I hear crickets
One thing the Stapleton Moms on Yahoo! are not talking about is the third school location.
I have to say, I'm surprised by this. Hundreds of us showed up to the community meetings about overcrowded schools, and filled the Stapleton Moms list with opinions and recommendations and some really creative solutions, but now that the new school will be built right on the edge of an industrial park... well, crickets are chirping.
Why is that, I wonder?
If you're like me, with 2 young'uns under the age of three, you might not be paying as much attention because kindergarten is still a couple of years away. It will all get sorted out by then, right?
Or you might already have kids at Bill Roberts or Westerly Creek, so you feel safe in your spot. They can't make you move your kids to the new school... can they?
Or you might be aware that we're on a tight timeline to get the new school built, and any delay will mean Stapleton kids will be without seats at our schools.
Or you might be feeling like we're just lucky to get any school at all, in this economy. Beggars can't be choosers, right?
Take a look at the Stapleton CEC recommendations. Did you take the survey? They're asking for our input, because their preliminary recommendations to DPS are this:
1. Bill Roberts changes to ECE-5, and Westerly Creek remains ECE-5. The new school will be ECE-8. All middle schoolers would go to the third school.
2. Westerly Creek will take all the overflow ECE-1st grade classes until the new school opens in 2011. There are 7 kindergarten classes at BR/WC this year -- neither school can accomodate those numbers as they go up to the next grade, so some will have to go to the third school.
3. Boundaries may have to be drawn for each school. No more choice. You'll go where they send you. You might think you live close to your school, but with two so close together, don't count on it.
What do you think of these options?
(You can comment anonymously here, so go for it.)
Posts
How will they get people to choice in? the 3rd school has many reasons to not like the location: next to Sams & FBI building, can't walk there, on a busy street... the reasons don't matter as much as the perception that this 3rd school will be inferior. I fear we'll lose choice and be forced into boundaries, then WC and BR kids will be forced to move.
The REAL 3rd school site at Iola & 26th is like 90% there. But DPS, Forest City, the Mayor, et al are too busy patting themselves on the back for getting the 3rd school built in time for an onslaught of first graders that they don't even realize they are actually putting those kids in harms way -- next to FBI's parking lot, next to Sam's and on the same street as the new off ramp for I-70... way to go Forest City... way to waste 17 million dollars on a school that no one wants to go to. Only 10% remediation and you'd have a location everyone loves. This is a knee jerk reaction that will cost this community millions - congrats Johnson, congrats Hickenlooper, congrats DPS.... thanks for spending our money (that you stole from the park that is supposed to be next to my house) on a school that I don't want to send my child to.
The ZAP (Zoning & Planning) Meeting went well for Forest City to rezone the area around the control tower (Central Park West) from commercial to residential with an asterisk - the ZAP did not like the location of the 3rd school on the NE corner of that parcel and wants it moved. So there is hope. Attend the meeting on Jan 12th at 4:30 in the SDC conference room and see how it all plays out.
I am grateful to have any school seat available for my kids in Stapleton. We have a real opportunity to make the 3rd school as good if not better than BR & WC, so let's make it happen. If it is what it is, then let's make the best of it. Stay involved to make sure that the new school is everything we hoped it to be, if not walkable then at least perhaps with some alternative programming than what is offered at BR & WC.
One correction to the original post - there are currently 11 Kinder classes this year at BR/WC (7BR; 4 WC). The numbers are big - the JPC is trying to plan for moving 13-14 classes per grade through the 3 schools over the years to come.
I too am grateful for the additional seats being made available to our neighborhood by adding a 3rd school and feel it is a real opportunity for us to make this new school a huge success. I really don't get how people can be so adamant already about not wanting to go there based solely on location. We don't know anything yet about what the new school will offer and now is our chance to help shape it into something amazing. Sure, I'd rather see the 3rd school on the east side or closer to MLK/CPB, and ideally, I'd love to walk my kids to school each day - but is having them bused such a short distance across the neighborhood so bad? BR is not an ideal location either and it is thriving. It is what happens on the inside that counts. Help make it what you want it to be.....
These are really great comments. Always three sides to a story;-) I do really like the idea of 10% there. Did not realize that. However isnt that end of Stapleton actually in Aurora? How would that work with a school zones or housing in general, tax wise etc? Sorry to hate the location so much but I plum hate it. Must be that I grew up in a smaller town that did not mix schools with commercial property. One of those visions I cant shake maybe?