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Let’s not compromise our values and thereby let the terrorists win…

Nov 17

Posted by E2Dutch in Rant, Reality Check | Comments off

I am not a biblical scholar. I don’t have a list full of bible verses to reference in this matter. But I do know this:

Jesus wants us to love our neighbors. Help the poor. Welcome and befriend strangers.

The most real way we can show a Muslim what it means to be a Christian is to be welcoming to them. This means we help them in their time of need. Whether their reasons for leaving their home country are political, economical or for physical survival… they came for help. And we need to step up and do so.

And as we show what compassion in the name of Christ (and decency) looks like, we are doing exactly what we need to: we’re being defiant to the terrorists. “The greatest act of defiance against terrorism is to refuse to be afraid, to refuse to be so ruled by our fear that we compromise our most important values,” is what Jen Hatmaker puts forth. She also lists a few bible verses if you really want those…

To live is Christ, to die is gain… We really don’t have anything to fear if we believe that.

What matters more is our heart attitude than the migrants’ motivations.

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Doing the Right Thing – Leading with Courage

May 13

Posted by E2Dutch in Ramble, Rant, Reality Check | Comments off

Note: this is an opinion item.

In 2013, around 90% of the Collierville voters that turned out voted ‘YES’ on the referendum question on whether to create an independent school district in Collierville. With that vote (and the resolution of some frivolous lawsuits on the matter) Collierville took ownership of the education of its school-aged children. This was a perfect fit for a town whose seal has always boasted four pillars for the community: Industry – Community – Growth – Education. It is part of the vision of our town.

In Novermber of 2013, five school board members were elected, and Collierville Schools became a reality. The goal for the immediate future was ‘Operational, then Aspirational,’ reflecting a need to be practical and pragmatic first, in order to be ready to open the doors to students at the start of the ’14-’15 school year.

As the first operational school year for Collierville Schools draws to a close, many are the victories that should be celebrated.

However, a significant issue is pressing up on Collierville Schools: Capacity.

For anyone paying the slightest attention to Collierville Schools enrollment, one thing has been clear from the start: capacity is an issue. Not “will be an issue…” No, it IS an issue today. The high school is at capacity. One middle school is at capacity, and the other middle school is close to capacity. One of the reasons behind this was the zoning for schools in the county which had some Collierville residents attending school outside municipal borders in schools that are now part of the Germantown School District. Additionally, Collierville is a growth community. The population of Collierville has seen a lot of growth, and more is projected into the future.

The High School

When considering capacity issues at the High School first (where the most pressing issue exists), the numbers are clear: 2300 students at the start of the ’15-’16 school year in a building designed for 2000. 2800 students by the year ’17-’18. This growth requires action, and requires action to come fast. Stop-gap options such as floating teachers (who move from classroom to classroom when the assigned teacher has a planning hour), and the use of ‘portable’ classrooms (trailers, temporary classrooms, annexes, whatever you want to call them) will only provide some relief, and will not be sustainable past the first couple of years of attendance growth. They also do not address the infrastructure issues that arise from even more students making use of the grounds and facilities, including hallways, cafeteria, library, gyms, parking lots, etc.

Expansion at the current site of the school (essentially into the ‘vacant’ land to the west of the school) is not really feasible due to the history of that land as a landfill in the past. Environmental and structural issues will mean this is a high-cost and high-risk solution, and it will only address the high school capacity issue. Building a second high school will also only address the high school issue, and it will cause a division of resources across the two (competing) schools in the district. The division that will be created between the two schools is easy to imagine based on the (perceived) quality of the facilities, where teachers will be better, sports offerings, etc. And we will still be left with the need to address the middle school capacity issue.

Building one new high school for all of Collierville will improve community cohesion and solve both the high school and middle school capacity issues, as the old high school facility will revert back to being a middle school (and leave room for other educational uses on the same campus).

With ownership comes responsibility.

Whether they acknowledge it or not… the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BMA) has to take action. By law, they are the authority over the school board, and the funding authority, even though the majority of actual funding comes from state and county sources. The responsibility for the cost of facilities for the school system does fall on the Collierville BMA. Collierville’s electorate has chosen to call for ownership of the local schools and the educational responsibility and put it in the hands of the BMA, who have put day-to-day administration with the Collierville School Board.

