You can watch the full candidate forum here. The Hoover question starts at the 1:20:21 mark.
Two candidates, Laura Westemeyer and Karen Woltman, stated clear support for keeping Hoover open. A third, Charles Eastham, said he was undecided on the issue but indicated an openness to considering the question. Four others, JP Claussen, Shawn Eyestone, Ruthina Malone, and Janet Godwin, indicated either support for the closure or an unwillingness to reconsider the issue.
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LAURA WESTEMEYER
Forum question: There has been considerable discussion and tension in our district about the district’s commitment to smaller neighborhood schools, much of this sparked by the closure of Hoover Elementary. What is your view on this topic?
I do not think we should be closing Hoover Elementary. It’s a twelve million, eleven million dollar resource. It’s a school that six hundred kids can walk to. You know, and we’re closing the elementary because we don’t really absolutely know what we’re going to do with the space yet, and we had an opportunity a few years ago to purchase some space – I guess it was a park that was open? – and we didn’t choose to purchase the park, which would have been a much more reasonable, would have been a better opportunity for us moving forward, and so I don’t support closing Hoover. I think that we, that’s one of the reasons why I find the bond difficult, because if we’re throwing out an eleven million dollar resource, and I just don’t think that that’s a very smart move on our part and as well we’ve had an entire community go through and get two thousand signatures and we’ve refused to allow it on the ballot, and again, here we are pushing back community comment when we keep talking about how important it is for the community to speak, and we’re again not allowing the community to have a voice. So again, I just, I feel, no, we should not be closing Hoover. We need to value our community schools, we’ve got to keep our community’s—you know, the people and the community of Hoover, they love their school and we need to let them keep their school.
Written question: If you are elected, will you support amending the long-term facilities plan to keep Hoover Elementary School open?
Absolutely, 100%, I want to see this 11 million dollar resource in a thriving community stay open.
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KAREN WOLTMAN
Forum question: There has been considerable discussion and tension in our district about the district’s commitment to smaller neighborhood schools, much of this sparked by the closure of Hoover Elementary. What is your view on this topic?
I don’t support closing schools in a growing district. We have a lot of capital invested in our buildings, and we just frankly need the capacity, and by closing schools, it just puts us further behind and trying to catch up. I do think that in doing the FMP process, we need to be planning ahead to make sure that all of our schools are being renovated and continue to be usable for our district into the future.
Written question: If you are elected, will you support amending the long-term facilities plan to keep Hoover Elementary School open?
Yes. School buildings are large capital investments for the community and they need to be managed wisely to accommodate the current and projected needs for capacity in our district. Destroying valuable capacity in a growing district will make it that much harder to meet capacity needs throughout the district.
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CHARLES EASTHAM
Forum question: There has been considerable discussion and tension in our district about the district’s commitment to smaller neighborhood schools, much of this sparked by the closure of Hoover Elementary. What is your view on this topic?
I definitely support the district maintaining, improving, and investing in smaller neighborhood schools, even some of the larger elementary schools which are basically elementary schools – schools that are new now will eventually become neighborhood schools. Neighborhood schools are important to almost every parent I’ve ever heard say anything at all about their local school. And they’re important to city government. All three governments are asking us to do more to provide neighborhood schools. In the case of Hoover, I haven’t made up my mind yet. I’m looking forward to perhaps a very vigorous discussion with newly elected board members and current board members. The expansion of City High is important. Exactly how that could be carried out, with or without the Hoover building in place, I think is something that I have to understand much more carefully – much more clearly before I’m going to be able to make a decision.
Written question: If you are elected, will you support amending the long-term facilities plan to keep Hoover Elementary School open?
I believe that a brief response to your question regarding whether I would or would not support a motion to amend the Facilities Master Plan is such a way as to continue the use of Hoover Elementary as a District school is to say that I am still considering the matter.
