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| What should be done now?; How to rectify this mess | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 9 2006, 10:00 AM (870 Views) | |
| livoniamom | Nov 9 2006, 10:00 AM Post #1 |
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Principal
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I am wondering what everyone thinks should be done by the BOE to make LPS attractive again? My thought is to re-open some elementary schools and move the 5th graders back there (may involve redistricting some students because our current K-4 school does not have room for the 5th graders). Send the 6th graders to middle school -- if there isn't enough room open a new middle school (maybe Cooper?). Or --- a complete reversal with some elementary schools remaining closed and some students redistricting (what should have been done in the first place). Riley is back to being a middle school. This will surely cost a lot of money but 4 million dollars is a small amount of the LPS budget, right Mr. Lessard? |
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| ILIkeLI | Nov 9 2006, 10:17 AM Post #2 |
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Principal
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Form a new demographics committee with the largest % of participants having children in the district. A single BOE "liasion" to the committee. LPS employees, current and past, would act as "resource' people only. Maybe a new, very comprehensive and specific survey to gauge the communities feelings or support for various options. |
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| Grant1 | Nov 9 2006, 10:22 AM Post #3 |
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We have just begun to fight!
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And make sure it is a Board of Education commissioned committee run in accordance with all legal requirements. Attendance - taken at every meeting and published publically Agendas - developed and published publically Meeting Minutes - taken and immediately published publically Meeting run in accordance with Roberts Rules of Order Open to the Public - public invitations, meeting dates, agendas, and minutes published in every media available Regular Community updates and public hearings on status and findings. |
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| Mrs.M | Nov 9 2006, 10:24 AM Post #4 |
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Principal
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Is it possible LPS and the BOE are 'satisfied' with the current situation? Are they in a 'let's wait and see if things will work themselves out' mode? Do they think there is a problem/concern? |
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| 2 kids | Nov 9 2006, 10:29 AM Post #5 |
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Principal
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Everything starts with the admission that something is wrong! I don't think I heard anything like the from the administration or the BOE. Until that happens, no one there will be willing to invest any effort into changing things. They will continue to keep their heads in the sand. Heads in the administration should be rolling over this. The BOE needs to do that. Then the people will speak at election time in the spring and vote on how BOE has been doing for us. I think I know how I will vote, especially if there is no admission that things are wrong, wrong assumptions were made, they were not listening to the people and that it's all good. They can't in their right mind be thinking that any more. The empirical data is here. It cannot be swept under the rug or blamed on the economy. It's time to replace Dr. Liepa and his incompetent staff that got us into this mess. |
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| ILIkeLI | Nov 9 2006, 10:37 AM Post #6 |
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Principal
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What can we do? Make sure that Scheel and Freeman do not survive the May election with their seats. Can't imagine what platform they will run on? The successes of the LI? The communities satisfaction with the LI? The sound financial shape of the district due to their stellar decision making? Awesome rubber stamping? |
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| NFarquharson | Nov 9 2006, 11:38 AM Post #7 |
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Principal
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Personally, I had been trying to keep relatively quiet and reserve further negative judgement on this plan once it was clear that we were stuck with it. Some may have noticed that I have not been posting nearly as much. I have been waiting to see how it works out and trying not to criticize or nit-pick. But I think now it is just abundantly clear that this plan cannot possibly save the district money. I am really scared about the loss of enrollment and if it continues, things are going to get very bad. Our BOE needs to take a long hard look at this and admit it was a mistake. If they are still not convinced that the additional enrollment loses are primarily due to the LI, they need to commission a survey/study ASAP so they can see the truth within a few weeks at most. I honestly believe they were mislead, and certainly not purposfully. I know there have been many theories as to why they went with this plan, but I really think that they believed they were doing the right thing. I also think that the Demographics Committee thought they were doing the right thing when they came up with the plan. I refuse to believe that a group of 40 people that are employees, educators, PTA parents, former employee, BOE trustee, etc. would intentionally create a bad plan in order to serve their own purposes. Unfortunately, Dr. Liepa made a huge mistake. He failed to get the general community involved in the planning and the voice of the community and desires of the customers of LPS were not clear in the planning stages, so the end product completely missed the mark. It is critical for the school board to recognize this mistake now and take steps to fix it as soon as possible, so that we do not bleed more students next year. I am certain that they feel they have been insulted by many of us and there may be large bruises on some egos, but they cannot allow that to sidetrack them from doing what is best for the district. Grant1's suggestion for an open, board-commissioned committee is right on target. This committee needs to fast track a solution that the community as a whole will approve of. Both of livoniamom's suggestions are reasonable and should be considered, but there might be others. |
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| Administrator | Nov 9 2006, 11:59 AM Post #8 |
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Administrator
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Sign me up for that committee. If the Legacy has done anything, it has galvanized a large group of people that may not have been so involved in the past. We may have more people that care now than at any other point in LPS history. We need to take advantage of that. |
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| 2tots | Nov 9 2006, 12:20 PM Post #9 |
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Principal
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I think we need to re-open some of the schools and go back to K-6. Maybe take a look at putting Nancy's plan into place. In order to accomplish this, we need to focus on getting 2 QUALIFIED people elected to the board in May -- two people whose first order of business will be to fire Liepa. Second order of business should be to clean house in central office. And finally, spending the time between July (when new boe members would begin their terms) and September getting things moved back to where they belong. We already know there is a long list of people eager and willing to volunteer time and services to get everything back into place. I would not be satisified with a K-5 plan. I believe that if any "different" grade configurations are to be considered, we should be looking in the other direction -- K-8. But until further research and planning can be done to reach that goal, we need to start with going back to K-6. |
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| fyi | Nov 9 2006, 12:46 PM Post #10 |
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Principal
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I agree with NF. I don't think people serving on the Demo. Comm. or the BOE meant to harm our district. I think they really thought they were doing the right thing at the time. We all need to put our differences aside and work toward fixing this mess. |
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| cmic | Nov 9 2006, 12:48 PM Post #11 |
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Principal
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As long as Cooper is in the picture we will NOT return until high school and hopefully not even then. |
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| fyi | Nov 9 2006, 01:04 PM Post #12 |
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Principal
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According to Mr. Bailey, "Unless we start making major budget cuts, we're not going to dig ourselves out of this hole."
Is that really the solution? What kind of "major cuts" could he be referring to? |
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| cmic | Nov 9 2006, 01:05 PM Post #13 |
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Principal
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Isn't that what we just did???? |
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| cat | Nov 9 2006, 01:07 PM Post #14 |
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Principal
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As long as they keep going this route they won't be able too...I do not believe the people that have left or are considering or in the process of will not come back, it will be very difficult to get back what we had.. |
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| livoniamom | Nov 9 2006, 02:05 PM Post #15 |
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Principal
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Good point. That is why it is more important then ever to attract young families to Livonia. About 5-7 years ago, I worked with many, many people who were transferred here -- almost every single one of them bought a house in Canton. Their houses there are newer and the school district is thriving. I think the Rec Center was a brilliant plan. Hopefully Wonderland will turn out nice and someday Livonia Mall will become something to be proud of. We also need an outstanding school district to attract families. LPS can no longer get by with the reputation it enjoyed in the 70's and 80's -- there is way too much competition now. As Tom Bailey said at the last meeting "God bless the seniors" but we need kids to keep this school district going -- now is not the time to put a plan in place that drives people with children away! If they reverse the LI, perhaps half the FOR SALE signs in Livonia would come down! |
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