Two years ago, our school board for District 833 attempted to close a neighborhood school to give it to a choice program that cannot fill half of the school.
Two years later and District 833 is taking a new approach; they are trying to evict the students from one of our original neighborhood schools for what is essentially a private school funded with our community dollars.
Woodbury Elementary School is the neighborhood school that not only has the highest percentage of walking kids, it also houses the best special needs program, and a pre-kindergarten program. The special needs children have been successfully integrated with the other kids within the school. Being the parent of two children that have gone to Woodbury Elementary, I can state first hand that this enrichment for my boys is an invaluable.
The proposal is not a financial need, rather, a special interest need. Once again, the Spanish Immersion program, that has caused our school to run a deficit for the last four years, plans on stealing the school from the neighborhood and our children and transplant our programs throughout the district.
The Spanish immersion program already does not allow out of district enrollment, enjoys smaller class sizes, and gets a specialized education of their choice at total taxpayer expense. This is already discriminatory against every student within our public school district, but the bullies of parents of the Spanish Immersion program do not care what is best for the district or community, they just want to take what they can, to include seats on the School Board, in order to steal taxpayer dollars from the children of the district for their own.
Further, part of the plan is the theft of Crosswinds School.
The District has reportedly already contacted state legislators encouraging them to refuse the Perpich Plan in order for District 833 to take over the school. These proposals by our district are going to cost our community millions of dollars and our district is already running a deficit, so they are looking to lower our bond rating through there immoral, unethical, and irresponsible actions.
There is a meeting scheduled for 02/25/2013 at 6:30pm at Woodbury Elementary School to inform the parents of Woodbury Elementary that our children are inferior to the Spanish Immersion children and that we need to be evicted so they can have our school. I encourage any and all taxpayers in our district to attend and stand up for the children of our community.
Just as I do not want my child to lose his school, which is much more than a building, I do not wish that on any Crosswinds child or SI child. My biggest concern is the lack of ideas from the District. If the argument is that the middle school is bursting at the seams and SI needs a building of their own in order to grow and be more successful, why is there not talk of going to the people and ask for a renewal of the bonding that paid for East Ridge and use the building money to build a new Elementary School and Middle School on the East side of Woodbury or Southeast to also work with Cottage Grove and not only provide an SI program center, but also a dual tracked middle school that would actually be planning for the future growth of our community. I am confident that building these collocated buildings could be done for the same price or less than what East Ridge cost. I would vote for this levy/bonding issue in a heartbeat to ensure the future success of our district and ensure that our kids get to grow up in their neighborhood schools or the choice program of their choice without this issue ever having to arise again.
Jen just owned with that statement Joe Ryan!
I have a simple question. What is the district's plan if Perpich is able to obtain funding and ISD 833 doesn't acquire Crosswinds? Will the WE kids be displaced in order for the SI program to expand? If the district is so "open" with this process, why haven't they answered this simple question publically? -different Joe
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-Accordin to district figures, the following elem schools have classrrom space: armstrong, cottage grove, crestview, grey cloud, hillside, newport, pine hill, pullman, red rock, royal oaks, valley crossing, woodbury elem -According to district figures, the following midle schools have classroom space: cottage grove, lake, oltman, woodbury The total school population thru 2016 is projected to be slow growth -There is plenty of space in the elem and middle schools -I hope the district does not get Crosswinds because we can't afford operating it, remodeling it, and building onto WE. The district is projected to be 27 million in the red with another 25 million in debt service. They need to re-new referendums as well - If we do get it, SI should go there. SI legislators are making the district get Crosswinds. This should be their school. They have no right to kick WE out -We will not be kicked out of our school. This is OUR school -Please note--We will vote out the 5 school board members up for re-election this fall and reverse detrimental decisions made the following year -The Board are the final decision makers regardless of what the 3 superintendents do or say