The Observation Deck

If you have a student in the school district you already got notice of this and I am sure there will be a notice posted in the Education section of the Deck but I wanted to bring it up here, just in case.

Tuesday, January 23rd at 7 PM at LHS they will be holding a public meeting to hear more about the recommendation from the Superintendent to close Franklin Elementary School at the end of this school year. I have heard a bit that they are going to probably run it in a similar way to how they did the groups when they were proposing the original building project a couple of years ago.

I think it is important to get a good variety of citizens and parents to the meeting outside of just the Franklin Elementary parents. They are justifiably upset, as I was when I heard that my daughter would spend her first two years in elementary school in a non-Lakewood school site prior to getting into a new building. Obviously it hasn't been a problem and we are very happy with her education the last two years and are looking forward to the transition next year. But lots of kids and parents are looking at possible moves as these projects come to fruition and there needs to be a big picture perspective in attendance to help decide if keeping the school open for a small group of kids is worth the cost to the citizens.

I look forward to attending and hope to see a lot of folks there.

I think it is important that many of us attend too. The thing I am most frustrated by is that with the new schools set to open in the fall we still do not have boundaries drawn for them. In a general PTA meeting last summer it was made very clear to Dr. Estrop that knowing the boundaries for the new school early was essential for a good transition. As it stands right now our PTA at Grant is basically in a holding pattern. We know many of our families will be leaving to go to Hayes but we don't know which ones, so we can't have our PTA elections. The transitions have been difficult for families and moving to a new school is always difficult but the earlier you know the easier it is to adjust. I plan on being there if only to say please get a move on and let me know where my children will be going to school next year.

Just a little follow up. They will be having another meeting next week at 7 PM at the high school. I will repeat what I said earlier which is I would like this issue to be resolved quickly because the new boundaries need to be drawn and all Lakewood parents deserve to know what schools their children will be going to next year. I do hope that at the meeting next week some of these issues will be resolved.