A group of about 40 Maplewood Richmond Heights parents Wednesday evening at the MRH Elementary gym heard about the district’s progress and recent honors, then heard what would be lost if Proposition Y doesn’t pass on April 5.
The Q&A lasted about an hour. After a some specific questions, MRH parent Jeff Sporleder told the board he thinks Proposition Y will be tough to pass, and asked what can he say to a neighbor to convince them to vote yes, which prompted answers from board members and the audience.
Superintendent Karen Hall:
It’s not what we’ll get, it’s what will be taken away. Essentially when it passes, we’ll able to maintain the growth…If it doesn’t pass…it would be drastic because the student-teacher ratio would change dramatically compared to what we’re used to. (She said class sizes would likely go from 20-22 up to 28.) Even our classrooms can’t accommodate large class sizes. And also, through the course of the next four years we wouldn’t be able to add staff. We would have to release about nine staff, and then we would never add staff. And not to be dramatic, that’s catastrophic.
Board member Maria Langston:
The people here do not want to live in a “good enough” community. It is our goal, to always have our children be smarter than us and our grandchildren smarter than our children. And it’s always been the mindset of this board and administration to not settle into the “good enough” philosophy. We don’t settle. We keep pushing.
Board member Francis Chmelir
We generally anticipate five to six years before the board has to come back (to ask for more funds). (He said it has been six years since the last school proposition.) It’s not a matter of, we need Prop Y to balloon the budget to a larger number. We’ve realigned some of these positions — there were some cuts, but it was more of a readjustment to be good stewards of the funds.
Board president, Nelson Mitten:
The second year I was on the board the Maplewood city manager described the school district as the albatross around Maplewood’s neck, but there has been progress. You can look at downtown Maplewood now, and the school district, and see how they have both grown together. The same can be said for Richmond Heights. There are a lot of inner-ring suburbs not doing as well.
A parent:
I think the biggest thing you can say to your neighbors who don’t have children in the district, is public school are improving the community. There’s people who are staying in this community, as opposed to the same house turning over every three years because they’re moving to Chesterfield or Clayton or Ladue or Kirkwood. You’re going to have a stronger network of neighbors. You’re going to have safety. You’re going to have people looking out for one another.
See also, on the MRH website:
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