David Brauer said: (I know Pratt is small, but I assume others are bigger.)
Ahhh, but Pratt isn't that small and because it isn't, that's part of the question about how classrooms were counted. Pratt has about 16 classrooms and, as you'll recall, there are only four grades in the building. So, are there just a few kids rolling around in all that space? The answer to that is "no." Pratt is also the home of the Adult Continuing Education Program and a substantial portion of the other space is used by that program. (The fact that the Continuing Education Program is in the building may be one reason why the kids are performing so well in there's. There are lots of adults around, it's not a "kids world" there, and among the adults are often some of the kids parents. The presence of so many adults may positively effect on learning by the kids and trying to gauge whether that is true is currently going on.) But it's not just a matter of the other classrooms being occupied by another program. The neighborhood had always understood that for budgetary purposes, the heat, light, electricity, and maintenance of the entire building was supported by the continuing education program and not by the grade-school budget. So that meant that the building was "free" in on sense and the only extra costs to having the grade school program at Pratt was the teachers themselves. So the question is, like the cost of the maintenance of the building, were the other classrooms counted as "in use" by the Continuing Education Program or were they double counted as "unused" grade school classrooms. And the answer is: nobody knows and that includes the school board and possibly even its staff. Answers were never forthcoming from the MPS when they were asked at the time the closings were under consideration. The suspicion remains that none of the facts were ever really determined but were just guessed at to support what someone in the system otherwise wanted to do. And if they are wrong about the count of unused classrooms at Pratt (as well as the supposed cost savings from closing it) what else are they wrong about? Supposedly, we are going to get the full facts by the end of March. We'll see. The neighborhood and the parents want to participate in this decision and not just have it "done to" us. Steve Cross Prospect Park REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
