The Nazareth Area School District Board of Directors meet tonight at 7:30 p.m.
According to page one of the agenda (read it here in PDF) - January is "School Director Recognition Month".
The accepting of minutes and standard reports open the meeting (it would be nice if those submitted in writing were made available online).
Among the requests is one for the HS Chorus to perform at the “America’s 400th Anniversary Festival” from May 10 to 14, 2007. The trip will be at no cost to the NASD - congratulations to the students for being selected to participate in this event.
Of possible interest is listed, "Buildings and Grounds Reorganization Final Report - Mr. Villani". Not having been at previous meetings maybe this was discussed. I couldn't find a Mr. Villani under the Board, Administration, or Building & Grounds pages, and I'm not sure what reorganization this would have been since I would have thought we reorganized in advance of the creation of the Asst. Superintendent for Education Support Services, which oversees the department.
Also of interest is in the meeting schedule which indicates that during the Act 34 hearing on Tuesday for the new MS building, there will also be a Buildings & Grounds meeting at the same time in a different location. It would seem that Buildings & Grounds would have a significant stake/interest and be of value at the Act 34 hearing. Am surprised this meeting is being scheduled in conflict with another given the cost implications to the NASD.
There is also a Building Utilization Meeting on 1/18 at 7:00 p.m. Building Utilization in essence means re-districting. There was talk that 100 students would be moving most likely from Lower Nazareth to Shafer.
If you're going to the meeting tonight, please forward your comments/notes so they can be shared with everyone.
Best wishes and have a great week!
7 comments:
What is the cover up here????If the building and grounds need to keep a meeting schedule at the same time. Make no sense at all,and most certainly is conflict of interest. Given the fact a new building and grounds area is about to built.
Dr. Lesky commented at a previous board meeting about Building Utilization. However, by talking a great deal about the 'dividing' line between Bushkill and Shafer, he made it sound like there would be students moving from Shafer to Bushkill. It was also stated that any change (for next year) would have to be finalized by Feb/March as to give the parent/students sufficient time for the change.
The only reason I could see to move kids from Shafer to Bushkill would be to unload even more from Lower to Shafer.
Lower has highest enrollment of the three right now at 680 (and they do need to Lower that number), with Bushkill at 623 and Shafer at 629.
Mr. Mudlock said Shafer could take another 100 "comfortably" but after that they'd have to take classrooms away from Art, music etc, and convert them into grade level classrooms.
Looking down the road, Lower has 40 more 1st graders than either of the other schools and 10 more in K, while Shafer has the most in 5th and the least in K-3.
Of course, once they move all these kids to balance it out, they'll then open the new intermediate school. The elementary's will then have two less grades or roughly 200 less students each giving them ample room.
If they need to finalize in Feb/March, then this meeting will probably be pretty important to those living on the lines dividing all these schools.
Agree with the 'importance' issue.
To further expound on my previous comment, Dr. Lesky talked at length about the 'dividing' line between Shafer and Bushkill. Apparently, in the past it's moved around, going as far south as East Lawn (191) and as far North as Colver Rd.
I too have heard the Shafer can 'comfortably' take another 100 (and that at one time had as many as 900!). My impression from Dr. Lesky's comments was that they're looking at the 'all the schools' and that there would be changes all around.
I WOULD BE CURIOUS TO KNOW WHICH SHAFER KIDS THEY WOULD BE PLANNING TO MOVE TO BUSHKILL. DOES ANYONE KNOW? I HAVE AN INTEREST IN THIS BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH MY CHILD DOESN'T START SCHOOL FOR 2 MORE YEARS I HAVE ALWAYS ASSUMED SHE WOULD ATTEND SHAFER ELEMENTARY AND I WOULD LIKE IT TO STAY THAT WAY. I LIVE A FEW BLOCKS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF 191 NEAR MARTIN GUITAR. ANY ONE HAVE ANY INSIGHT?
To 7:30 PM Ask about the students in the past and now who were allowed to stay at Shafer with special permission from nasd while others had to move to Bushkill School(with the past re zoning)
Maybe that can give you insight to state your case.
There seems to be exceptions to the rules.
Anon 7:30-
See my comment @ 4:18PM. Basically, the divinding line could be as far South as East Lawn (191). This would mean your child would go to BE. Right now, the dividing line is somewhere around Colver Rd. Find Colver Rd on a map (you'll find it going N from Shoeneck Rd). Draw a line extending West to where you live...
Of course, this is all going to change when the new MS gets built and they shuffle kids around to accomodate the wacky K-3, 4-6 schools. Also, as anon 9:12 points out, there's always exceptions to the the rule. :)
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