[Note: Commentary has not taken a position on the Nov. 6 school board referendum. Readers agreeing or disagreeing with Mr. Lemmer are encouraged to send a reply to Palmeri@uwosh.edu].
October 17, 2001
I am a Sunset Elementary & a Tipler Middle School parent. I am also acting as the chairman for the F.O.C.U.S. referendum committee which encourages passage of the referendum on November 6.
My wife, Diana, and I have lived in Oshkosh for 9 1/2 years. We have listened to all of the talk about the need to replace Sunset Elementary, since our son Aaron began kindergarten at this school. There has always been a reason to push this off into the future. The staff at Sunset needs a better facility to properly educate our children and meet the increasing demands our society places on our children as they become adults.
This building has limited useful life remaining. The issues at Sunset are not just the aging building, however.
This building is not ADA accessible for starters. This Fall there is a student attending in a wheelchair as a result of a serious traffic accident this Summer. The district hired an assistant to help this student to get around within this facility. Music and art share the lunch room which is in the basement. This requires daily traverse up and down stairs. The offices, principal, media center and computer labs are on an upper, different level.
Environmental issues are huge reasons to move out of this building. During the Fall the ventilation is so bad that temperatures in many classrooms are consistently in the 80's. Try crowding 27 fourth or fifth grade students and a teacher into such a room and asking them to concentrate on a lesson. Of course while holding their breath! :) Late Fall through early Spring can be very cool in the kindergarten through first grade area, due to the poor construction when that addition was added. In the office and media area temperatures stay in the 80's even with the heat shut off. One kindergarten classroom has mold growing in the attic. The place floods due to the grading that takes the water past the building to the ditch along highway 110.
Speaking of highway 110, the road passes within 40 feet of the first grade classroom. We take a risk that no one will lose control of a vehicle.
Over 20 students from the Sunset area of the district are bused to other facilities, because their special needs cannot be met at this site. Learning disabled students, emotionally disturbed children and other students with special learning needs must be shipped out of their neighborhood school.
Often you will find that the special needs kids across the district are attending class in renovated storage rooms, closets, shower rooms and basements. We really give them that "special needs" environment!
Lets turn to the learning environment that should be provided and is provided at the newest schools within the district. The newest schools have approximately 1000 square feet per classroom. This is the minimum goal that the district has set. Optimum class sizes are 22 students in kindergarten through third grade and 25 students in fourth and fifth. Many classrooms in the schools targeted for addition are housing these numbers of students in as small as 600 square foot classrooms. If you review the details in the plans for each school, the district is planning to remove and create walls to achieve larger classroom sizes for a more equitable environment across the district.
Reducing class sizes and basically improving the learning environment is what this referendum is all about.
There are other needs within the district that have required this referendum, consider all-day kindergarten and SAGE.
The push by parents to have the district implement all-day kindergarten has more than doubled the classroom requirements for kindergarten within the district. All-day kindergarten was not mandated by state or federal government and is not due to the desire of parents to get "free" child care. Yes, this may be a component of their motivation, but there is no arguing the improved knowledge of these children as they enter first grade.
Speaking of government programs, SAGE was implemented at several schools within the district. This program is encouraged at low income schools where children tend to have greater needs for individualized instruction. These classrooms by mandate and to maintain funding require a maximum of 15 students per teacher. This program gives young children a better start in school.
General upkeep is also being rolled into this referendum. Capital needs at all of these schools are being taken off the to-do list and are getting done. New windows, doors, roofs, ceilings, floors and restroom fixtures to name a few.
Why now? Its simply a timing issue. Pass the referendum this Fall and we are in all of the additions next Fall and Sunset the following Fall. If we delay to Spring, we lose six months for the additions to be completed and a year for Sunset, the greatest need. The new highway 110 would cause major delays for material delivery to the site and would limit access by contractors.
Lets get it done. Vote YES!
Jim Lemmer,
chairman, FOCUS committee.
For Our Children United we Stand