Overflow

This was to be my recap of the Everest hearing.  I got pretty far with this, but I started this on Dec 9, 2008 right before school.  That's never a good idea when you have a lot to say.  Oh well...it's long gone now.

The room was filled with our students, faculty, and parents.  The overflow room was the same.  Yes, there were many people who opposed, but I think we represented about 2/3 of the crowd.  I was in the overflow room, so I didn't get to see anything.  I kind of liked being in that room as it was like listening to the radio.  Of course, a few of us wished we had our grading with us since we were in the "other" room and none of the big guns could see us.

The argument against us is such: the district does not want us because we will take money from their schools and potentially reduce their programs.  There are some interesting facts here.  While our school spends more than 80% on classroom instruction, the district schools spend only 50%.  While the district gets over $9000 per pupil, they pass only $6800 along to us when we get our students.  Surely they can do as we do...revisit the budget every year to determine how to best allocate funds under new circumstances.  And maybe it's time that they put more than 50% into the classroom.  I do understand.  If we have more students, they might not be able to have home ec or photography.  However, it is against charter law to deny a petition based on the budget.  I'll come back to this.

That really was the main talking point against us.  Sure, some opposing parents got up (and one student...from about 8000 kids)