Now, Collierville’s School Board, and the Rock Star Superintendent that all of Collierville loves, are asking for a necessary investment. The investment is needed to urgently address current issues, as well as to allow for healthy future growth. Collierville voters are represented by an excellent school board and administration (I have been watching from up close for quite a while now), and we should realize this is not something they will ask for lightly. The studies have been done, the pros and cons have been weighed, the options have been presented.

If an elected official (I am talking to you, Aldermen) does not think they have enough information to make a sound decision, then why would they expect the voters to be able to get enough information to make that decision for them. You were elected to be their representative, now you have to step up to the plate and show your voters you are up for the responsibility. You should be able to rely on the duly elected school board and the rock star superintendent and his administration to have presented you with the best option for Collierville. The right choice. Making the right choice should not be that hard. You just need to have the courage to lead, like you told the electorate you would.

A note about the ‘T’ word.

Yes, a new school will require money to build. And a municipality will have to rely largely on taxes for its income. The reality of the financial market dictates that town revenues have to be raised by a specific amount to ensure the best terms for the loan (bonds) can be obtained. So yes, taxes (property taxes) have to be raised to cover this investment. But the reality is: the projected tax increase at hand will be around $200 per year for the owner of a $250,000 home. That’s $17 per month. And a tax-deductible $17 at that…

Cost

We have students, we need buildings… There will always be a cost. Right now, throw-away cost is being added to the new school year budget for portable classrooms for a school that will be over capacity even with those new portables (to be put in use for ’16-’17 school year). That is not an investment, that’s buying time. At a high cost. Keeping Collierville Schools in an uncertain future will come at a cost of having people move elsewhere. It will come at a cost of a less-than-ideal environment for our students. And when we’re done kicking the can down the road, we will still need to fulfill our ownership commitment, and eventually make that right decision… and it will have cost us a lot more to get there.

Final thoughts (for now).

We cannot build on the ‘best school district in the state’ (or county) if we cannot provide our students with the basics: adequate space for a learning environment. I have seen the many comments on social media about things Collierville parents want from their schools. Those things will be irrelevant if we don’t have enough space for our students.
Please take a minute and send your Mayor and Aldermen a note to thank them for supporting Collierville Schools, and to urge them to have the courage to make the right decision, and to make that decision now.
Here is their contact information:

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Collierville Schools and sensationalism, rash judgement, misinformation and other nonsense

Jul 11

Posted by E2Dutch in Ramble, Rant, Reality Check | Comments off

The tone and content of some comments and posts in the Collierville Schools group on Facebook sometimes take a turn for the worse… A few personal thoughts and observations in response to some of the posts here:

  1. (How can Collierville Schools agree to a 4 year contract with Durham for transportation?!) In order to get a reasonable agreement (in cost, etc.) with a company like Durham, there has to be commitment to certain things from both parties. That means, among other things, committing to a certain number of years.
  2. Agreements like these include provisions for quality performance of the agreed upon services. Breach of those will allow for termination of the contract (or sometimes other penalties).
  3. The school board for Collierville Schools chose to leave start times the same for this year in order to allow the best chance of getting everything operational and making sure they were fiscally responsible. The Durham contract, per discussion at the school board meeting last month, allows for changes in start times (and going to 2 if desired). It changes the number of buses needed, which changes the fees charged to the school system.
  4. Mr Aitken has said it many times: operational vs aspirational… This year, the focus is to get a good school system up and running in time for when kids show up. That means for this year at least, a lot of items are being left as they were last year or reverted to legacy SCS policies, because any significant change will be disruptive to getting everything and everyone started.
  5. I trust our local representatives and the administration they have put in place with my kids for their education. I have already seen so many improvements put into place or set into motion over last year’s mega district and even the legacy SCS!
  6. Change is hard. In some areas, laws, regulations, and financial reality force decisions and limit options. Collierville Schools, in my opinion, has done a very good job in weighing options and making choices. Yes, I have a list of aspirational changes, but I am pragmatic enough to realize they are not of utmost priority.
  7. A lot of people put a lot of their own time, energy and emotions into the new school system. They are taking personal and professional risks. The occasional vitriol that pops up in community response to their work is disappointing.
  8. Our town of Collierville is providing tremendous support for the school system. Financially, logistically, etc. I have never seen a community be so united in support for such a huge undertaking.
  9. I have three kids at Collierville Elementary and a wife who is a teacher in Bartlett. I am highly invested in the local education programs. I am not an expert in most aspects of what is being accomplished, but I have a decent dose of intellect and common sense… And I think the right choices are being made, overall. And I am excited!
  10. Don’t believe everything you hear or read in the news. The words used can be either misleading or poorly chosen. Either in an effort to sensationalize (they got your attention!) or out of lack of understanding of what is in play, or inability to convey nuance. I found there to be insufficient reliable information in the media about the schools, so I started attending the meetings. I decided to try and share accurate summaries and observations with the group, and will continue to do so as long as I can afford the time, and there appears interest. It has allowed me to observe the workings, and the effort, and the character of those involved. This is an exciting time, and it is going to be great!

