Like District 1 board member Steve Corona, the one who represents the interest of Elmhurst, I skipped the public hearing at Elmhurst last night. It sounded like most of the appeals were emotional, which will hold no sway with Wendy or the board. A parent might have said he didn't want his kids to go to Wayne because it's one of the twenty worst high schools in the state or to South Side, because it wasn't good enough for GiaQuinta's or Corona's kids. But there's no use getting pissed at Wendy, because she's still pissed that she didn't get to close the school three years ago. Corona was going to let her close it then but the board took it off the table because they thought it would make it easier to pass the bond issue. And besides that she has a five year no cut contract thanks to the brick wall you were talking to last night, a brick wall she and the teachers' union built.
You might have made some suggestions to cut costs. Why do they need four assistant principals, or half a dozen guidance counselors, or conflict mediators or teaching coaches, or armed police officers in a school with 900 kids.? How about dropping football (they don't have football at Canterbury do they?) or other sports or extra curricular activities. You might have even suggested a modest bond issue to fix what's really broken in the building (and it's not the foundation, the roof or the boilers). Sorry guys, but you're going to have to do better than you did last night, if you want to buy some time for your school.
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19 comments:
They will close a school regardless of what anyone says or doesn't say to them. Now there is some real progress with taxpayer dollars, are you writing about this Ms Frisco? If they wanted the parents and kids thoughts they would have asked before they made the decision and even then they would not listen. I am so glad that our son graduated last year from FWCS and more glad that we do not have to worry about them anymore on a personal level and will pray for a miracle for those parents and students that do...Come on Ball State give us a Charter High School you big chickens.
Three years ago Wendy came over to Elmhurst and announced to the faculty and staff that the school would be closed as part of the remodeling project. That was before a public meeting, a board vote or the remonstrance. That means Steve Corona was also in favor of closing it from the start.
Today's Sentinel article did say that some people, including former teacher Don Goss, did offer cost saving suggestions to save it.
I find it interesting that at the board's work session, Wendy assured everyone that there would be 4 public meetings: north, south, Elmhurst and Pleasant Center. The north and south meetings have been replaced by one at the Grile building. Grile holds, what, 100 people? Actions speak louder than words...Wendy and the board care not one bit for citizens' input. I hope voters remember that in November.
Voting is the key here Siestagirl...lets hope that the schoolboard has inspired all of the first time voters (aka high school students) to let their voices be heard at the polls. If you don't like the current board get rid of them...sounds simple enough but we need to make sure that the new board is not a BFF of Dr Wendy's, Karen Francisco, and Marks.
The sad thing about this whole deal is that FWCS is closing two schools where the parents actually care about their children. Too bad they are rural, as Wendy has always said, FWCS is a "Urban" school district. Take Pleasant Center for example. They have some of the highest scores in the city. Close Abbott or another Title 1 school where they get more parents at a 5th grade basketball game than at a back to school night.
Wendy had FWCS lawyer Bill Sweet timing the comments at Elmhurst. Last year Sweet made over $200,000.00. (Must have been still reading the Blue signatures.) Was it really necessary for him to be there? Four hours of work at ? per hour. Waste of money.
Reguarding a quote by Giaquinta,
does anybody know if the state had to approve the sale of the old Duemling(sic?)Clinic(aka Corona Arms)? How did that venture go? Maybe that's why Steve never showed the other night.
I assume that closing Elmhurst would result in the demolition of the building and the sale of the land to the nearby sand/stone place. Maybe that's why Wendy is so eager (and has been for awhile) to get rid of Elmhurst. And maybe that's how she plans to make up the budget short-fall (the sale of the land).
Also - this is crazy - I just looked at the FWCS personnel list. Have you all seen this???
http://www.fwcs.k12.in.us/PublicAffairs/personneldirectory.pdf
Not sure why the personnel directory is "crazy"? I believe fwcs is the largest employer in allen county, so I would expect a very large list of people. I believe each principal has been directed to review their employees within each school and make cuts as needed.
