Sue Arneson, Jason Delborne, Katie Griffiths, Anita Krasno, Dea Larsen Converse, Diane Milligan, Sich Slone, Grant Sovern, Lara Sutherlin:
Dear School Board Members:
A group of neighbors from the Marquette and Tenney-Lapham communities met this morning with Enis Ragland, Assistant to the Mayor. While we didn’t claim to represent any organizations, many of us have been tapped into various discussions and email threads over the last few days. We put forth the following points:
- The city’s vision for downtown development is sorely compromised by the consolidation plan. It goes against all the investments in business development, affordable housing, central park, improved transportation, and the building of a strong community that spans the isthmus.
- The school board’s own projections predict that Lapham (as the sole elementary campus) will become overcrowded in 5 years – perhaps sooner if we reinstate reduced class sizes. Where will the city find a ‘new’ school to open in the downtown area?
- The Alternatives programs DO need a permanent home, but their own director stated last year that the worst possible site is next to a junior high. Other options are available, including the possibility of the Atwood Community Center once it is completed.
- The Lapham/Marquette consolidation passed purely for financial reasons – there is no convincing or consensed-upon programmatic advantages.
- As we stated in our campaign against consolidation, budget cuts should be reversible, given that we are on the verge of a referendum. We need to be able to restore services next year if the referendum is to have political traction and real impact.
- There are alternatives to saving the money the consolidation would save. One we put forth was:
- Maintain the paired schools, with the alternative elementary program at Marquette and the early childhood program/TEP at Lapham
- With the increase in some 2nd grade classes (and hence ‘open’ classrooms), move two alternative programs to the third floor of Lapham. The remaining programs could be housed in other district space, such as the Doyle building
- Maintain only one principal for Lapham/Marquette. This would still keep three principals at two campuses (O’Keefe, Alternatives, and L/M principals). This feels like a sacrifice, but one we are already making if Lapham goes K-5. It saves almost HALF of the projected consolidation savings (minus the savings of rent for the Alternatives Programs).
- This leaves a deficit of just over $100K. A tangible suggestion was to encourage the city to increase its funding of low-income student transportation because of the likelihood that CAPS funding formulas will change.
- If the board can re-open the budget to reconsider the consolidation of the high school golf teams (a savings of less than $20K), they can surely reconsider the hasty and irresponsible decision to close a neighborhood school.
- Mr. Ragland agreed to speak with the mayor and we are all committed to putting pressure on board members to reopen this issue in order to prevent the consolidation. We noted that none of us in our group saw flip-flopping the consolidation back to Marquette as a solution. We were a united and energized team.
We urge you to reconsider the Board’s vote to close Marquette school. There are fiscally responsible ways to save the same amount of money without destroying one of our treasured community institutions – the Lapham/Marquette pair.