Tuesday, December 05, 2006

RUSD Listening Sessions

The RUSD board has sent out a call for community input; I have answered their call and am attending one of their Listening Sessions this Friday. It was originally scheduled for December 1st, but with the recent snownami this session was cancelled.

The following is the one question/statement that will spark all discussion at these sessions:

(Please forgive my paraphrasing, I do not have the exact wording!!)

The year is 2015, RUSD is among the top 10 school districts in the country. Please describe the district.

Simple, right? Wrong! I understand that this open-ended statement will spark many interesting and lively debates, but I feel the RUSD board is again trying to redesign the wheel.

We have had numerous surveys, forums, etc in the last 6 years. Overwhelming, the public wishes to return to the Junior High Configuration (K-6, 7-9 and 10-12) and wants to be able to send their child to any school they wish, regardless of the color of their skin or the size of the bank account. They do NOT want their children to be FORCED to ride a bus for 45 minute - 1 hour (one-way!!) to a school out of their neighborhood.

They also want safe schools (duh!!!) and good teachers (double - duh!!!)! How many times do we need to say that?

Will they just keep holding these forums until they get the answer they want? Instead of action, we again are looking to redesign the district "vision"...

1 comment:

Denis Navratil said...

This is a great way to make it seem like they are interested in your opinion and willing to address the obvious problems, while simultaneously doing nothing. More of the same in other words.