Town councilman Ken Roberts, vice-chair of PUSD's school consolidation committee, tells us that decision time is near to determine the three schools that the district will close to meet its budget.
The committee will meet on Friday night, Oct. 1, 5-8:30 PM and Saturday morning, Oct. 2, 9 AM-1 PM at the McKinley School auditorium. Parking is available across the street in the Administration Building lot off of Oak Knoll.
This will be followed by two community input meetings, on Mon., Oct. 4, at Eliot Middle School from 6:30-8:30 PM, and at Wilson Middle School on Fri., Oct. 8, 6-8 PM.
Translation services will be available at all meetings, Child care will also be available.
Roberts writes: "We are coming down to the decision point, which on Saturday, Oct. 2 the committee is tasked with narrowing down the school[s] that would be recommended for closure."
The committee will make final recommendations in a report to Supt. Edwin Diaz in October. Following his review, Diaz is tentatively scheduled to make a recommendation to the board of education at the Nov. 23 meeting.
According to Roberts, the format of the Community Input Meetings are (subject to some modification):
- Station Circulation: Audience members will go to 4 stations: (30 minutes)
- Station 1 – Map of existing attendance boundaries (large poster board)
- Station 2 – Foundational documents (Board item closing schools, press release, charge, criteria, committee membership)
- Station 3 – Committee process (large poster board)
- Station 4 – Preliminary Recommendation (handout)
- Presentation
- District Staff will provide a brief overview of School Consolidation Needs (5 minutes)
- Committee Members will provide a presentation outlining the preliminary recommendations (10 minutes)
- Public Comments
- Audience Members will have a chance to offer comments after filling out a speaker card (1 hour, 15 minutes)
- Participants will also be able to provide written comments at the meeting for consideration and will also be reminded of the e-mail address where comments can later be sent.