 

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Thoughts on creating new (municipal) school systems… Reality Check #1: are we there yet?

Mar 20

Posted by E2Dutch in Ramble, Rant, Reality Check | No Comments

(my blog – my opinions…)
I have been very interested in, and engaged with, the process to create municipal schools, from the moment I moved to Collierville in 2011. This was shortly after the MCS charter surrender. This will not be the place to go over bygones like why we needed to go this route… If you think we shouldn’t have… perhaps an ‘offline’ discussion will help us exchange ideas in a productive manner…

So you want to start a school system…

Reading the frequent comments on various posts in the Collierville Schools Facebook group, it becomes clear a lot of people are having trouble looking outside their own area of concern. I totally agree that they should be PASSIONATE about their children’s schooling. However, with that passion, they will need to realize that there is a lot of work that goes into creating a new school system.

Everything a school system does is closely controlled by laws and regulation. The rules about who is responsible for the education of which child are lengthy and detailed. The number of kids in a school building drives just about everything: funding (from multiple sources), staffing, transportation, nutrition, etc. That number is a result of a combination of who is zoned to a school, who chooses to opt out of public education (home school or private school), and who chooses to attend outside their zoned school (incoming and outgoing). At the same time, traditional school registration practices have students not formally committing to a school until 4 business days before the start of the school year. When the school year starts, however, the expectation is that everything will be in place for education to commence. Think about that for a second…

To resolve these challenges, the school boards in the municipalities are looking to get early commitments to specific (zoned) schools. And, actually, information on intent to not go to a certain school. (this is why it is so important to ‘early register’ your kids when asked to do so!)

Another challenge – an arrangement for students to attend outside where they are legally required to be served… The big example here is for the Collierville residents attending at Germantown’s Houston Middle and High Schools. Germantown has no jurisdiction over these students, and Collierville has no jurisdiction over the schools in Germantown. Collierville has the option of making an arrangement with Germantown to accommodate a certain set of students for a certain amount of time. This requires two elected bodies to set priorities, to know what the need, capacity and desire of the citizens and affected families is, and to then find common ground in a legally binding manner.

Until an agreement is in place (looks to be ready for prime time this week), the school boards can only make announcements and recommendations and set processes in place based on what is the rule and what is formally in place and agreed upon, and what is actually within their jurisdiction.

Yet, this responsible manner of answering requests and questions seems to infuriate people… They need answers now!

From observing the CMSD school board in action, I know for a fact that this is a very passionate group of people who actively promote the Collierville students’ best interests. If they could move faster, they would.

Perhaps what is missing in the equation is trust. Trust in the process to be worked out between Germantown and Collierville to reach a practical and responsible agreement. Trust in the motives and intent of the CMSD school board. Trust that the concerns that have been expressed are being heard. Trust in your elected school board and the school office staff and leadership they are hiring to serve your children.

If the actions of a school board, school, or a school’s staff seem to indicate that your children are not an even priority to them compared to other children, perhaps that is your sign that you’re looking to have them attend the wrong school. I am hearing some Collierville residents are choosing to not have their children stay at a school until their exit grade because of various reasons. Public comments made by folks (parents, residents, students, etc.) associated in one form or another with those schools may have been a contributing factor for some. That is sad, but we should be able to rejoice in the fact that there is now a choice.

Support your local school boards. Learn what they are working on. Read the reports (my ‘citizen’s reports’ included). Get involved. And trust them to do the job we elected them to do.

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Can I feed my family of 5 on SNAP’s $4.50 a day (per recipient)?

Sep 18

Posted by E2Dutch in Rant, Reality Check | No Comments

(I am blessed enough to not qualify for SNAP… )

I have been hearing about the SNAP (formerly known as foodstamps) benefit being cut later this month… And there have been people, including Panera CEO Ron Shaig, weighing in on this, and he is even trying to ‘live on $4.50 a day,’ and having a very hard time doing so.

