session in the summer).
The mayor's proposal offers to contribute toward the remodeling (including air conditioning) of Maywood, but I don't see an obvious source of revenue on the district's side until we can sell Nichols- although I would argue that it is a good time to borrow to invest in infrastructure with interest rates at historic lows.
3) Keeping EC and 4K in Maywood would for me have to hinge on the educational pros and cons and efficiency of resource usage. I have suggested this approach in the past myself, but this is a decision for the educators.
4) I can see MG21 using the community center space if needed, this seems reasonable.
let's put the focus where it is obvious: Nichols is a money sucker that needs to be shut down completely and sold. Maywood is full now. Winnequah is not because the board has systematically gutted Winnequah to fill GD. The board has created this vacuum. It is unacceptable that Nichols remains half utilized and has since it closed. That is where the focus of all discussion about facilities discussion should be; close Nichols and relocate all tenants, and stop using a fully utilized, successful school building (Maywood) as a scapegoat.
Oh, and put the district offices in trailers if needed. That would probably cost less than remodeling any space for them.
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