Posted By: A mother who loves her children
Many citizens in the district wonder what is all the flap about the Edgewood Montessori program. After all, once they come to Okemos..."they are ALL our children"
yeah, right.
Maybe it should be put in terms a loving parent would understand.
Imagine your little sweetie looking forward to going to school where big brother or sister went...a school within walking distance, a neighborhood school in a safe, sheltered area. Imagine starting little Johnnie or Janie in Kindergarten and having a great year full of friends and learning. Now first grade is coming up and it comes to your attention that the district is closing your child's school and your lovely little 1st grader will now be bussed across town to a school you know really nothing about. Your child may be a little shy, maybe you need the aftercare your neighborhood provides, maybe you really LOVE YOUR CHILD'S SCHOOL...but none of that matters...the district is asking you to understand the realities of "budget cuts from the state", and you must, for the sake of keeping the district afloat, sacrifice the pleasant and secure life your child has enjoyed.
So Edgewood as you know it is no more. You keep waiting for it to be sold. Surely, the district will take the money from the sale and apply it towards the general fund. However, the district has another plan. At great start-up costs, they turn it into another public school... instead this time Montessori-experienced only need apply. Out-of- district parents seeking this privileged form of education without any of the cost (tuition or taxes) can come, and now, not only can't your child go to your neighborhood school, but you must pay for others to go, with your taxes.
This is our brilliant school board at work. Pitting neighborhoods against neighborhoods, disrupting families and the lives of our children, and redistricting only the lower-socioeconmic neighborhoods. If what happened to Edgewood School was done to Spring Lake and Hiawatha School, the hue and cry would be heard across the world.
And now, the district is thinking about moving Tacoma Hills, Shaker Heights families YET AGAIN to make way for the new developments in town.
When will the insanity stop?
Maybe when the power of the pocketbook comes into play.