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Taylor School District - Free Press 1/17/06
Topic Started: Jan 17 2006, 12:59 PM (314 Views)
pkm
Principal
Taylor School District asks for help

January 17, 2006

Email this Print this BY ROBERT ALAN GLOVER

FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER
Get involved in reorganization plan

Volunteers are still needed to take part in an advisory committee to discuss the reconfiguration of the Taylor School District.



Public meetings are set for 6 p.m. Jan. 26, Feb. 9 and Feb. 23 at Kennedy High School, 13505 John F. Kennedy Drive. For more information, go to www.taylorschools.net or call 734-374-1200. All committee meetings are scheduled to air on Comcast's public-access Channel 22.
The community will play a lead role in devising a plan to reconfigure the Taylor School District.

A series of public meetings with a new advisory committee are planned for the weeks ahead to discuss options for the district, which is dealing with a budget crunch and declining enrollment.

Volunteers are needed to help the district come up with a plan to trim as much as $5 million from its roughly $100-million budget, said Linda Newsome, a school board trustee who serves on the committee.

"There will be school closings -- that's a given -- and we are trying to get everyone involved in order to come up with the best plan possible," Newsome said.

The district closed Federal Elementary School last June, and plans to shut down Treadwell Early Childhood Center this June, at an estimated savings of roughly $400,000 a year, said Superintendent James Harris.

Officials scrapped much of a 2005 plan to close four elementary schools. It also would have sent sixth-graders to the district's middle schools, but did not allow for the increase in seventh- and eighth-grade enrollment and would have resulted in overcrowding.

"Everyone felt that it was a viable plan, but due to the middle school bubble, we could not implement it," said Mary Moore, a school board trustee and committee volunteer.

Shareen Breedon, whose daughter Elizabeth is a 10th-grader at Kennedy High School, said quality education should be a priority for the new committee.

"Personally, I am hoping for a win-win situation, even if it means closings, because we need to provide quality education without cutting programs," Breedon said.

"Residents are going to take an active part in creating a new plan, and although the answer hasn't been found yet, it is out there."

Harris said the committee must understand that the district's expenses are escalating.

"Everything is going up in terms of cost -- heating, employees' insurance, the cost of our retirement fund, -- everything but our source of revenue, so one solution is to close schools and consolidate," Harris said.

Craig Farrand, a communications consultant hired by the district to get the committee started, said he's still signing up volunteers.

"We have to keep people focused on the task and on the time this will take -- at least 18 months -- but any changes will not be implemented until 2007 or 2008 at the earliest," Farrand said.

The new committee, Harris said, is strictly an advisory group. Questions from parents and answers will be posted on www.taylorschools.net.

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taylormom
Principal
Wow! Wouldn't it be nice if Livonia Public Schools' administrators and board members thought like the ones in Tayor?
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pkm
Principal
I especially liked the part regarding the "middle school bubble" :)
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Michelebel
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Principal
I guess the Taylor district saw how it SHOULDN'T be done by watching what's been going on in Livonia. They have learned from our mistake and are doing the right thing!!
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grantmom
Principal
Wow what a novel idea...getting the community involved.....LPS and BOE should take notes on how to do it the right way!!!!!
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Momforone
Principal
Oh boy. Taylor hired a communications consultant. What a novel idea!!!!!
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Administrator
Administrator
I can tell you all this. This message board is getting hundreds of hits from every corner of this state every day, and even some from as far away as New York and California. People are watching, and learning. They are learning what to do, and what not to do. Unfortunately, they are learning more of what not to do here in Livonia.
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taylormom
Principal
Jimid
Jan 17 2006, 04:57 PM
I can tell you all this. This message board is getting hundreds of hits from every corner of this state every day, and even some from as far away as New York and California. People are watching, and learning. They are learning what to do, and what not to do. Unfortunately, they are learning more of what not to do here in Livonia.

If this is true, is there any way to get some national media attention to what is happening here?
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Grant1
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We have just begun to fight!
taylormom
Jan 18 2006, 12:09 PM
Jimid
Jan 17 2006, 04:57 PM
I can tell you all this. This message board is getting hundreds of hits from every corner of this state every day, and even some from as far away as New York and California. People are watching, and learning. They are learning what to do, and what not to do. Unfortunately, they are learning more of what not to do here in Livonia.

If this is true, is there any way to get some national media attention to what is happening here?

Let's get Chris Matthews from MSNBC to invite herr doktor onto Hardball and provide him with all of our data ;)
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fyi
Principal
Larry King Live!!!
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amomof2
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Principal
John Stossel... he could use it as a follow-up to his 'Stupid in America' story.
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fyi
Principal
amomof2
Jan 18 2006, 01:46 PM
John Stossel... he could use it as a follow-up to his 'Stupid in America' story.

Stupid in Livonia.
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