For the first time ever, the school board will be meeting on a Saturday. The meeting will take place today, July 16th, at 4:00pm, at the Merts Center Boardroom.
[Sorry for the late notice. According to the Agenda/Meetings site, this was announced on July 13th. I did not notice this on the 13th or 14th.]
The agenda will include the following items:
- Overcrowding at Providence Middle School
- CSFO Job Description
- Selection of the Principals
- Other Personnel Issues
- Number of Work Days for Nurses
- Board Bylaws and Standing Rules
- Suspension of Job Description
According to WAFF, Dr. Wardynski is planning to propose to the board moving some of the Providence students to Williams Middle at 155-A Barren Fork Blvd. He stated, “So what I’m going to be proposing to the board is a different approach which will be to look at Williams School, which is about 50% of capacity right now, new facility, great school and how we could leverage that to reduce the crowding at Providence.”
He went on to offer details about how these students would be moved under his new plan: “We’ve designed these alternatives in a way that’s not going to change the situation for how a parent would get a child to school. The parents won’t have to go somewhere else. The child will arrive at Providence, and we’ll take it from there.”
In other words, it would appear that Dr. Wardynski is planning to bus students from Providence to Williams after they have arrived at Providence.
His statement that this would not “change the situation for how a parent would get a child to school” is somewhat disingenuous, however. The two schools are, according to MapQuest 12.5 miles apart. In morning traffic, this distance would require at least 25 minutes to cover. Are the students being moved going to start school 30 minutes later than others?
Also, while Williams Middle is on the list of schools that would be impacted by Dr. Wardynski’s July 7th transportation plan, Providence Middle was not. I have requested a copy of that plan, but I have not received it yet.
The will be a change in the situation for the parents. It will be interesting to see how they decide which students will be moved.
I certainly do appreciate that the board offered so much advanced notice concerning such an important meeting. I’ll see you at 4:00pm today, and I’ll be live-tweeting the meeting as usual. (You can follow me @russwinn if you tweet or on Facebook at the GeekPalaver page if you don’t.) The meeting will also, I assume, be broadcast on ETV (Knology 71, Comcast 17).
