Some parents think “Monte Gardens or I move:? That may be because their kids are zoned to attend a program improvement school or a school with known issues (possibly gang) or a school with very low parent involvement or all of the above. For those parents, the options may be limited and moving might be what works for them. Who wants to stay in a district where schools that work are closed and schools that don’t work well are the ones the remain?

All sports funding was cut beginning with the 2009/10 school year ($1.2 million a year cut) and administrators already have taken pay cuts via furlough days last school year and this year too. The BOE also agreed to the medical cap and cuts in pay too. Admin has also had an almost 35% reduction in employees and they agreed to a cap on medical. The real problem is MDEA who still has not agreed to anything and I heard had the guts to ask for a 1% pay increase. They have not agreed to furlough days yet, which had they taken last school year would have really helped. The other bargaining units are at the table too. It is sounding like these Unions would rather see massive layoffs then concessions. I hope I am wrong.

So what other ways can this be done? Have you looked at the MDUSD budget? You can also attend the PAC meetings which are the 1st Wed. of each month at 7 PM in the Dent Center.

Closing any schools will be hard on someone. There is no perfect scenerio but it has to be done. I read at one time MDUSD had 50,000 students, it is now around 34,000 and we have the same number of schools. This does not make fiscal sense at all.

Our kids need these schools. ALL OF THEM. And they need MORE TEACHERS.

Budget cuts are a bitch, but there has to be another way to work things out. Maybe the board needs to spend a little more time thinking on it. Like any governing office, they need to be thinking less about themselves and more about those whom they serve.

I’m not going to argue “choice” vs. “neighborhood” here; but, frankly, if my daughter’s neighborhood school closes, I will not be able to get her to another very easily. I have no car. The district is not going to provide busses, or so I’ve been told. The CCCT does not stop close enough to either school that she would be transferred to. So what then? Closing ANY school undermines and collapses the neighborhood. Overcrowding classrooms lowers teacher/student interactions and reduces the teacher’s ability to provide the one-on-one assistance that so many students need to facilitate their success. Come on MDUSD! Don’t be STUPID!!! Keep ALL of our schools open! Cut your own paychecks! Reduce sports funding! There are better ways to do this!!!