I would like to clarify my comments during open forum at the March school board meeting. It seems that once again, whoever writes the highlights and meeting minutes, cannot accurately recall what transpires each month.
I did not state that the preschool program should be eliminated. I stated that former board members (Mrs. Uckerman and Dr. Hallman) indicated that when they were on the school board and created the program, the premise was that it would only run if it was self sustaining. This means that community tax dollars were not to be used to subsidize this program. The preschool program was created to be run on the revenue received from participants and if it could not sustain itself, the program was to be discontinued. Once again, I did not come up with this premise, the former school board did. During the February meeting, I stated that I agreed with the former board, that the community should not subsidize this money losing program. Parents that chose to send their children to a different preschool bear the entire cost and DO NOT have the benefit of the community paying for it. It is the same when children attend private or parochial schools; parents must bear the cost, not the community.
During the February open forum, I stated that since I videotape all meetings they could be made available to the board for clarification purposes because it seems each month no one can recall what was actually stated the month before. Not once have you asked for the tapes to clarify what transpired in order to draft accurate meeting minutes.
I also said these video tapes are available to community members who would like to view meetings that they cannot attend. I do this as a service to the community. Many local school districts do this as a service to their community because they value open and honest communication. It is more than evident that you do not. There is so little emphasis on communication in our district that it’s no surprise the meeting highlights and minutes are inaccurate each month.
In the second session of open forum, I did not ask the board to review the staffing report. I pointed out an error in the staffing recommendations. This staffing recommendation sheet went through two board meetings and numerous people yet no one caught the error until I brought it to your attention. This mistake could have led to a proposed staffing budget error of almost $100,000.
Finally, the summary of a former board member that also spoke in open forum was inaccurate. He said one of the things Pleasantdale fails to look at and break down are the results of students that have had outside services. Pleasantdale looks at how the students progressed through the Bright Beginnings program and how they did in first and second grade. There are a lot of other preschool programs out there and Pleasantdale should identify how those kids do compared to the kids that go through Pleasantdale’s program if you really want to see whether Bright Beginnings has some benefit. He went on to say comparing Pleasantdale’s program to no program is a waste of time. You expect you’re going to have some benefit but compare your program to other programs outside where you can identify the students who have gone through those programs and look at a historical perspective instead of just one year. He also said the board should go back and review the balanced budget that was presented when they raised the price of Bright Beginnings by 40%. At that time the board said if they raised the price by 40% they were going to have a balanced budget but what he heard at the meeting was that they still have a $250,000 shortfall. He didn’t know how that could be possible given the increases that they put forth to the community.
When you draft or approve the board meeting highlights, maybe you should check them for truth and accuracy before you distribute them to the school community.
Communication is a concern in this district and what this community continues to get from you is inaccurate, twisted or filtered information.
Gina Scaletta-Nelson
1 comment:
They need to start surveying parents about preschool. I think it needs some curriculum changes to compete with other area schools like Kensington and Grand Avenue. I don't always think our preschool does as good of a job as they could in preparing them for kindergarten. If you are going to charge the same as those schools then you need to compete with them also.
Post a Comment