CLARIFICATIONS
The volume of news coverage and community discussion as a result of Wednesday's presentation provide opportunities for clarification:- Phase II of the McKissick study is "the formulation of options for improvement of buildings, operational savings, adjustments to facilities’ curricula and the regional effects of such changes." Any school closing proposals for next school year will obviously be informed by data from the study, but school closure recommendations due to the 2012-2013 budget crisis are not part of the study.
- No options are "under consideration" by the school board or administration. As part of a comprehensive feasibility study such as this one, all areas of potential optimization and cost savings must be investigated in order to provide comparisons. A comprehensive feasibility study assumes nothing is off the table and simply investigates what's feasible to help inform future decision making.
- Superintendent Jay Badams was quoted as saying "If we just sit down and accept this and continue down this road, we'll have a bunch of crappy buildings like Irving, where renovation consists of putting new duct tape on the carpet." While the quote was obviously directed at the physical condition of the building, unfortunately we also recognize that misinterpretation of this statement is also possible. Irving is a great school – but the condition of that building and many others in the district exemplify the very inequities that this process is seeking to address.
