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Committee of 10 answers consolidation questions
March 19, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment
Distance learning comes with costs
The opposition has suggested we offer more online courses. The Virtual High School course offerings are not free. The quality and commitment of teachers is not guaranteed. Avon students have had a poor experience with this method while costing the district additional money. On-line learning cannot compare to the hands-on, in-person, experiences and interactions of the classroom. Dual-credit classes can be expanded due to the increased high school student enrollment under the same roof in our own building. Carl Sandburg College will send teachers to the students. The efficiency of a high school increases with the proposed enrollment figures for the consolidated district. This is due to the ability of the consolidated district to better maintain full classes and keep staff with full teaching schedules.
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School District Consolidation Isn’t as Simple as It Seems
March 17, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment
Doing so will require us to reexamine some deep-seated assumptions about how public education should be governed and controlled in this country. It may be the case, for example, that our traditional faith in local control by elected municipal school boards cannot cope with today’s changing demographics, new opportunities for digital learning, intense fiscal pressures, or urbanization. We may also need to rethink how we fund our schools since traditional school-funding schemes based on dramatically varying property values and income levels yield results that are neither equitable nor efficient.
Although many consider school governance to be either boring or untouchable, some localized efforts that begin to address our outdated governance structures are underway. Mayors in New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., have taken control of their cities’ school systems, and governors in Washington state and California seek greater control of their state systems. Charter schools are demonstrating new forms of local control, through both independent charter schools and charter-management organizations. And virtual schools present still more alternative governance arrangements.
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Against consolidating Abingdon, Avon and Bushnell-Prairie City schools
March 12, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment
2. Increased costs per student — There is bound to be increased costs per student. The cost of everything is going up. As we have just shown our number of students is remaining stable, so with increased overall operating costs it is bound to cost more per student. This is really not an issue for B-PC and Abingdon, but it is for Avon. The cost per student in the Avon district would naturally be alarming because of the low student enrollment for the district. The only current concern for B-PC should be making sure our school dollars are spent effectively because times are tough.
3. Impact on curricular opportunities — The committee of 10 stated 92 possible new courses that could be added if the consolidation passes. Of the 92 proposed courses B-PC currently offers 28. We, the members of the Just Vote No committee, believe there are alternatives that would allow us to offer many of these courses in our high school now without consolidating with these other 2 schools. We should be utilizing technology such as on-line learning and Illinois Virtual Schools. We should also take advantage of resources already available in our area such as Carl Sandburg College and Western Illinois University. Our students are currently able to take advanced dual credit courses from CSC and WIU. We firmly believe that we can and should offer more options for our students in the Bushnell-Prairie City schools without passing a three-school consolidation.
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