Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
On the news at 6:00 p.m. Dr. Sackett said the school board will meet on Wed., but he thinks they will have a recount. SSo far this week he has been given three different numbers by the Bonneville County Elections folks. He said they could be off on the total, despite their best efforts. I keep wondering if anyone voted absentee.
The really good news is no tax dollars or school funds will be used for a recount. The parents advocacy group that supported a new school offered to pay for the recount. That is awesome, IMO.
With only 18 votes shy, I hope the recount can make up this incredibly slender margin.
I really wonder what could happen if the count fails by only 4 or 5 votes. it seems to me that 18 would fall into an election's margin of error, where a voter accidentally votes opposite of how they intended. I have done that myself, as sometimes the wording is convoluted in the descriptions. Is there some sort of appeal process that's short of holding another election?
Holding another election seems to be a waste of money with the results being as close as they are.
With only 18 votes shy, I hope the recount can make up this incredibly slender margin.
I really wonder what could happen if the count fails by only 4 or 5 votes. it seems to me that 18 would fall into an election's margin of error, where a voter accidentally votes opposite of how they intended. I have done that myself, as sometimes the wording is convoluted in the descriptions. Is there some sort of appeal process that's short of holding another election?
Holding another election seems to be a waste of money with the results being as close as they are.
I agree. The vote is only 17 votes off. The parents group isn't going to count two precincts as each had four votes. I'd memorize that info, talk about voters who didn't show up.
What the parents advocacy group says is they are planning on no changes in votes, but when more than 10,000 vote, errors could easily have happened at a few precincts. The parents need to be sure. Even a 1% error at each precinct would change the outcome.
Some may have seen these signs or gotten phones calls. The so called "No Voters," apparently focused on one thing, and Corey Table had a great editorial about it today. Their premise is 1/4 voters will vote "No" in any election. They only had to find 8% who would join the no vote. With the super majority rule, 8 + 25 = 33 % and the majority is defeated. So the no voters focused only on finding 8%. They found them as every letter they would write to the paper was essentially a repeat of the others.
I join Corey in saying a state senator or rep. should beg to write a bill for 2016 doing away with the super majority vote for school districts. Apparently it has happened elsewhere, but they say nowhere is as evident as Bonneville D #93. There are 11,100 students in May. In fall at 4% that will be 11,544 students. At 6%, that would be 11,766 students. All those numbers are larger than Blackfoot ' s population.
Any school bond is an investment in the future of an area's prosperity. Every bond is a burden on all the taxpayers, essentially all of us. Younger adults with children approaching high school age are likely to be the most supportive, as they see the immediate need clearer than the adults whose kids are in primary school and older adults whose children have finished their education.
The more crowded a high school becomes, the harder it becomes to keep the kids in school all the way to graduation. Dropouts become a real problem for the community because they become limited in their abilities to find good paying jobs and steady jobs. As importantly, dropouts don't get the mental maturing that comes from tackling a difficult class and persevering until the hard subject becomes understood.
As importantly, a kid who drops out never gets to take the class that is easy for him and may be the route to great future success. One good class in high school can make all the difference in the world for any child who discovers the subject comes easy and is something he can excel in. One success can create the tenacity to work harder to learn a related subject that may come much less easily.
We talk about our teachers all the time, but we don't talk much about the physical room any teacher needs to be able to bring out the best in all the children in any class. Any teacher, even the best, will have a much more difficult time checking student progress when a room that was built to hold 30 students is now crammed with 45. The students are going to have as hard a time as the teacher, because it requires physical space in a classroom to simply move around in.
And these days, teachers are using newer techniques which often demand enough room for a class to break up into small groups, where things like cooperation, attacking a problem from multiple directions, and group consensus are learned without the teacher. Learning materials often need to be spread out, just to see the big picture instead of seeing only the smaller parts.
This grouping is the way all our most advanced tech industries and other top jobs is going. The days of desks lined up in high rows is over.
Bonneville county's population is booming right now, but if our schools aren't up to the job of graduating students, the county won't continue to boom forever. The more dropouts, the more those who can leave will leave, for more highly populated places where more people are needed for the basic grunt work that hires dropouts in numbers.
A lot of dropouts won't be able to move away. They will remain because they must- they can't make enough money to move. At the same time, they can't contribute much money to the tax base because finding grunt employment is hard, and steady employment harder, and none of the jobs they do pay much anyway.
They are going to have a harder time paying the rent, and buying a home becomes an impossibility. The general income level of the county goes down. Attraction for new businesses to come and invest here decreases. The burden on those who are more successful increases. Lack of education becomes an anchor chained to everyone in the county's necks.
One thing is evident in this century: Nothing will become cheaper in the future. Courey Taul mentioned in an editorial in the Post-Register this week that the defeat of this bond closes the doors that would have been opened when the new high school that won't be built would have been ready to accommodate the huge numbers of high schoolers who are now crowding District 93's elementary schools and Junior Highs.
The current High Schools are all now above capacity. Hillcrest was overcrowded from the moment it opened. The next bond will have to be for more money, just to build the same size school the defeated bond would have built.
So where will all those high school kids in the very near future go? For sure, increasingly out in the streets because they won't get the inspiration to keep them in school. No one, child or adult, likes to spend day after day in a crowded mob continuously. Trouble of all kinds in the schools will only increase. More kids will learn all the wrong lessons instead of learning the ones that will get them ahead in life.
And trouble won't be confined to the schools alone. It will spread out into the community in all kinds of ways. Is that what we really want for Bonneville County's future?