Isn't fwcs following the path of the business model? (which "code blue schools" likes to compare) This is comparable to closing a plant. Very few people are ever happy about that either.
FWCS is not too up-to-date...that is last year's personnel list.
julesfwcs...how many "plants" in Allen County are paying their employees with Tax Payer Dollars? According to the JG and Ms Frisco..we should all be terrified of any tax payer money going to education and question it all! But perhaps she doesn't mean FWCS...they have enough personnel that work in IT to update the worklist. The taxpayer has a right to the correct information do they not?
Kristina-
I was at a meeting with the management of the quarry about two years ago. They swore they had no interest in the Elmhurst property or anything in that direction and never did.
Jules-
In a way that's what a business would do. But first they would cut everything to the bone and see if a plant could make money before closing it. I don't know how they arrived at their savings for closing Elmhurst. Most of the savings would be probably be in cutting the administrative staff, clerical and custodial. Teachers will be placed elsewhere.
I don't know how much it's costing them to maintain the building but on the surface it's in better shape than they're portraying it to be. It's not air conditioned but with better windows (now single pane) the energy savings might justify the cost of air conditioning.
But Wendy was furious when the Elmhurst people pushed back gainst closing it three years ago. They're not going to get a fair hearing from her.
Cold Blue,
All of the suggestions you mentioned have been made in the recent past to no avail. Dr. Robinson and her board (including Steve Corona) do not care and have no desire to keep Elmhurst open. It is both ironic and sick that FWCS considers the closing of Elmhurst as an important first step to fixing its economic problems. The Elmhurst community has a right to be upset. It never got a piece of the pie during good times and it is now being asked to carry the majority of the weight in order to keep the school district solvent. I guess that is payback-Wendy Robinson style.
Jules,
I'm not questioning the personnel listed under each school. It's the other 1/3 of the book. WOW!
And how crazy is it (and what does it say about the state of Fort Wayne's economy) that they are the largest employer in Allen County?
I'll have to see if that's the case in other like-sized cities.
When that whole school system collapses (financially and educationally), Fort Wayne will have unemployment rates that they have never seen before...
Evert - can't believe that they wouldn't snap up that land in a second. For the right price...of course...
Just found this in a search
http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-Midwest/Fort-Wayne-Economy.html
What in the world has happened over the past 5-6 years that has led FWCS to increase their staff size by almost 800 people?!?!?
Kristina,
Extra funds allowed FWCS to continue increasing their numbers at Grile while adding an assistant principal and guidance counselor to every high school. Instead of putting some of the money aside for bad times, Dr. Robinson used it to implement some of her educational reforms. Let's be honest, the only way students are going to be successful is by working hard and going to school. Students need to be willing to take some of the responsibility for their own education. Dr. Robinson has tried to shift all the responsibility of learning to teachers and academic support staff and that is why our scores have tanked. There is no substitute for hard work and there is no easy fix.
All of the arguments I hear against closing Elmhurst seem to be emotionally driven from the personal perspective. The arguments for closing seem to taking into consideration the larger perspectve.
Sorry, but we all can't have a high school in our own neighborhood. Cuts need to be made, and no matter where they happen someone is going to feel offended.
One other thing that should be mentioned is the comment that Mr. GiaQuinta made to the Elmhurst crowd on Wednesday evening. Mr. GiaQuinta told the crowd that he would gladly debate the good job Dr. Robinson was doing in the parking lot following the meeting. Some in the audience took this as a threat. I guess Mr. GiaQuinta has been hanging around his bar a little too much as of late.
Kristina- the gravel guys said there is nothing of value to them the property. There's no way to know if they're telling the truth until the property becomes available.
Anthony- Elmhurst is the only academically viable school left south of Coliseum. The other three are lost causes. Wayne is a disaster, but even Elmhurt has dropped in the last two years. The game may be over totally on our side of town
wow! lots of response on this subject..good job Code Blue..
I bet the property never goes on the market...and I do not think that the stone quarry wants it either.
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