The Lakota Board of Education will meet in regular session tomorrow night, Nov. 29, at 7 p.m. at the central office in Liberty Township. The school board is expected to make and to announce a few big decisions at the meeting.
First, on everyone’s mind, are the busing cuts. At the school board’s last meeting numerous television outlets and members of the media showed up and expected to hear the announcement that the school district was going forward with its plan to move to state minimum transportation.
However, after a presentation was given on the potential busing cuts, school board president Joan Powell announced that the board had not yet voted to make the reductions to transportation.
Some members of audience that night pleaded for the Lakota Board of Education to not cut busing.
Despite not making a final decision, it appears that the school board was going to move forward with the busing cuts.
“We do hear the issues about the busing. It is unfortunate we are in the position we are and we are not insensitive to that, but we have to prioritize,” school board member Paul Lohr said during the closing statement portion of the meeting. “Our business is education first and even though we are 68-square-mile district, if the funds are not there that would be a place to reduce. And that is the reality of it.”
The transportation reduction plan, if approved, will go in effect Jan. 18, 2011, and impact 9,170 Lakota students.
This reduction plan would eliminate the busing for all high school students. In addition to high school busing, the plan would also eliminate busing in January for students in grades kindergarten through eighth, who live within two miles of the school.
The plan will save the school district approximately $800,000 for the rest of the 2010-2011 school year. Next school year, after other changes are made in the school day, the switch to state minimum transportation will save the district approximately $2.8 million.
To help students and parents adjust to the plan, the starting and ending time at each Lakota high school will be changed starting Jan. 18, 2011. The school day will start at 7:30 a.m. and end at 2:39 p.m. for sophomores, juniors and seniors. Currently, the high school schedule begins at 7:15 a.m. and ends at 2:24 p.m. The idea behind the switch is to allow juniors and seniors to get to school on time after dropping off their freshmen or junior high siblings.
Time changes will also occur at the freshmen buildings, junior high schools, elementary schools and early childhood schools. The freshmen schools will start at 7:15 a.m. and release at 2:24 p.m., all junior high schools will start at 7:15 a.m. and release at 2:15 p.m., certain elementary schools (Hopewell, Endeavor, Adena, Freedom, Van Gorden and Woodland) will start at 8:40 a.m. and release at 3:10 p.m. and the remaining elementary schools and early childhood schools (Shawnee, Wyandot, Creekside, Liberty ECS, Cherokee, Heritage, Independence and Union) will start at 9:30 a.m. and release at 4:00 p.m.
“The overall approach to the current and any future spending reductions and budget cuts is to look at all options and make choices that protect classroom learning while still maintaining all required state and federal programs and mandates,” Lakota Executive Director Chris Passarge wrote in his busing cuts presentation.
The board is also expected to announce its new treasurer, an interim superintendent and will vote on the 2011-2012 academic schedule, which was presented at the last meeting.
The Lakota Central Office is located at 5572 Princeton Road.
WestChesterBuzz.com will be at Monday’s meeting and will provide updates of any school news.
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