You have heard my whoas before about the broken school over here. This is the reason I am paying $3000 for Hollace to go to a private kindergarten.
A little background:
The middle school here was only 8 years old when it was discovered that 53 out of 200 roof trusses were cracked and 10 were put in backwards. It has been later discovered that some other serious structural problem are going on with this school as well.
The school board got some emergency funding from the state and decided to tear down the school and start over instead of repairing the mess.
A parent community group (CURB) who it appears is on the side of the negligant builders is suing and therefore blocking any of the emergency funding, some of which would be paying rent to house the kids somewhere else until the school is rebuilt. They believe the school just needs a bandaid (can you tell whos side I am on?) I know if they just "repair" the building, there is no way Hollace would ever set foot in there. Rebuilding is the only option as far as I am concerned.
Anyway, next year the kids were going to be bussed far away to go to school. I didn't like the idea but was starting to deal with it as opposed to finding another private school (school Hollace is in now only has kindergarten)
Well because of CURB's lawsuit to block things, it is compromising the emergency funds so they might not be able to go to that far away school which means the 600 students without a school will have to cram in the only other school in the district. In order to do that they will have to have all the kids go split shift/half days next year.
That is totally unacceptable! My kid's education is being majorily compromised. Raleigh will be hitting the street tomorrow to find a private school which are all Catholic (Raleigh is Catholic, me and Hollace are Lutheran). It is definately time to sell the house and get the hell out of here. Grrrrr
Daily Hearld Story:
Gavin officials consider split shift for school day
By Lee Filas Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Gavin school officials might run split-shift school days as a way to offset the loss of state financial aid.
Superintendent Marge Fostiak said the district will review three scenarios in the next month, all of which will involve sending 900 Gavin Elementary District 37 students to Gavin South Junior High School for one of two, daily, four-hour school shifts.
If the scenario is approved by the school board, the school day for half of the student population would be from 8 a.m. to noon, while the rest would attend the second shift from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
She said one scenario has students in kindergarten, first, second, fifth and sixth grades attending school during the first shift, while students from kindergarten, third, fourth, seventh and eighth would attend the second shift.
The second and third options are variations of the same scenario, Fostiak said. Students in even grades would attend the morning shift, while odd grades would attend the evening shift. Or, children in kindergarten through fourth would be in one shift while fifth- through eighth-graders will attend the second shift.
She said if the split shifts are approved the district would drop all gym, music and art classes from the curriculum, while all extracurricular activities would be canceled. Special education, bilingual and prekindergarten classes would still take place.
"We would need to turn the gym into four classrooms, so there is no way we could have extracurriculars or gym classes," Fostiak said. "But, no decision has been made at this point. This is just a worst-case scenario the board of education needs to consider if we lose our state dollars."
She said the district leadership team will review all three different options and make a recommendation to the school board next month.
Fostiak said the split shifts could be put in place if a Lake County judge rules in favor of the CURB Education Foundation in court in mid-April.
The CURB Education Foundation filed a lawsuit against the district late last year claiming lawmakers acted unconstitutionally when allowing the district to raise property taxes without voter approval to build a new Central School.
Central was closed in March of 2004 after 55 cracked trusses were discovered under the school's roof during a routine maintenance inspection.
Fostiak said the state of Illinois withheld all state funding until the CURB lawsuit is decided in court.
CURB President Ron SaLee said Gavin would not be in this predicament had administrators allowed the building to be repaired.
"The reason for this situation is because of the poor choices the administration made at Central," SaLee said. "If they just let the building be fixed, this would not have happened."
