Guest Essay: School closings will affect entire school district

Excellent article Anissa! You speak from many parents hearts. Let's hope others will join with us!

Excellent!

If you don't like pay to have the school renevated yourself. We tax payers are tired of paying for taxes to fix schools when we do not hav echildren in school.Other kids get bused and so can yous. We all have to sacrifice at times. Let it rest.

Coldbrook should be remodeled for 1 million. That's nothing to the school district these days. Coldbrook can later be expanded in any direction, if and when necessary.

tax payer wrote:

If you don't like pay to have the school renevated yourself. We tax payers are tired of paying for taxes to fix schools when we do not hav echildren in school.Other kids get bused and so can yous. We all have to sacrifice at times. Let it rest.

Are you an educated person? Just because you do not have children in school doesn't mean that you shouldn't pay school taxes. These children that are coming out of the local schools are the future leaders of your community and probably your future doctor or future nursing home provider. I think you want the people taking care of you to be well educated. Why did the school district put all of that money into a new gym and new stadium? They could've used that money for Marion & Coldbrook. I moved to Coldbrook area so my children could attend a great small school. In our school districts wisdom; even though, we live within a two minute walk to the school they are sending my son to Andrew Buchanan. This school is .9 miles from my house. After kindergarten will they bus my son? Their answer is no. A 6 year old is expected to walk alone .9 miles to school. I ask you is that safe?

You think closing the schools is a great idea; how many students should be in a a classroom? There are 23 students in my son's kindergarten class. Do you think they get enough one on one time with their teacher? There are so many students that these teacher's need and do have aide's in the room. The teacher can't possibly work with each student and still accomplish what the district requires.

CASD is too large. The administration is worried about the money and how much money goes into their own pockets.

it would be short-sighted for the board to close another outlying school- with the influx of famililies moving into the area south of chambersburg the rooms that Marion provides will be far cheaper than building onto already over-populated schools in town

This school is the heart of the village of Marion (unlike Sharpe, king street and gordy)-- property values are guaranteed to drop...

do the right thing and spend the 1/4 million dollars to fix what is wrong and skip the stuffing of students in already overcrowded rooms elsewhere

So many school districts profess that children are their first priority and then they make decisions like this. SHort term savings usually result in longterm nightmares. I guarantee you that the schools that would have to absorb these students will be over capacity more quickly than you think because our area is definitely growing. Then the school board will be recommending expanding schools at far greater costs than upgrades to the current schools. In addition, think about the transportation costs! With gasoline prices still high and he middle east unstable, we could see large increases in gasoline prices, which means more costs in transferring students across the district. None of this makes sound economic sense. Why doesn't the school board problem solve effective ways to make improvements to the current buildings? I am sure there are contractors who could use the work in this down economy and save the district money. This would help create jobs, keep kids in their neighborhood schools, save future expansion costs, save on transportation, and maintain a positive relationship with families. Where is common sense?

Ms. Meyers,

" ...... the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner.

"Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all, it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else." H. L. Mencken 1880-1956

If only Mr. Mencken could see the INSANITY of today's public education.

You speak of YOUR children. Then, YOU educate them. Of course, that is not possible. YOU are a 'standard citizen,''bred and trained' to live the absurdly empty life of gross materialism under government 'supervision,' with no concept of individual responsibility, e.g.; ZERO debt, frugality and actually having clear title to possessions you say you 'own.'

I was once YOU, but I escaped The System. I lost everything I was 'bred and trained' to have. I never lived better than I now do.

May you, too, escape the INSANITY.

Tex Forister
Chambersburg

Tex, with all due respect, Mencken was an anti-semitic individual who considered democracy a joke because he believed it promoted mediocrity. Our democratic republic has created more wealth, developed greater scientific improvement, and freed more individuals than any country in history. Far from mediocre for a country ruled by the "mob." If you want to promote Mencken's philosophy, perhaps you should have discussed his belief that through achievement and a strong work ethic the "elite" rise to the top. That's all we want for our children.

