Thursday, March 3, 2011

Report on School Board Meeting

Unfortunately, I arrived late to the meeting (had to take a family member to the hospital) and missed the first speaker. Nevertheless, the Board was just coming out of Executive Session when I arrived. The only politicos present were: Alderman Turco-Levin, Alderman Clement, and Alderman Fuentes.

During the public speaking forum, 4 speakers including myself and Alderman Clement addressed the Board. Three supported Meagher and Sophie Finn while the fourth was unclear. Alderman Clement said he was speaking for himself and Alderman Reynolds in support of keeping both schools.

Hours later, when the Board finally addressed the issue, they simply stated that the formal written report was not being delivered until the next meeting. No other discussion was had.

The next meeting of the Board will be March 16th at 6:00 p.m. at the Miller School. Hopefully, an even stronger attendance will help send a message to the Board.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

When is Schupp going to stop wining about the past layoffs in DPW. Either do oyur job or resign and someone else can do it.

Anonymous said...

How many people actually were in attendance (besides the politicos, I mean)? I would guess not a lot, since, based on past school elections, people seem pretty apathetic on these issues. I know that you have your childhood roots at Meagher, but people I talk to really don't care about how the school board reduces taxes, just that they do. If the schools are underpopulated, then closing a school or schools has to be in the discussion.

Anonymous said...

It is always obvious that decisions are based simply on socio-economic considerations.The board will not close the Zena school nor Anna Devine.The closing of Meagher, such as the previous closing of Brigham, is simply based on the obvious disregard of the less advantaged.There is in fact a class differentian .It is time for Ggretzinger and his apologist Farrel to step aside.Shaugnessy is the only redeeming factor in that joke of an institution.The man is bright,perceptive and tolerant of fools.Meagher and Brigham were only seperated by blocks.When will Urban Renewal end? Close Zena,close Devine,leave the neighborhood school inside the city alone.The people of the Meagher district have been bashed enough.

Ralph Mitchell said...

To 10:37am,
Closing school buildings is Drastic!
Let's do a 2-step process with a checkpoint in between!

STEP 1-- Keep elementary schools open for now. Move 6th grade back to elementary schools. Make Middle schools 7, 8, 9th grades again. Make KHS 10, 11, 12 grades again (more room in closed cafeteria).This realignment has the benefit of eliminating or reducing the $85 Million cost of KHS building upgrade proposed.

STEP 2-- If school population decreases further, look at closing an elementary school.

This type of go-slow logic must be used to lessen the impact on our children, their neighborhoods and the fabric of our city and towns.

In May, let's let the voters decide between moving 6th grade back to elementary schools and closing 2 elementary schools. If anyone out there knows how to get this on the May ballot please let me know.

Anonymous said...

Closing a neighborhood school without a plan to sell it or reuse it quickly leads to a deterioration of the neighborhood. What you save in school taxes will quickly be lost when your city taxes go up to cover the losses caused by the deteriorating homes. Bring grade 6 back to the elementary schools and grade 9 back to the middle schools.

Anonymous said...

I heard your speech, Rich. Great job.

Anonymous said...

Lets close a firehouse. It will save on overtime and there wont be enough beds so the firemen will actually do something between the hours of 11pm to 6am.

Anonymous said...

why not let Zena go to Onteroa and Anna Devine go to New Paltz. This would solve the closing problem for Kingston and add to the population of the two other districts which are in need of growth. this move would be a cost savings for Kingston. JaTaR.

Anonymous said...

2:50 PM aka R. Mitchell--Run for school board. Step up to the plate and into the ring. You have your pulse on the issues concerning the school board so why not run for one of the four seats? You may win.

Anonymous said...

$65,000 of entitlement dollars for a bandstand is a waste of the dollars.

Anonymous said...

When is Gretzinger and the School Board going to be held accountable for misleading the Public. Neither know what they are doing. Gretzinger has to resign and the School Board replaced.

Anonymous said...

bandstand is a great thing to have it will get people out and spend money in the shops and food places you want to bring outside money to the city so you have to have something to bring them here remember to have to spend money to make money