Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As you know the Columbia Board of Education has put a bond and levy issue on the April ballot. The schools are facing increased pressure because of falling state and federal revenues. Class sizes are going up, programs and staff are being cut, and the quality of our children's education is being affected. The levy increase will address these issues. Building schools to replace trailers, maintaining / upgrading existing buildings and technology will be the focus of the bond issue. For additional information on this issue go to the district web site http://www.columbia.k12.mo.us/bondlevy.php and/or the Facebook page, Vote Yes for Schools: Invest in Our Community.

While Columbia Public School's personnel can supply neutral information about the bond and levy issues, the community group, Committee for Continued Excellence in Columbia Schools, is working to get the "Vote Yes" message out. It is going to take active participation by each of us to assure success in April. Here are just a few things you can do to help pass these two issues:

1. Educate yourself on the issues, there will be a lot of misinformation. People really struggle with the difference in a bond and levy issue.
2. In conversations make sure people know your position, let them know you are a yes vote and why.
3. Create a get out the vote campaign among your friends and neighbors. Do not worry about the No Votes, you are not going to change someone’s mind, just make sure everyone you know who is a Yes Vote gets out and votes.
4. If you are on Facebook like the page…and suggest it to others.
5. Send a donation to the “Committee for Continued Excellence in Columbia Schools” ASAP

Rick Ravenhill, Treasurer
Committee for Continued Excellence
C/O BCNB
PO BOX 678
Columbia, MO 65205


6. Take this email and sent it out to your friends who would be supportive of this issue. Make it your own, just send it out.

CPS was a great district to be and educator and supplied my daughter with a wonderful education. Passing these two issues is critical for current and future children and educator to have the same experience my family has had with CPS. Together we can assure the educational future of our children, thank you in advance for your efforts.

Respectfully,

Jack Jensen

I think this is an important point that Ms. King made the other night:

Funds from the 2012 bond issue wouldn’t become available until November 2014.

“We want to make sure we reiterate that 2014 date,” board member Christine King said. “We’re going to ask for a second $50 million before we even get the first $50 million. We have to be open and make sure voters were aware they were told this.”


The fact of the matter is bonds are passed but that doesn't mean that there is $120 MILLION immediately available and I believe that is where some confusion among parents I know existed. Have you spoken with anyone from the School Board about other items in the plan now that the new school construction is well underway?

For example, there are schools that will be getting AC this year. Will all the schools be completed THIS summer? Is all the money for those projects available yet? Is there the manpower to do ALL the schools this summer? Can summer school take place if the projects are undertaken? There are loads of questions to be answered, some of which the board and administration I believe may have answered already several times, so you may be beating a dead horse.

I have been very very happy with our most recent board, and our newest superintendent. Yes, there may have been changes in the last 10 years to the timeline and plans. That typically happens in any organization when there is a change in leadership. Visions change, strategies change, etc. I think the current administration and board have been the most transparent ever.

Regarding this from your story:

But CPS heat and snow days remain so notorious that communities around Columbia literally laugh at our leadership ineptitude. A Mexico, Missouri official recently told me that, having solved their school air conditioning issue "years ago," they "get a chuckle out of how Columbia still has to send children home when it gets hot out."

"We also plow our streets after it snows -- ALL of our streets," she said. "Given Columbia's supposed commitment to education, all this does seem strange to us folks in the hinterlands."


I would say, chuckle all they want. Mexico Mo currently houses 1 public HIGH School, 1 Middle School, and 3 Elementary Schools (5 public Schools). Until they have to deal with 3 High Schools, 6 Middle/Jr. Highs, 19 Elementary Schools, (28 public Schools), they really can't compare the two. This is Apples and Oranges. Likewise, I don't think the Columbia Public Schools has much control over snow plowing a community of 100,000+ people. I don't know how things work in Mexico, Mo. Perhaps with a population 11% the size of Columbia the public schools are also responsible for snow plowing for their 11,000+ residence. Does this official realize our District is responsible for more students than their ENTIRE town's population.

As a real estate agent though, I can tell you that a BIG thing people notice who are relocating from outside the town and the state are the number of trailers CPS has. I think we are equally a joke around the state and country in that we likely have almost as many kids in trailers as we do in buildings. I for one greatly hope the bonds pass and new schools are built. My children will likely be nearly out of school by the time the new schools open and we are completely trailer free, but I full support the building of additional schools for the families that come behind me. While my children don't have the luxury of AC at the moment I'm thankful they don't have trailers to deal with. I don't want my children educated in a trailer and fully support getting rid of every trailer in the district.

Being that Dr. Belcher has been here less than 3 years I think rather than looking BACK 10 years to broken promises either focus on the future (you can't change the past anyway), or at least compare this administration to previous ones, but I really don't think you can lump them all together.

While I generally enjoy your articles and the spotlight you shine, I think you have missed the mark on this one and appear simply to want to stir the pot or beat a dead horse. We need to move forward and work together as a community if we want to improve the education of our children.


April Ferrao, MBA
Broker - Sales
2012-2014 MLS Committee
Re/Max Boone Realty
Licensed in the State of Missouri
573-256-3148
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