School Board CIP Issues
Maureen Ross' Talking Points from 5/22/14 School Board Meeting
I attended the School Board meeting last nite about the CIP budget because the leading plan is to create a 7 or so story school down in Roslyn where the old Wilson school is now. The school would fit 1300 middle school kids. The playing fields would be on the roof, NYC style.
The 2nd leading choice is to move HB somewhere else and put maybe 1300 middle schoolers there.
I testified that we were rather shocked that the county had not reached out to the CCA about this. In fact we recently devoted an entire CCA meeting to the school capacity issue, and the schools knew of our strong interest. Had we known a month ago about the Roslyn high-rise option, and the urgency, we would have had time to make last night's cca meeting a panel presentation of the options and followed thru with a vote. The decision coming up effects i believe all of Cherrydale middle schoolers.
Instead we had a last minute call from Christy Woody, former neighbor, Tuesday. So at Wednesday's CCA meeting she was given 5 minutes to explain the options and the urgency of attending last nights school board meeting. We also had 5 minutes of Q &A.
I took what i heard from citizens at the last 2 CCA meetings and spoke at the school board meeting. My turn came at 11:20 pm
Here is what i said:
1. Shocked that the county had not reached out to the CCA at all. Several people before me also complained about this.
2. We love HB. In fact many of us wish it was our school. No one wants to see the HB mission go away. We are aware they are willing to move. But where?
3. There is too much busing of kids already. It seems crazy to be planning a school where 80-90% will have to be bussed including 100% cca kids.
4. Roslyn is already a bottle neck. Adding a gazillion school buses and then parents... Well it would be grim.
5. Traffic realities in Cherrydale - 5-points intersection and 1300 kids? If HB was taken over, between the buses (which would be still be needed if 1300 kids), parents driving, and pedestrian kiddies, the traffic 1300 kids would bring to small narrow street Cherrydale would be tremendously difficult. Imagine the intersection then.
6. Small is beautiful. We have so many underutilized public buildings- Langston, Walter Reid, the former school now art school on Wilson blvd by Va Square.... Would we not save money and have smaller walkable neighborhood schools if we multi used these buildings as school in the day and adult classes in the evenings?
We can do better than the top 2 choices on the board now. So i asked for more time, and a reach out to the neighborhoods.
I will be asking the cherrydalers who spoke last nite if they would be willing to get a team together and present to the cca and the SB. There was a diversity of opinion, which would make it a fair panel.
The 2nd leading choice is to move HB somewhere else and put maybe 1300 middle schoolers there.
I testified that we were rather shocked that the county had not reached out to the CCA about this. In fact we recently devoted an entire CCA meeting to the school capacity issue, and the schools knew of our strong interest. Had we known a month ago about the Roslyn high-rise option, and the urgency, we would have had time to make last night's cca meeting a panel presentation of the options and followed thru with a vote. The decision coming up effects i believe all of Cherrydale middle schoolers.
Instead we had a last minute call from Christy Woody, former neighbor, Tuesday. So at Wednesday's CCA meeting she was given 5 minutes to explain the options and the urgency of attending last nights school board meeting. We also had 5 minutes of Q &A.
I took what i heard from citizens at the last 2 CCA meetings and spoke at the school board meeting. My turn came at 11:20 pm
Here is what i said:
1. Shocked that the county had not reached out to the CCA at all. Several people before me also complained about this.
2. We love HB. In fact many of us wish it was our school. No one wants to see the HB mission go away. We are aware they are willing to move. But where?
3. There is too much busing of kids already. It seems crazy to be planning a school where 80-90% will have to be bussed including 100% cca kids.
4. Roslyn is already a bottle neck. Adding a gazillion school buses and then parents... Well it would be grim.
5. Traffic realities in Cherrydale - 5-points intersection and 1300 kids? If HB was taken over, between the buses (which would be still be needed if 1300 kids), parents driving, and pedestrian kiddies, the traffic 1300 kids would bring to small narrow street Cherrydale would be tremendously difficult. Imagine the intersection then.
6. Small is beautiful. We have so many underutilized public buildings- Langston, Walter Reid, the former school now art school on Wilson blvd by Va Square.... Would we not save money and have smaller walkable neighborhood schools if we multi used these buildings as school in the day and adult classes in the evenings?
We can do better than the top 2 choices on the board now. So i asked for more time, and a reach out to the neighborhoods.
I will be asking the cherrydalers who spoke last nite if they would be willing to get a team together and present to the cca and the SB. There was a diversity of opinion, which would make it a fair panel.