When the Webster County Board of Education met on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at the Glade Middle School, there was really only one hot topic for discussion: the Superintendent's proposed closing of the Diana Elementary School and other consolidation plans.
About 50 concerned citizens attended the meeting, and four citizens spoke about their concerns over Superintendent Martha Dean's consolidation plan that she first proposed at the October 23, 2012 Board meeting.
Regarding the consolidation plan, the only action taken at the November 13 meeting was to schedule public hearings as required by law, with a deadline for all comments to be submitted to the Board by 4:00 p.m. on December 17, 2012. The Board will then meet on December 28, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. at the Webster Springs Elementary School for a final vote on the Superintendent's plan.
As reported previously, the Superintendent's plan calls for the closing of the Diana Elementary School and the Glade Middle School. The plans further calls for all Diana students from pre-K to sixth grade to attend the Webster Springs Elementary School, with a possible option for those students to attend the Hacker Valley Elementary School. The plan also calls for all seventh and eighth grade students, except at Hacker Valley, to attend the high school. The Hacker Valley school is not affected by the plan in any manner.
The public meetings will be held as follows (with the second date set as an alternate date in case of inclement weather or other factors beyond the Board's control):
12-17-12 (12-21-12) Diana Elementary School at 6:00 pm
12-18-12 (12-22-12) Webster Springs Elementary School at 6:00 pm
12-19-12 (12-26-12) Webster County High School at 6:00 pm
12-20-12 (12-27-12) Glade Middle School at 6:00 pm
12-20-12 (12-27-12) Glade Elementary School at 7:00 pm
At the public hearings, interested parties must sign up to speak at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the meeting, and each person is limited to a three minute presentation.
The Commentator's review of the Superintendent's plan reveals that due to declining student populations, consolidation may be necessary to put all students county-wide on the same par in regards to teacher to student ratios. The plan also details the savings to be realized if it is adopted by the Board.
However, at this point, the documents presented to the Board by the Superintendent fail to answer these important questions:
A. What are the financial realities requiring such consolidation? Does the Board face a deficit that requires savings to be instituted?
B. If consolidation is necessary for financial reasons, have all other options (to reduce spending) been explored?
Look for answers to these and other questions at the upcoming meetings.
We really need answers to those questions and would love to have an open "round table" format meeting to discuss these matters and any possible alterior motives in addition to the hearings! Keep blogging to help our fight.
ReplyDeleteEditor's Note: One anonymous post was not published due to mild profanity and a personal attack. However, the point of the post can be summarized as follows: In regards to moving 7th and 8th graders to the high school, the poster is against this because older kids tend to bully younger kids and younger girls look up to older boys, increasing the chances for unwanted teen pregnancies. The poster said "don't fix what isn't broken."
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