The factors I am reviewing include:
• whether reconsideration of the previous Board decisions regarding Hoover can be done in a timely manner so that the currently planned additions, improvements, and renovations to City High can proceed as scheduled and;
• whether there has been a substantial change in circumstances or additional information has been developed since the previous decision either of which demonstrate that the proposed City High alterations can be completed in their entirety while Hoover continues as a school.
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JP CLAUSSEN
Forum question: There has been considerable discussion and tension in our district about the district’s commitment to smaller neighborhood schools, much of this sparked by the closure of Hoover Elementary. What is your view on this topic?
First, I do support smaller neighborhood schools. I think that, you know, and having seen the plans, you know, for Lincoln, granted it’s over budget but that could be pared down. But I’ll tell you the intention there, that’s going to be there for fifty to a hundred years. You know, that’s not a cheap fix that’s just going to keep that school open for a few years. If they do what they say with Lincoln and with Mann and they’re already doing with Longfellow, I like that vision. I like, you know, because – smaller schools are more expensive, but that’s our community’s value, absolutely our community’s value. But we have to pay for that. It’s not the same cost, about a two-hundred-and-fifty-kid school is more expensive to run than a five-hundred-kid school, but that’s our value, and I share that value. You know I think the Hoover question’s, you know, very complicated for me, and I don’t know that my thinking has evolved since last summer, but I do think the process has moved on since last summer. I appreciate Charlie saying, you know, a vigorous discussion. I’m not a big fan of the process that got us here. I made that very clear last summer, and I had a lot of complaints with that, but here is where we are, and that’s why I support the bond, because that’s what in front of us, and that’s the opportunity we actually have. Every other thing about a smaller bond or different priorities is magic thinking, it’s not there yet, it may happen or it may not, but there’s no evidence saying it absolutely will. But we have this opportunity now that really puts a lot of money and vision into these neighborhood schools, so I think it’s our best bet. I really appreciated Mayor Throgmorton’s idea about City High, because yeah, the Hoover land will be used for City High. And moving forward, should that be the case after this vigorous discussion, I like the idea of, you know, putting some plans out there and really letting the community come together. If it includes Vo-Tech and a lot more career ed, I’m a lot more on board with that than a tennis court. I mean, I really, really believe that we need – and career and vo-tech takes money and infrastructure, and that’s a big reason why I’m behind this bond.
Written question: If you are elected, will you support amending the long-term facilities plan to keep Hoover Elementary School open?
I am deeply sympathetic to folks who want to keep Hoover open, and at my core am in favor of keeping neighborhood schools open, but I am not in favor of amending the FMP to keep Hoover open. I am in favor of moving forward by examining what the over all plans are for that sight, and also for having a genuine community discussion about how utilizing that land will serve City High and the overall district community best. I think Mayor Throgmorton’s proposal to look at different plans and have community input on them is a good idea, as long as that process isn't rigged to favor a pre determined outcome. I have stated before, I don’t like the process that got us here, and I want cleaner, more transparent processes moving forward, but my perspective is that we need to move ahead with the current FMP.
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SHAWN EYESTONE
Forum question: There has been considerable discussion and tension in our district about the district’s commitment to smaller neighborhood schools, much of this sparked by the closure of Hoover Elementary. What is your view on this topic?
Everybody loves their school, right? They all do, and nobody up here is stumping for closing schools. You know, Hoover’s been an issue for many, many years, and it’s a very unique situation. It absolutely is. It sits on a lot, you know, where a high school has kind of limited space compared to the other ones. It’s got plenty of other elementary schools around it that are close for the kids to get to. It’s very unique. Nobody wants to close schools. The bond does put money into some of our other smaller elementary schools, to renovate them, get them a little bit bigger even, and really are putting money into it, to not have to do this again. We don’t want to have this conversation every other year about this school and that school and the other school, right? Hoover is unique, and it’s been decided four years ago, and re-confirmed again, and, you know, if the petition gets on the ballot at some point, you know, we’ll have to address it at that time, but at this point I would, I’ve got to say that, you know, because it’s a unique situation, I think the fate of Hoover has been sealed, and we need to kind of move forward from that so we can keep working on the rest of our schools.
