Letter: Protect Alachua’s schools
Letter to the editor
People of Alachua, you have my sympathies.
My daughter’s school is also slated for closure; she is in kindergarten and will have no opportunity to learn about school pride and community. She is slated to attend a doomed school for the next couple years; all her nascent friendships have a possible termination date.
The decision is not yet made. The vote is Thursday.
While the board claims to have arrived at their choice through a controlled process based on data and feedback, the fact that the proposal is still changing shows that the process has been rushed.
They are rushing because they are afraid of what they call “co-location.”
We call it sharing; we learned it in kindergarten.
Based on a formula from Tallahassee, if any of our schools are under capacity, we have to share space with charter schools; rather than allow that process to work, our school board is retreating and scorching schools behind them.
We have a diverse and vibrant school system. We have a diverse and vibrant population; rather than leverage that by coming to the community with the problems, our imported superintendent is coming to our diverse community with a cookie cutter and stamping it down with a sledgehammer.
They claim that closing schools will open up options, but they have not created budgets and plans to demonstrate how.
Common sense tells us that diversity creates options.
Your unique school structure is a precious thing to protect; the lessons it can teach us are worth the investment.
I encourage you to speak up and show up on March 12 when the proposal will see its final vote.
Tell them to slow down and detail the real concerns so we can offer alternative solutions.
Also, let them know that it is not financially responsible to take recommendations from JBPro and pay JBPro to do the recommended work.
Ryan Undeen, Gainesville
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Multiple board members have indicated they’d rather burn it down than co-locate with charters. They are more concerned with protecting their failed system than educating local children.
These people are bureaucrats, not educators.
They truly believe their arbitrary county entity is the grand wizard of local education.
https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String&URL=1000-1099/1002/Sections/1002.333.html&fbclid=IwdGRjcAQdf_hleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xNzM4NDc2NDI2NzAzNzAAAR4-1PRFDwIBMKsapKhB0taQTtTS1brAIoMlYCMRaBRbcnwiqSSr5VigYTUZbw_aem_DgIWq0Y7itXcb1UmG_OkNg
People need to read the legislation.
There’s a small sampling of people expressing their opposition to the closing of some schools around the county.
Can’t help but wonder what their voting habits are.
The bottom line is the GCC and the BOCC screwed over East Gainesville
I’m going to write it again: the GCC and BOCC screwed over East Gainesville
They had decades to fill these schools; decades to attract development and economic opportunity to East Gainesville
No, we can’t bus westside kids over. No more than we should bus eastside kids to fill westside schools. Kids are not pawns. Busing is unhealthy, according to various academic studies on the matter.
The current bussing system is unreliable, with absent drivers ans children left standing at bus stops. In the 60’s forced bussing was a mess. We do not need it again.
It was in the 1970s-80s here, but more heavily in the ’70s. It really sucked. I know, because I was bused here in elementary school. The bus rides were long and exhausting.
I thus cringe anytime someone mentions busing kids to fill under enrolled schools.
Academic research backs me up. Kids subjected to longer commutes tend to get less exercise and less sleep than those who have shorter commutes. There is also evidence to suggest that commutes in heavily congested areas are correlated with a higher incidence of anxiety and depression.
Busing for desegregation was understandable. Busing because adults made poor planning and development decisions? No, don’t put that on the backs of kids