Here We Go Again

New boss, new plans, same problem. It seems the construction of the new Red Cedar Elementary School is over budget by a paltry $3 million and behind schedule (look for it around 2010). So what happened?

Well you’d think with the passage of an “Emergency Referendum” complete with special election that the folks in charge would have moved diligently but in fact they screwed up the design by not accommodating for enough kids and they pussyfooted around finding adequate land to build on (land they already had elsewhere, but anyway). So an emergency building up since 2005, culminates into a possible solution by 2010. Remember the 2000 referendum for a high school in the northern part of the county has yet to break ground (and really isn’t even wanted by the majority of the county now).

Exactly how does someone screw up the design of a school in an area literally bursting at the seams? Easy… there was always a second school in the plan. The district rigged the game so people will feel they have no other choice but to vote for yet another school, and better yet, they can add a smorgasbord of related items to the “urgently needed” school referendum to bilk the tax payers out of millions of dollars, and thus take care of family and friends for years to come with sweetheart contracts, not to mention crony admin jobs at the new schools once built.

Meanwhile schools in surrounding areas have plenty of empty seats. Adjusting the attendance zones county wide would be the most psychologically painful, yet most financially responsible decision we could make. Yes it would mean “tearing” kids away from their friends and exposing them to a different environment, but we are already a transient community. Look around, how many of your neighbors are still around that were there when you 1st moved to town? Better yet, how many of us have “moved up” because of a real estate windfall in the area? One more move isn’t going to kill our kids, but it could very well save us a considerable tax burden, not to mention cut the travel time to and from school. There is no better charity than the altruism in taking care of your own.

Adjusting attendance zones means alleviation from overcrowded schools, shorter bus rides, and lower taxes by minimizing the need for new construction... all for the children.