Written question: If you are elected, will you support amending the long-term facilities plan to keep Hoover Elementary School open?
The Hoover issue isn’t a priority for me at this time and I do feel that we are getting to the point of no return on the future of Hoover. I would not likely bring the issue to the Board table myself. That being said, I will always be willing to discuss the merits of all sides of any issue brought to the Board table. With the bond vote on the ballot as well as the potential to have a Hoover petition on this or another future ballot, this issue has the possibility to come before the Board again. If that does happen, it is likely due to a great interest in keeping the school open. If so, I would welcome the discussion at the table.
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RUTHINA MALONE
Forum question: There has been considerable discussion and tension in our district about the district’s commitment to smaller neighborhood schools, much of this sparked by the closure of Hoover Elementary. What is your view on this topic?
I too support smaller neighborhood schools, and that’s one of the reasons why I support our bond. I mean, I think once our community has the funds we need to invest in our schools, we can hopefully move past the conversation of closing some of our schools, because that’s, in my opinion, why we’re at this great divide that we’re in right now. With the passage of the bond, we can invest in our schools, and make sure that they’re twenty-first century schools that hopefully meet our kids’ needs. I too agree with JP that maybe if we can address some of our concerns and some of the divide that we’re faced with as a community on the decision of Hoover, if we have that open communication and dialogue with our community on what that space will be utilized for City High, that we know needs to continue to grow and expand to serve all those kids that will eventually leave elementary and junior high and end up at City High. We have to make sure that we’re investing in that neighborhood school just as much as well.
Written question: If you are elected, will you support amending the long-term facilities plan to keep Hoover Elementary School open?
I empathize with parents and students who are facing the loss of their closest neighborhood school and share in their concern that we as a community must work hard to provide good walkable schools for our children. Since the start of my campaign in April, I have tried to make it clear that I support the General Obligation bond as well as our Facilities Master Plan (FMP). For a variety of reasons, I am against amending the FMP, unless there are significant budgetary or enrollment changes. Therefore, I am not in favor of revisiting the closure of Hoover at this time.
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JANET GODWIN
Forum question: There has been considerable discussion and tension in our district about the district’s commitment to smaller neighborhood schools, much of this sparked by the closure of Hoover Elementary. What is your view on this topic?
I support the facilities master plan because a lot of the work in that plan is to invest into our small neighborhood schools, schools like Mann – I’m sorry, I’ll try to speak up – I support the facilities master plan because much of that work is dedicated to keeping neighborhood schools open and renovating schools like Mann, Lincoln, Longfellow, etc., our neighborhood schools that are getting heavy investment so they can remain strong schools for the next fifty years. I also support neighborhood schools that include high schools, and for me City High is a walkable high school that needs additional space for it to grow. There are a lot of plans in place for the way City High can expand to use the space that Hoover now occupies. City High needs an additional cafeteria, it needs an additional gym, it needs additional classroom space, it also needs air conditioning, it needs some sports facilities, tennis courts that are actually usable. The thing is that if we are able to expand City High, we’ll be bringing back career tech education to City High. We will be bringing forward automotive, engineering, architectural work, other kinds of construction, engineering, etc. Those sorts of programmings are going to be coming back to City High, and the principal at City High, working with the administration, is already outlining those plans. So for me, keeping City High a walkable high school in our neighborhood is critical for the success and ongoing health of the east side. You need City High to have space to remain competitive and on a par with the other high schools in our district, and so the only way to do that is for it to have the space to expand.
Written question: If you are elected, will you support amending the long-term facilities plan to keep Hoover Elementary School open?
I support neighborhood schools, which include neighborhood high schools. I support the facilities master plan. I support seeking community and neighborhood input on the expansion of City High and would like to see space created for career tech programming.
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