My first thought about this was that SNAP self-defines itself as the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.” Merriam Webster has these definitions: “Supplemental - added to something else to make it complete” and “Assistance - the act of helping or assisting someone.” Please note the program does not pretend to ‘provide for’ or ‘fully feed’ or anything like that. It is a form of HELP. It is to supplement the grocery budget for those who need help…

And then I ran the math…

For a family of 5 (like mine), $4.50 per recipient per day is $22.50 a day, $157.50 a week, and $675 a month (30 days). How is a family of 5 supposed to live on that (if we ignore the ‘supplemental assistance’ concept)?

The outrage! The cruelty!

In fact, my (wealthy?) family of 5 has a monthly grocery budget of $500. Wait… how much? $500. Obviously, I must starve my kids… Please call DCS!

I will admit, we do eat out occasionally, and that doesn’t come from the grocery budget. It comes from our dining out budget, which is $200 a month. And since I am pretty sure that dining out generally costs more than a home-cooked meal, I think I just proposed that meals for a family of 5 for $675 actually seems quite reasonable. I also get non-food items out of my grocery budget, which is not possible when using the SNAP debit cards…

A local columnist (Wendi Thomas from the Memphis Commercial Appeal – I would provide a link but they have a crappy paywall on their site preventing access to the content…) argued it would be ‘hard to eat healthy’ on $4.50 a day. I guess I want to point out here that the opposite is true:

My family eats a reasonable amount of fresh (and frozen) vegetables and fruit. We have bananas, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, apples and pineapples in our house right now. We have boxes of salad mix (which is more costly than buying by the head of lettuce), carrots, celery, lima beans, peas, corn, green beans, black beans and bell peppers in our regular rotation of vegetables. We eat a lot of chicken breast (again more costly than a whole chicken), lean ground beef, pork chops, tuna (canned) and fresh salmon. We only buy whole grain bread. We consume a lot of (whole grain (read: more costly)) frozen waffles, Cheerios (brand name), Nutella, peanut butter, greek yogurt, quinoa (great deal at Costco!) and other tasty and mostly wholesome foods. Oh, and tons of luxury foods… Scallops, fancy orange juice, desserts, juice boxes, snack foods, the occasional six-pack of beer, etc. We eat well.

While I get some of these items at Costco, I get most of my groceries at Kroger and Target. I am enough of a snob to avoid Wal-Mart for groceries, and I have only been inside an Aldi once – it just didn’t click for me. I know I can save $10-20 a week by shopping at Wal-Mart and Aldi instead of Kroger and Target… My sister-in-law loves taking the Aldi flyer (with all the super low-price fruits and veggies) to Wal-Mart and make use of their larger selection and price match policy.

Did I mention I do all this for essentially $675 or less a month? I guess that sounds a lot richer than $4.50 per recipient per day…

My kids’ elementary school (they are 10, 8 and 8) serves free breakfast to everyone. And, of course, free lunch to those who qualify (which any SNAP recipient would). But I make their (wholesome I think) breakfast each morning, and they carry their lunch boxes which contains a balanced meal (and a cute note from mom). Would using those school meal benefits reduce a recipient’s SNAP funds? No. Some, if not most, local schools also provide free dinner on days with after school activities. Making use of these school meals would allow a SNAP beneficiary to redirect some spending to other meals…

Look… I am not judging here… and I am not arguing that the SNAP benefits should be cut. I am providing this mini-rant as a reality check on whether it is reasonable to expect a poor family to feed themselves on $4.50 a day. (Did I mention that is not even the expectation?)

I fully realize that my elementary school kids don’t eat as much as teenagers, and that baby formula can put a serious dent in a grocery budget… But those teenagers would get breakfast and lunch paid for 180 days in the year (through school) and many other days they could get a dinner through school.

I also realize that regionally, food costs may be higher than at my local grocery store. I acknowledge it is possible someone’s benefits are less than the $4.50 a day that’s being used in all these news articles…

The two points I wanted to make are:
1. Despite the anguish in a lot of media, $4.50 per recipient per day can be more than enough for a family.
2. The program is intended to help with the grocery budget. Not replace it.

In the mean time, if you feel passionate about these things, and have the opportunity to, please consider donating to some of these programs that further help to supplement meals (I do):

http://www.midsouthfoodbank.org/

http://www.mifa.org/

And more: http://www.foodpantries.org/ci/tn-memphis

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