Email Round 1 Feb to 3-12

A sample from each email can be found below. Each sample is a link with the entire message. Some include my reply.

Round 2 email 3-12 to 3-14
Round 3 email 3-15 to 3-25
Round 4 email 3-25 to

We are very grateful that Grant Elementary is no longer being considered ...

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2-28 Hi Harry: I understand that you brought up the idea of only two high schools last night and was told not to go there. Do you know why? and my reply

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I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE CONSIDERING KILLING K-6 AT BOTH LOCATIONS....

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...The Woodland  neighborhood is a close tight knit group of families who have endured the the fiscal mismanagement of the Board with great patience, but our patience have run out. This latest attempt to eviserate this area by bisecting it with bizzare boundary lines is unacceptable....

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First of all I want to tell you all that I feel open minded and supportive of the tough decisions that need to be made. I've been doing my best to cool all the hot heads I've come in contact with. A lot of the work you all have done on the long range plan is outstanding.

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A statement in a recent News Tribune article says it in a nut shell: "Our biggest hang-up is that our kids would go to Central." This parent also says "East has superior sports and academic programs. I have
heard this over and over again since my kids were at Chester Park and there was an attempt to change the East boundary to Woodland Avenue.  Our School District has allowed East to become bigger and very disproportionate to the other two high schools.

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...I  do have however one major concern, and that would be that there is no  elementary school on the hill. I believe that as developing and growing  city we need a elementary school above the hill, whether it be Piedmont,  Birchwood or Lowell....

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I am a 9th grader at East High School and I am very dissapointed in you the  members of the school board. If you do change the boundry I would be a  student that would be forced to move to Central.

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I would like express our complete opposition to the radical change proposed for the boundary lines. As recent residents of Hunter's Park, we specifically purchased a home in the East area so our daughter could continue to attend East with all of her former classmates....

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I know I've already sent you a letter but i am still really worried. i just wanted to say, that i know your job has got to be tough but please consider options other than kicking kids out of east....

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You should also know that many, many parents are talking about pulling their children out of the public schools altogether. They are fed up and angry. They feel powerless. People are talking about private school and they're talking about home schooling.

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....The proposal will result in more than half of the current Congdon families being reassigned. For a "surviving" school to be impacted to such a degree is, in my mind, unnecessary and unfair...

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While I understand people do not like change, I hope you do not let their fears and emotions make you alter a fantastic plan that will benefit the entire city!

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...However, after thinking about this more calmly, I do feel that the plan makes sense, at least in theory. I sat through a meeting and talked to parents at one of the more affluent east-side schools yesterday, and what came through more than anything was a surprisingly racist perspective. There was talk of "diluting our population" with "those kind of kids"...

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I am a student at Central High school in 9th grade, and with your  stupid boundary changes, I'd be going to East.

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I was surprised that you would want to close Birchwood. It is one of the newest buildings in our district, and it recently became a Core Knowledge Magnet school.

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Nowhere have I read about the additional cost of bussing the students, the disruption to peoples lives and the social costs of closing neighborhood schools to pack the children into large schools and then to cut their education by one school period. As I said yesterday; you are going backwards!