Here They Come!

rshaffer wrote: I would like to personally invite acclaro, ground swat, vietvet, stanky, and any others not mentioned, to be my personal guest at the facilities' committee meeting tonight (Thursday) at 6:00. Although I don't know any of you personally---that I know of---I believe that it will be very helpful if each of you could attend, and be part of this process firsthand rather than being on the outside and speculating as to what is being done. Each of you can be a valuable part of the process. You can hear directly about the concerns, and propose solutions to the problems. Each meeting should last about 60-90 minutes; further, the meetings are usually scheduled a couple of months apart, making your time commitment quite minimal. If you would, please post a reply on this blog letting us know if you will join us, or---if not---your reasons for declining. Thank you for participating.   Rick Shaffer

Mr. Shaffer, I will not be able to attend tonight. I must provide caregiving to my wife who cannot fend for herself due to a stroke which took her left arm and leg. My son is the other caregiver and he has to work tonight.

However, I would like to provide a response to you since you asked for attendees or why they couldn't attend.....

I have always been a proponent of rewarding/recognizing when something positive has been done. This would apply to this situation. IF the Middletown schools would have performed the last three decades, IF the schools would have shown significant improvement in the testing categories in all grades, IF the Middletown schools were not ranked close to the bottom of the 600+ school districts in this state, and IF
there had been some reportable improvement in performance as a result of the new elementaries that have been built (to the tune or $45 million dollars in bond money), I would have been inclined to see rewarding this district with a new high school and the other Phase II plans. As it stands now, I cannot support your Phase II plans because I am still waiting for some positive news from Phase I. Now, you really can't expect some of us to accept moving on and accomodating Phase II supporters who desire more money expenditures on a school district that is broken and not performing on an acceptable level can you? Quite frankly, I don't understand the Phase II supporters are giving the educators here, given the job they have done to date. They don't deserve new digs based on what they have done with the new schools you gave them several years ago. New schools do not equate to a better education. Why spend the money if it will not produce results?

It would be futile for me to attend your meeting with the attitude and perspective I have of this district. If I were to present this same information at your meeting, I would be asked to leave because my views do not go along with the program and are not popular. No, the only people you need at your meeting are folks who still believe that the system will improve with new facilities (incredibly naive IMO) and folks who are supporters of this district no matter how long it takes to improve it to an acceptable level. If I haven't seen but baby steps in over a decade, it is too slow of growth for me to support. Read this post to all of them and see what kind of reaction you get. It won't be pretty. It will make them angry. Thank you for the invite anyway.

I would like to personally invite acclaro, ground swat, vietvet, stanky, and any others not mentioned, to be my personal guest at the facilities' committee meeting tonight (Thursday) at 6:00. Although I don't know any of you personally---that I know of---I believe that it will be very helpful if each of you could attend, and be part of this process firsthand rather than being on the outside and speculating as to what is being done. Each of you can be a valuable part of the process. You can hear directly about the concerns, and propose solutions to the problems. Each meeting should last about 60-90 minutes; further, the meetings are usually scheduled a couple of months apart, making your time commitment quite minimal. If you would, please post a reply on this blog letting us know if you will join us, or---if not---your reasons for declining. Thank you for participating.   Rick Shaffer

Why bother.

Well, it didn't take long for the school people to start the preliminary process of priming the public pump to excite the taxpayers to support the next phase of the school building plan. (When will we see some progress promised from the elementaries built several years ago?) Nothing monumental so far, right? If true, why should we support Phase II if Phase I hasn't done anything for us? From the Journal....

Middletown schools to consider building updates
The 25-member facilities panel meeting to get the process started.

MIDDLETOWN — The Middletown City School District officially begins the process of considering facilities improvements tonight with its first committee meeting

Included on the committee are building principals, community members, school board members, business owners, company representatives and Superintendent Greg Rasmussen.
“It will be a nice start,” Rasmussen said. “(Tonight) will be more of a look back, where we’ve been, bringing up to speed where we are currently and beginning to peek out to the future a little bit. I’m excited to get started. It’s a good thing for all of us and it’s very important.”
While Phase I of the 2003 master plan — which called for six new elementary schools and two renovated elementary schools — was completed about a year ago, the district will now revisit Phase II.
Phase II centers around renovating the current high school and converting it into a middle school, and also building a new high school. The Phase II funding from the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission may not be received until several years from now.

“Of those people (on the committee), they know the people that we have a hard time reaching,” said Milt Thompson, the district’s business manager. “Think about the excitement, the flare it may raise about the district and what that may mean for the children learning in Middletown.”

YOU KNOW MILT, I COULD GET MORE EXCITED "FOR THE CHILDREN LEARNING IN MIDDLETOWN" IF YOU SCHOOL PEOPLE WOULD SHOW SOME PROGRESS ON THE TEST SCORES, MAKE GREATER STRIDES ON THE INDICATORS.....WITH A LITTLE MORE URGENCY THAN 10 OUT OF 26 OVER A DECADE AND START REMOVING THE REASONS THAT FAMILIES ARE OPEN-ENROLLING AND LEAVING THE DISTRICT IN SIZABLE NUMBERS DUE TO A FEELING THAT THE KIDS AREN'T GETTING A QUALITY EDUCATION HERE, RESULTING IN A STEADY DECLINE IN STUDENT POPULATION. YOU DON'T NEED FANCY NEW SCHOOLS.....YOU NEED TO CHANGE THINGS TO PRODUCE RESULTS THAT THE PEOPLE WOULD NOTICE IN A POSITIVE FASHION. THIS SCHOOL DISTRICT HAS A POOR REPUTATION IN THE QUALITY EDUCATION CATEGORY AND NEW SCHOOLS WON'T CHANGE THAT. NEW SCHOOLS ONLY PRESENT A FALSE FACADE, MASKING WHAT IS REALLY THERE. AS TO YOUR COMMENT ON FLARE/EXCITEMENT? LAUGHABLE AT BEST MILT. THE PERFORMANCE NUMBERS TAKE ALL THE LUSTER OFF ANY "FLARE" OR "EXCITEMENT" YOU MAY BE SUGGESTING. BEING RANKED DOWN AROUND THE BOTTOM OF THE 600+ SCHOOLS IN OHIO KINDA PUTS A DAMPER ON IT MILT. YOU FOLKS ARE MIS-FOCUSED.....AGAIN.