This afternoon I took the time to call each ISD 2142 school. I asked one main question. How many kids are enrolled at your school in grades K thru 12.
Here are the results.
Albrook has 362 students, Babbitt-Embarrass has 337 students, Cherry has 317 students, Cook has 380 students,Cotton has 160 students, Orr 224 and Tower-Soudan has 232 students.
Has ISD 2142 lost students? yes they have. In the past 2 years Albrook has lost 23 students and Cook has lost 22. I just keep wondering though how significant is this difference? We are not talking about huge numbers, ISD 2142 as a whole( all 7 schools) has only lost 89 children in a 2 year period. This fall we saw many of them leave due to the uncertanty of ISD 2142 and its closure of buildings. If the rumors are correct most of the losses at Tower-Soudan and Cook can be explained by parents who moved their kids early instead of waiting for the ISD 2142/Johnson Control ax to fall. I keep asking if ISD 2142 had handled this differently would we be seeing a much smaller loss? If they had worked with communities to find changes that respected all areas would we be seeing any losses? We will never know. The fact is ISD 2142 has excellent teachers. Look at the alumni of ISD 2142 and how far many have gone in college and the work force. ISD 2142's teachers care, and it shows!
ON December 8th we all have choices to make. We all have to decide whether we are going to vote yes or NO.
I choose to vote NO. I choose to work for a better solution. One that respects all cities and townships. I choose to place a NO vote to force a new plan with or without ISD 2142.
Anyone for a new NORTHERN SCHOOL DISTRICT?
VOTE NO!!!!! lets work together to find a solution.
Greentea,
You are dedicated, sincere, and I applaud your energy. I also wholeheartedly agree with your statement that 2142 has some of the best teachers around. Amen and amen.
But we part ways on the notion that maintaining the status quo of keeping all the schools open is economically feasible, nor is it desirable from an educational standpoint. If you won't take my word for it please take a straw poll of high school teachers.
A healthy 2142 educational system is the best respect we can give any of our local cities and townships, and a yes vote will do this.
Lonesome_Polecat,
Are these HIgh School teachers from Tower-Soudan where our kids will be on a bus for 50 to 75 miles per day? Are these teachers looking at the fact that because of the distance our kids will be expected to travel they will be able to be involved in very few extra-curricular activities? I myself do not believe we can maintain our schools status quo- I believe that we all have to make sacrifices. The optimum word here ALL. Right now only a few schools are being asked to make sacrifices. I believe each area should have a Pre K thru 6 then every area should transport their high school aged children to a CENTRALLY located high school. A 50 to 75 mile bus ride is not centrally located!
I am not against raising taxes for a better education I am against raising taxes for my kids to have NO EDUCATION.
Orr and Cook get a new centrally located neutral school. Cotton/Albrook get a new centrally located neutral school. I ask you what do the Tower-Soudan High School kids get? A 50 to 75 mile per day bus ride to an existing school that has made no plans to include us.
They get to hope that the coaches will allow them playing time on teams, they get to hope that the Knowledge Bowl teams will allow them to join, that destination imagination will allow them to join. My daughters work hard. They give 110% and are polite and helpful. They deserve better than ISD 2142's left overs. I will fight for better and will make sure they know that I never gave up on them or on their education!
I choose to be there for my kids! My kids are worth my time and energy.
Voting NO to allow an option to be put into practice that includes all communities, whether they have taconite tax relief or not is not disrespectful. The greatest respect we can show our kids is a willingness to put children first. ALL children not just those who live in communities with taconite tax relief or those with strong board reps.
VOTE NO on Dec. 8th. Lets ask ISD 2142 to respect all children!
It is not each communities responsibilty to save the school district, it's their responsibility to save their schools, children and community. If the district chooses to issue veiled threats to close schools if we don't move in lock-step with Johnson Controls and their plan for our future, then, as Green Tea states, it is time to form a new district that is responsive to the needs of the community and it's children and residents. Why can't we just get along, vote this nonsense down, and go back to the table with ALL stakeholders this time. We can and will come up with a better solution.
greentea,
I didn't realize the kids in your locale would be shipped 75 miles; I assumed they'd be going to Babbitt, or perhaps the new North school which is only 19 miles from the Birch Point vicinity in Greenwood. My mistake.
It's only a suggestion, but before you get too far along with the new northern school district you really might want to consider having a chat with a few high school teachers, they'll probably have a few good tips.
At any rate, best regards and good luck on the new district; looks like it's shaping up to be a real humdinger!
What I find interesting about Green Tea's research is that the figures for Orr don't include the K-6 numbers from Nett Lake. If you feel up to it, Green Tea, please call the Nett Lake school to get those numbers, since most, if not all, of those students transfer to Orr for 7-12. Keep up the good work, you are turning over old stones and finding stuff people need to know before they vote.
orrcountry,
The Pre-K thru 6th grade students from Nett Lake do not become Orr students until grade 7. Their numbers are included in the demographics for 7th thru 12th grade. The only way this may change your numbers is if Orr and or Nett Lake have either very large or very small classes coming in the future. You can find those number out for yourself. Look that the senior class this year. Next look at how many are in 6th grade in Nett Lake and in Orr and see if you will have a higher or lower number of children to replace the group who will graduate. I hope there are some pre school kids hiding in Orr, the Orr learning readiness class is very small this year. You can check the numbers in Nett Lakes Head Start and see though maybe they have a lot of kids coming up- wouldnt that be wonderful!
Thanks Green Tea. We are hopeful that we will both be able to bring back home-schooled kids and the open enrolled kids now attending Littlefork and I-Falls by changing our mission statement and offerings. We are working closely with Economic Development, which could bring close to 100 working family jobs to the Orr School attendance area. We hope that a privately funded wood pellet plant and Cleveland Cliffs wood briquet plant will begin breaking ground soon. It is the brainchild of some of us that our Orr students will learn about the technologies employed by those companies and that our school can be an incubator for future technologies for those industries. We are working hard and smart. We will not be discouraged by the recent letters to the editor intended to bring us down.
I would also have to agree. To simply say we have to build new building or dissolve the district, is simply not all there is to it.
There are more options out there and i feel that there needs to be more investigation into what those options are before any construction starts.
Lets look at look at the other schools in the area and see where they are headed. Ely's future could easily change 2142's options. Virginia probably makes sense for some areas.
Lets look at the big picture before we decide on 2 small snapshots.
I will be voting "NO"