Please, Tex, enlighten us as to how you escaped the system.

Hey Frustrated, If you know so much why are you not on the school board, What, don't have time. Well let the school board do their thing and stay out of the way .I might not have children but I help with children at schools.

Well, taxpayer....if you help with children in the schools then you understand how these larger schools are already overcrowded. And you understand how 23 students in a kindergarten room is too many.

Not every concerned parent can be on the school board that is why it is an elected position. I like anyone else am entitled to my own opinions and all the information that i posted is from my personal experience. Each concerned parent and tax paying citizen is allowed to attend the school board meetings and voice their opinions. Hope to see you there.

The school board was elected by their constituents. They work for us. They need to hear from their constituents and listen to them before prudently making decisions that vastly impact the district. A decision of this magnitude requires open communication between the board and the electorate.

Bus the kids to the high school so they can use the new gym as their classroom and also use the $6M football field. That's where the district feels the money should be spent anyway.

They should have split the school district into two separate schools and built the new school in Greenvillage. The new magnificent high school is already too small to handle future classes that are coming it's way.

tax payer wrote:

If you don't like pay to have the school renevated yourself. We tax payers are tired of paying for taxes to fix schools when we do not hav echildren in school.Other kids get bused and so can yous. We all have to sacrifice at times. Let it rest.

This is obviously from a very sour and uninterested person!!!! GET A HEART BUDDY!

More people crying the blues ur kids are no different than other kids riding a school bus for 40 minutes a day!! Just realize change is needed to save money and so those bulidings need to be CLOSED PERIOD!!!!

$250,000 for improvements or $4,000,000 for an addition to stevens in 2-3 years?

I have to agree with Fort Loudon. Over half of the Marion school population lives on or around the Mill Road are in Chambersburg which is about a 7 min drive without all of the bus stops between there and Marion Elementary. They are being bused alot further to Marion than they would say to Stevens/S. Hamilton.

As for the 72 new children in the school district - my guess is that a good many of them are probably 9th graders - which by the way would not affect the elementary schools population - due to Corpus Christi only going up to 8th grade, so all of those kids would come to CASD after their 8th grade year. I highly doubt that all 72 were elementary age students.

FORT LOUDON wrote:

More people crying the blues ur kids are no different than other kids riding a school bus for 40 minutes a day!! Just realize change is needed to save money and so those bulidings need to be CLOSED PERIOD!!!!

okay...so here some questions that need answered...

A. Chambersburg is growing on all sides... therefore there are more kids coming into the area... now now all of these are elementary; However, has CASD looked at the number of pre-schoolers in the district to get an adequate idea of how large the next few class sizes will be?

B. If they have looked into those numbers, are those numbers being considered when closing Marion & Coldbrook?

C. Exactly which schools are going to absorb the Marion & Coldbrook children and what criteria are being used to split the populations?

D. Why has it not been looked into taking Coldbrook, leveling it, and rebuilding a bigger factility on the land that is there? There is growing room there! Why has that not been put on the table?

E. The school distrcit has to move the children currently in Stevens Elementary school~how is that re-districting, along with closing Marion & Coldbrook being handled? The burden is going to be put somewhere and some of the larger elementary schools are already either damn near full or at capacity!

F. What are the numbers of students going to be per classroom once these changes are made? Is it really worth the risk of overcrowding classrooms to save a few $100,000 vs a budget that works in millions?

As a taxpayer, although my children are not directly involved, for now, with these changes... these are just some of the questions that the board needs to address......

As a student in the high school, I'm seeing more and more things that the district needs to stop. I myself went to Duffield, and when it closed to become a Manito building, then go for auction--it's still yet to be sold!--I was furious. I'm also a tax payer myself...currently employed and my I give happily money to good ol' Uncle Sam. As another student in my class likes to say, "Where's my tax dollars going?"