I find it hard to believe our elected Menahga school board members will not even consider alternative options for the overcrowding of our school. One option would be to stop out of district busing. Another would be to reduce out of district busing by one route per year for the next four years. This could easily reduce the open enrolled student population by 60 students per year and create the space needed for our own district students. The administration is now asking approval for another 3.8 full time teachers for 2016-2017 school year with the projected student population (because of open enrollment).
One problem our administration needs to address is open enrolled kindergarten. Reduce the caps to 60 students total and control the number of open enrolled. The cap of 88 is unsustainable for the school building we currently have.
This will crowd all classes going forward and hurt our in-district student education. Once we accept an open enrolled student, they are ours until graduation. However, we do not have to provide out of district busing. Remove out of district busing, remove the overcrowding!
The Menahga school building is currently in need of many repairs, including the elementary bathrooms. These and other repair items are never going away. New tax revenue proposals on agriculture land may be reduced significantly, leaving the burden to pay the difference on the other residents in the district.
Remember, the open enrolled student fees from the State of Minnesota do not help in any way to pay toward a $26 million dollar referendum for school buildings. Referendums for Menahga school building projects are the responsibility of the district tax payers. Plus, Menahga school district tax payers are charged an extra $724 per student in levies for current open enrolled. The next school board meeting is March 21at 6:30 p.m.
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Please come and voice your concerns, anyone is allowed three minutes to speak at the visitor portion of the meeting.
Rick Gibbs, Menahga
