Monday June 17, 2013
| Say No to Garden Ridge Rezoning |
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| Written by Angela Carignan | |||
| Tuesday, 25 January 2011 15:20 | |||
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I belong to a group of parents from Garden Ridge Elementary who are fighting against the proposed division of this year's 5th grade class being divided between Shadow Ridge and Forestwood Middle Schools next year. Garden Ridge has always been a feeder school to Shadow Ridge since it's opening in 2005. LISD believes that Shadow Ridge is overcrowded (783 student) and Forestwood is under populated (631 students). Meanwhile, McKamy Middle School is bursting at the seams with 1080 students and no plans for remediation. The parents believe there has been a lack of transparency/information on the part of LISD. Under this proposed plan, approx. 30 fifth grade students would go to Shadow Ridge and approx. 60 fifth grade students would go to Forestwood. Are these numbers going to make a difference….really??? Why split our school for the menial numbers? There is an informational/sound off meeting scheduled for 6:30 PM on Wednesday, Jan. 26th at Forestwood Middle School where the affected families can state their concerns and opinions. Members of the school board will be there to listen but will not/cannot engage in discussion. The school board will place their final votes on the proposal on February 14th. This meeting was conveniently scheduled on the same day that the Garden Ridge 5th graders are at their two day "camp-out". Meaning no 5th grade student, and even less parents, are able to attend, myself being one of them. LISD needs to go back to the drawing board and find a solution that makes a difference where it is needed....the splitting of Garden Ridge is not the answer. Angela Carignan
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Comments
There is plenty not to like but get the correct information.
What I don't understand is why the school district would even consider putting kids on a bus that can walk. The kids from the west that are currently bused to McKamy should be bused an additional 5-7 minutes to Forestwood. A few years ago we turned the world upside down and changed all the school start times to save $500 kids in busing costs. Putting 400 additional kids on a bus wastes a lot of that savings. A bus route costs about $28k per route.
It is insulting to tax payers that the bus costs were not considered and it is ok to just waste money. Shouldn't we be trying to spend as much money as we can educating not busing?
The rezoning does nothing to correct the issues with overcrowding at McKamy. The board's lackey has been distributing bogus reasons for the rezoning since the inception: First overcrowding, then under population, next housing growth around Shadow Ridge, finally its to save peanuts on buses. They handed out administrative raises in a recession even though they did not have the money and now they have to put on a dog and pony show for cover.
The lack of transparency on the part of the LISD Board is appalling...hiding their actions in closed meetings so they cannot be scrutinized. Their disdain for the taxpayers/voters is astounding.
At the end of the day it is OUR tax money.
Doktor Roy can't be gone soon enough . Two of them have their terms expire this year and they had better be prepared for the political fallout. Time to make some changes at LISD it would seem.
Since elementary population in western FM is on the decline, there will not be another middle school out west, in the foreseeable future. McKamy will remain overcrowded. We should be focused upstream at FMHS. What is that population projection?? Do we have a looming problem there? Is our exemplary high school in jeopardy?
The proposed state budget cuts are going to give us much bigger issues to deal with...You ain't seen nothing yet…
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