Naomi Klein on Anti-Union Bills and Shock Doctrine American-Style: "This is a Frontal Assault on Democracy, It’s a Kind of a Corporate Coup D’Etat"

I read this morning...........
Board approves school closures
In unanimous votes, six Springfield schools will be closed or consolidated

BY LAUREN FOX
The Register-Guard
Published: Wednesday, Mar 9, 2011 05:00AM

SPRINGFIELD — In less than an hour, the Springfield School Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to close and consolidate six area schools, dashing any hopes among parents, students and teachers in the audience that some of their beloved schools might be spared.

“It’s sad. Many of us have worked here for 20 years. In these small schools like Brattain, we are family,” said teacher Kathy Reed prior to the start of the meeting at Agnes Stewart Middle School. “We serve a lot of kids in poverty, and we take care of them in a way a bigger school just can’t.”

With each unanimous vote, the audience bore its grief in silence. Not one person rose to speak during a time for public comment. Many audience members sat in their chairs, listening quietly but emotionally. “There’s been a lot of tears in the audience,” board member Al King observed late in the meeting. “It’s pretty somber, but know the board has had a lot of those, too.”

Some audience members, including parents from Goshen School, rose as a group and walked out in solidarity after the board voted to close their school.

“Goshen was our life and they took that away from us,” fourth-grader Maddlynn Massey said to a group of parents and teachers in the hallway.

Throughout the meeting, board members stressed the difficulties and frustrations they have faced in making tough choices in the wake of a statewide funding crisis for schools.

“I always worry that it looks like a rubber stamp or that it might appear that the decisions were already made before the discussion began,” board member Jonathan Light said. “Know that in this case, the board examined the options over and over again.”

Ultimately, the board voted to close Goshen, Mohawk and Camp Creek elementary schools and Springfield Middle School at the end of this school year, and change Walterville School to a K-5 school instead of K-8. Two other elementary schools, Brattain and Moffit, will close the following year.

Board President Garry Weber made amendments to delay the closure of Goshen, Mohawk and Camp Creek until the 2012-13 school year, so that some of those schools might have more time to apply for charter school status. But none of Weber’s motions drew a second, and Weber ultimately voted with the rest of the board on the school closure votes.

The recommendations were made by a 33-­member Facilities Committee, which was assigned to review enrollment numbers and building conditions and to make recommendations to address a projected $10 million funding gap in the upcoming school year. That shortfall follows budget deficits of $4.3 million this school year and a historic $15.5 million in the previous year.

The district estimates that the school closures will save $945,000 — a fraction of the anticipated $10 million deficit. School closures and consolidations in the 2012-13 school year are estimated to save $1.34 million in that year.

There will be more hard choices coming before the board finalizes its budget in June.

“This closing of the schools is just the tip of the iceberg,” Weber said. “We have to cut programs and opportunities for (students) and for that we are sorry.”

Reductions in the number of teachers and other district employees will account for about half of the equation to balance the budget, business operations director Brett Yancey said.

“We are facing some very difficult decisions (after) our decision tonight,” he said. “We are looking at cutting approximately 80 positions districtwide.”

As the meeting adjourned, some audience members lingered and conversed with one another, recognizing that for many of them, the board’s decisions mark the end of an era.

“I think it is OK to take tonight to grieve,” said Laurel Lisovskis, a staff member at Springfield Middle School. “But tomorrow we should pull together to be there for our students and help them see that this isn’t a punishment; it’s a new opportunity.”

They take all our money, some one suggests doing away with are current wealth system and establishing something new. 50 years later after we have the new currency up and running strong we find out the banks where behind even that and their still wealthier then 98% of the populous ruled by New World Government.