After months of discussions, hundreds of hours of work, and the biggest controversy to hit Douglas in years, it all disappeared with a whimper on Tuesday evening, February 17.
 Douglas Unified School District Board discusses about attendance zone problem in special session Tuesday. |
The meeting was held at the Douglas High School Auditorium and was attended by about 75 parents, friends, students and staff members. Prior to the special meeting, the board held a one-hour open forum that allowed people to ask questions and express their concerns to the board prior to the vote.
Following the open forum, the board voted against any change by a 3-2 vote, with Board President Charles Hoyack and members Patricia Lopez and Ed Rivera voting against it and Mario Ramos and Susan Kramer voting for it. The vote came quickly, with no questions or comments form the board members.
The original plan pushed by the school district administration called for four elementary school zones, grouping two schools in each of three zones and leaving Faras as a fourth elementary zone. It would also bring sixth grade back to the elementary level and make Huber the only middle school in the community.
Much of the discussion from the audience was repeats of concerns expressed at the two previous open forums held by the school district.
Those concerns included splitting up siblings, some parents having to travel to multiple schools, lack of communication to parents and moving on the decision too quickly.
During this meeting, parents also wanted a “guarantee” that this change was going to alleviate the problems at the middle school level and improve education of students overall.
Some were also concerned, like Eddie Gonzalez, that this was just going to be a quick fix for the middle schools, and the board would come back next year or the next with another change.
Many thought the change was just too drastic.
“This is a wake-up call for all parents. We need to take ownership, need to take the future of our children back into our hands. We need to be more involved. Simply voting no on this is not an answer to the problem,” said Melissa Ramirez.
So what is the answer?
The district is still faced with issues concerning the middle schools, overcrowding in two of the elementary schools and a school district that has not been rezoned in at least 15 years despite the fact that a new school has been built in the last five years.
The school board’s next meeting is Tuesday, March 3 at the Central Administration Building on 12th Street. Meetings usually start at 5:30 p.m.
Comments
former resident wrote on Feb 28, 2009 7:07 PM:
another concerned parent wrote on Feb 28, 2009 6:59 PM:
Conerned Parent wrote on Feb 27, 2009 9:01 AM:
blind wrote on Feb 23, 2009 4:04 PM:
what a joke wrote on Feb 23, 2009 3:18 PM:
Objective viewpoint wrote on Feb 22, 2009 8:50 AM:
citizen wrote on Feb 21, 2009 2:52 PM:
Chuck wrote on Feb 20, 2009 6:41 PM:
Cup-o-Joe wrote on Feb 20, 2009 4:56 PM:
It is losing money because of the economy.
The state is not taking over the schools.
The specific problem needs to be identified and addressed.
Has the superintendent actually said what the problem is at the junior highs?
If there are too many students at certain schools than maybe the boundry lines need to change and not have kids attend school that are not in their area.
Parents need to make sure their kids GO to school because that is how the school gets its money.
What happened to common sense and honesty? Why dosen't the district update their website with this kind of information?
Since this reconstructing is over, maybe they can get back to theri jobs, or if they could tdo this and their job at the same time maybe we have too many administrators. "
Douglas resident wrote on Feb 20, 2009 9:14 AM:
Concerned Citizen wrote on Feb 20, 2009 7:06 AM:
How on earth are we supposed to fix our broken system when we won't be able to afford to hire or KEEP experienced teachers?!
Something needs to be done and it needs to be done NOW. "
m wrote on Feb 19, 2009 5:20 PM: