On April 7 local voters will decide city, school district and Allen Community College trustees races.
Each election is important to the community’s future. This one might be a notch higher, particularly for those selected to fill school board seats.
Finances in education are at a crossroads. State support, as has been reported in exhaustive detail, is on the short side of meeting needs, and, depending on what occurs in the next year or two, may become even more critical.
USD 257 members will decide very soon how the district will deal with shortfalls.
Board members Monday evening discussed several options, with a switch to grade-level attendance centers among those given serious consideration. Simply put, such an approach would have all students of each grade attending one school, such as all fourth-grade students being in Jefferson Elementary.
The upside from the perspective of proponents — of which there seems to be a majority among board members — is having all of one grade level at one site would allow for superior collaboration and teaching. Educationally, it seems to be a better way of doing things, and that, folks, is what the primary concern should be: Provide students at all levels the best of all opportunities to learn and prepare themselves for the day when they will take reins as adults.
That elementary education based on attendance centers would save money is a byproduct — and this isn’t the first time the topic has surfaced. Discussion of attendance centers in Iola dates back several years.
Having all of one grade in one school may not be best of all for some families, particularly those with two or more students at the elementary level and having to face transporting them each day to two schools.
However, parental responsibilities should enter the equation. What’s best for all students — being able to meet financial responsibilities certainly weighs heavily in the analysis — should be of overriding importance in whatever decision is made.
— Bob Johnson
Attendance centers at the forefront of BOE discussions
