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Comment by DeWain Feller on November 21, 2012 at 1:24pm

Thanks for attending the School 10 meeting, Rebecca. Ideally, we should have had our meeting on another night so that we could also attend the School 10 meeting as well.

Unfortunately, the RCSD is putting out quite a lot of misinformation. There are huge problems with the idea of a new consolidated school:
- It would cost *more* to build a new school than it would to renovate all three of 19th schools that the RCSD wants to close (10, 16 and 44).
- A consolidated school would be huge (estimated to have nearly 1000 students), and the experience with large new schools in the RCSD has been disastrous (they are unmanageable and chaotic).
- A new school would require up to 8 acres. If it was built in a central location in the 19th ward, it would wipe out about 75 homes. (!) The RCSD is looking at a study area that would extend up to Maple Avenue, so there is the possibility that a consolidated school could be built on vacant industrial land, but that would not be within walking distance for the vast majority of 19th Ward residents.
- Building a consolidated school would mean that 3 large buildings would go vacant, glutting the market (and making it difficult to adaptively reuse the buildings for other uses.
- There is no money committed to building a consolidated school in the SW, so there is the real possibility that School 29 would be the only RCSD grade school left in the 19th Ward.

The RCSD clearly did not do their homework on their plan. If we allow it go forward, the results for our neighborhood would be disastrous.

Comment by Rebecca Wolf on November 20, 2012 at 9:27am

I didn't attend this meeting because the PTO of School 10 was meeting with Dr. Vargas at the same time. My understanding is it would be cheaper to close 10 and 16 and build/find a new elementary school in the 19th ward. However Dr. Vargas wants input from this community as to where the best placement for a new, modernized building would be. I was very impressed with his commitment to improve RCSD schools via greater curriculum offerings while trying to cut costs for building maintenance by matching existing students with the most up-to-date buildings we have as well as cutting transportation costs. I think it makes sense to spend money on a neighborhood school children can (safely) walk to and on increasing extracurricular offerings than transportation. That being said, the biggest problem for our community is that we don't have many enrolled children. Almost all of the families around me either homeschool or send their kids to private schools. I guess it is an easy way out for individual families but one that will ultimately damage the health of our community. I also feel like Dr. Vargas is doing his best to clean up after the terrible mess he has been left with.

Comment by DeWain Feller on November 19, 2012 at 7:24am

It is critical to keep in mind that the superindent's plan would close not only School 16, but also 10, and eventually 44.  We have to make sure that we don't just focus on school 16, as the issue is much broader now.  It is also more fundemental now... we need to focus first on keeping schools open.

Comment by Bill Nichthauser on November 18, 2012 at 10:53pm

Will do my best to attend, John.