School board keeps the conversation going, but time is running out

For the past two Newton school board meetings, elected officials have taken up to five hours to conclude their business and master planning discussions, but as of press time they are still nowhere near a resolution. Parents who petitioned the board’s controversial decision prepared themselves and set up camp last week.

Surrounded by candy, popcorn, sandwiches and tall water bottles, they waited patiently for the discussion to end with a new vote, one that school board members would be more comfortable with. Despite the prolonged conversation, they will ultimately have to wait again. No motion was made. Well, except one.

About 90 minutes in, school board member Ray Whipple motioned to rescind the past vote which decided Thomas Jefferson Elementary would become a preK-1 building and Emerson Hough Elementary would become a grades 2-4 building. But the motion failed to gain any support. Perhaps it was too soon.

Although the school board has been deliberating its master planning options for more than a year, the addition of a new board member, Kristi Meyer, means there would have to be some time spent playing catchup. Luckily, Meyer has been following along even before she submitted her paperwork to run for school board.

Still, Whipple’s motion would have likely been supported if the board felt it was ready to take on a final vote. The consensus from the board is that there is value in continuing the discussion and looking for alternative options; one that may be more pleasing for the board, the administration, the teachers and the families.

Whipple’s overzealous attempts to force a resolution or to get the ball rolling in that direction derived from a desire to put an end to this issue, to choose a better option and to move on to the next step. The motion was also fueled by frustration, which is something all board members should be feeling at this point.

“Well it seems to me like several of us are wanting some change, so I’m going to throw a motion out there to rescind our current configuration plan,” Whipple said.

Fellow school board member Travis Padget responded, “Think it through, Ray. Don’t just jump.”

Without a second, the motion died. Robyn Friedman, president of the school board, took it as board members were not ready to move that quickly. Whipple said at this point it felt like the board was “beating a dead horse,” suggesting discussions were rehashing old information and not going anywhere.

“I’m willing to stay here until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning if we need to.”

Padget said, “I’ve done it at these meetings, Ray. It’s an important decision.”

“It is an important decision.”

“And I want everyone—The conversations tonight have been good. Right? And so we’re also in another conversation, which is good. You don’t want to hear it so on you move. But you can’t just go with whatever breeze is coming. So I want to wait it out, because I want to agree with the decision we make.”

“But we can’t move on if we’ve already got something on the table.”

Friedman said the board can move on but reiterated it does not feel like the board is ready to rescind its previous motion at this time.

Whipple said, “OK, keep beating the dead horse.”

Padget interjected, “Ray, you’re disrespectful. I treat you with respect, and you can be a pain in the butt at the board sometimes because you go off of left field and you go this way. If you want to talk about other things, it’s a mutual respect. And in the conversation we should be respectful.”

He recalled a past board meeting where he and board member Liz Hammerly got into a disagreement, but they kept it respectful. School board member Donna Cook extended an olive branch, saying every elected official processes and learns differently, and some may be more ready for movement than others.

“We need to have a real conversation in front of the community so they hear what we’re talking about,” Padget said.

With the board already rethinking its decision, elected officials have to decide whether they like the preK-1 and 2-4 building configuration or the two preK-4 buildings configuration. Some officials said it feels like the former configuration option will make a difference in how test scores look or how kids are taught.

Currently, the school district has four elementary buildings that even administrators say are vastly different from each other and offer different experiences to those students. When it comes to providing consistent learning, Newton sometimes struggles to accomplish that goal.

Those arguing in favor of the preK-1 and grades 2-4 building say the configuration alone will greatly improve consistency. Every kindergartner and first-grader is now in one building, same thing for students in the grades 2-4 building. But Friedman is not convinced that model will solve the problem.

“I don’t have enough faith in that,” Friedman said. “I don’t feel like just saying that making a major change like that will affect things.”

Opponents of the grade configuration say the transitions for students will be burdensome. In their lifetime, they would go through four different buildings in the Newton school district. Families with multiple kids attending the district could be stretched thin when it comes to transportation.

Cook later argued the configuration itself won’t lead to consistency, but it is a factor that sets up the framework or conditions supporting student achievement.

“Families have a hard time supporting that because you have to work to support two buildings because you have kids in both of those places,” Friedman said.

Cook added, “I agree that’s very difficult, but do you go with what you believe to be educationally better for kids or more convenient for parents?”

“Parents are part of the education part.”

“Right, right. So is there a middle ground somewhere?”

Meyer has children attending three buildings right now. She said she felt like a much better parent when she had kids in one building than she did when she had them in two buildings and then three buildings. Although she is constantly on Infinite Campus, it is difficult to keep up with the progress for each kid.

“I’m crossing my fingers my middle schooler is doing the right thing and I haven’t heard anything about him, so he’s OK. But then I have three kids who have to read every night and do these things every night,” Meyer said, referencing her triplets. “It’s a lot of work. So I don’t know how I would do four schools.”

The more buildings families have to deal with, Meyer added, the harder it is to keep tabs on what is going on and be involved in their kids’ education.

“If you forget it’s pajama day, you just ruined that kid’s whole day,” Meyer said. “Are they learning anything that day? That seems silly but they feel bad about themselves and they’re mad their mom didn’t remember. You just ruined their day… It seems like a silly explanation, but I do feel like it’s hard to manage.”

School board member Liz Hammerly said the school district has a 55 percent free or reduced lunch rate, and that shows Newton has a high need.

“And we need to do what we can to support and encourage kids to come to school,” Hammerly said. “We work really hard as a district to engage those families. We saw that last year with the attendance report. That’s a piece I’m worried about. If kids aren’t in school, they’re not learning.”

Of course, school board members are not only debating the grade configurations, they are also choosing which buildings they want to use. Costs have been talked about since proposals were first introduced by the master planning committee. This past week the board solidified it has a roughly $28 million budget.

However, school board members started to pick apart the estimates given to them by the district’s architectural firm. On closer inspection, they noticed some expenditures could possibly be removed, reducing the total estimates. Rachelle Hines, of FRK Architects + Engineers, said some costs would be required.

For instance, updated fire alarms are needed, but new playground equipment could be expendable and left out of the final project. Hines indicated she would identify required items for school board members at their next meeting. Board members were in consensus they wanted this information for the next discussion.

As a board member who was vocal about the need for more back-and-forth conversation, Padget was pleased. He said it was a valuable conversation piece. Friedman said she would still entertain the ability to go back to a “blank slate,” but she also understood some board members were not yet comfortable.

“That’s why we continue to look at this,” she said. “We’re not stuck with where we were, even if that would be the next motion that would be there again. I don’t know, it feels like there should be an end point to this, to at least blank slate it so it’s an even motion when we get to the point where we talk about it again.”

Still, Friedman said the board feels uneven.

“It feels like we’ve been speaking enough from a where people are sitting that that would be OK to be at a let’s all talk about this together as a start over.”