1)    It is critical you come to the School Board meeting this coming Wednesday at Panorama.  We need your help.

2)    Notes from the organizing meeting last Sunday.  A copy of the wall notes is attached.  Please get on a committee.   We WILL raise 1,000,000 with your help.  

From the toughest moments, comes the strongest relationships.  We need to all work together on fundraising and keeping kids in the communities they know.  We can do this... we ARE doing this.

Every parent in the district agrees on one thing:  keep kids in the community they know and give us time to raise the money.

As a community, we want to insure BSD keeps both kindergarten teachers at BES.  This will keep kids in the community they are in, keep the
school board consistent in their messaging to the community, help Panorama with split classes and keep us all focused on raising the 1,000,000.

If you are unaware of the situation:

BSD made the decision to keep interdistrict transfer families in the district and spend the cost of a teacher to do so.  They did this because:
 

The Board has decided not to make any changes to our current Interdistrict Transfer Policy as they determined that the financial benefit does not outweigh the harm it would do to our schools and families.

- Toni Presta

To remind:  these are families who are outside the district who do not pay property taxes for the schools.  This group of families is committed to helping us fundraise and is a part of the community.  The decision to keep the kids was, as Toni said, the humane thing to do.  I personally supported the decision.  I felt for the small amount of money, we could all pull together and fundraise more than that.... we are a strong community.  The interdistrict families are our family and they are fundraising right there with us....

Chad, BES principal, let us know that as of right now,  there are 10 kids in brisbane who will be taken out of the community they know to reduce a teacher.  This is an inconsistent message and will cause a lot of distraction away from fundraising.  The school board must give us a chance to raise money and not distract people from that task.   

I am trying to take the emotion out of this issue for just a moment.  An inconsistent message coupled with the fact that a family paying property tax in the district is not getting the same treatment as a family outside the district will cause a lot of division and distraction.   80% of people in Brisbane voted for the recent parcel tax - I worry that if the board buses kids out of Brisbane it will reduce trust in the school board and superintendent, cause people in the community to be less inclined to vote yes on a parcel tax and cause a division in even our committees.  We just can't let this happen.     Keep us focused!

We need to stay focused as a community to raise revenue for the school and keep 3 schools open.   If the school board is inconsistent, I worry it will derail our 1,000,000 efforts.

ps:  if you know someone who has not turned in their kindergarten packet, please encourage them to do so now.   We have 37 kids registered in Brisbane - not all packets have been turned in.  We need to know the real numbers for this year.  Increased numbers will help our message.

PLEASE tell everyone you know to come to the school board meeting at 6pm at Panorama

Best,

Christina Harbridge