Any school bond is an investment in the future of an area's prosperity. Every bond is a burden on all the taxpayers, essentially all of us. Younger adults with children approaching high school age are likely to be the most supportive, as they see the immediate need clearer than the adults whose kids are in primary school and older adults whose children have finished their education.
The more crowded a high school becomes, the harder it becomes to keep the kids in school all the way to graduation. Dropouts become a real problem for the community because they become limited in their abilities to find good paying jobs and steady jobs. As importantly, dropouts don't get the mental maturing that comes from tackling a difficult class and persevering until the hard subject becomes understood.
As importantly, a kid who drops out never gets to take the class that is easy for him and may be the route to great future success. One good class in high school can make all the difference in the world for any child who discovers the subject comes easy and is something he can excel in. One success can create the tenacity to work harder to learn a related subject that may come much less easily.
We talk about our teachers all the time, but we don't talk much about the physical room any teacher needs to be able to bring out the best in all the children in any class. Any teacher, even the best, will have a much more difficult time checking student progress when a room that was built to hold 30 students is now crammed with 45. The students are going to have as hard a time as the teacher, because it requires physical space in a classroom to simply move around in.
And these days, teachers are using newer techniques which often demand enough room for a class to break up into small groups, where things like cooperation, attacking a problem from multiple directions, and group consensus are learned without the teacher. Learning materials often need to be spread out, just to see the big picture instead of seeing only the smaller parts.
This grouping is the way all our most advanced tech industries and other top jobs is going. The days of desks lined up in high rows is over.
Bonneville county's population is booming right now, but if our schools aren't up to the job of graduating students, the county won't continue to boom forever. The more dropouts, the more those who can leave will leave, for more highly populated places where more people are needed for the basic grunt work that hires dropouts in numbers.
A lot of dropouts won't be able to move away. They will remain because they must- they can't make enough money to move. At the same time, they can't contribute much money to the tax base because finding grunt employment is hard, and steady employment harder, and none of the jobs they do pay much anyway.
They are going to have a harder time paying the rent, and buying a home becomes an impossibility. The general income level of the county goes down. Attraction for new businesses to come and invest here decreases. The burden on those who are more successful increases. Lack of education becomes an anchor chained to everyone in the county's necks.
One thing is evident in this century: Nothing will become cheaper in the future. Courey Taul mentioned in an editorial in the Post-Register this week that the defeat of this bond closes the doors that would have been opened when the new high school that won't be built would have been ready to accommodate the huge numbers of high schoolers who are now crowding District 93's elementary schools and Junior Highs.
The current High Schools are all now above capacity. Hillcrest was overcrowded from the moment it opened. The next bond will have to be for more money, just to build the same size school the defeated bond would have built.
So where will all those high school kids in the very near future go? For sure, increasingly out in the streets because they won't get the inspiration to keep them in school. No one, child or adult, likes to spend day after day in a crowded mob continuously. Trouble of all kinds in the schools will only increase. More kids will learn all the wrong lessons instead of learning the ones that will get them ahead in life.
And trouble won't be confined to the schools alone. It will spread out into the community in all kinds of ways. Is that what we really want for Bonneville County's future?
You know mike, I really value your posts here. You say things in a way that I cannot accurately. K
And f5, you take up some very good points. Here's where I stand on it;
In a perfect world, the school districts could combine to make things work so much more efficiently. However, Butch Otter even says we dont need no education. Idaho ranks dead last in students continuing on to post secondary education. On the other hand, my kids have attended school in a handful of other districts, many in Idaho. I have been thoughrally impressed by how my kids have advanced in D93 as opposed to all others. That very well could be some amazing teachers or just the fact that we're happier here than ever before, but anyways to put my children's education on par with the rest of Idaho is unfair. Not all school districts are created equally. Mine has needs and I will support those needs as long as my kids are in school. I dont antagonize my district for asking for money. I really feel for those who have a tight budgets but with all the above said, whats an extra 25 bucks a year?(+ or-)
It appears too many folks have lost their sensibility. Saving a buck today for something that will cost two bucks tomorrow is not saving a buck.
I did get on a rant about our education system, but finances are only a part of the problem. i believe there are a lot of impositions from too many sources that also hamper our schools' abilities to keep more students in school as well.
My bro just gave back an old (1961) yearbook of mine that somehow need up with him.
Back when I was going to Idaho Falls High School, all the kids were offered a choice of three ways to graduate. A kid could choose College Prep, Industrial, or General.
Each would fulfill all the essential requirements mandated for graduation. College Prep offered languages- Spanish, German, and Latin, advanced classes in English, Composition, Art, History, some of the Sciences, and some others. 2 years of the Languages were all offered.
Industrial offered Basic Mechanics, Mechanical Drawing, several Shop classes including welding, auto mechanics, electronics, Basic Business, Typing, and Cooking and some others.
General offered all the basics and some remedial classes. Advanced English was the only requirement, I think.
Any of the various classes could be taken by anyone as desired except for the advanced classes, which always required an earlier class. If a student didn't select any options, they went to study hall for the time requirement.
Many of the classes had school clubs attached to them. There was the Spanish, German and Latin clubs, where the kids could come after school hours to learn how to speak conversationally and learn about the places where the languages are used, the Radio club built electronics from what they learned in class, etc.
Choir, Symphony, and Band were always optional, but they all had several clubs within them. Pep band was different from Marching band, and Choir had a bunch of different clubs and sub-groups. Sr., Jr., and Soph quartets, trios, Mens' and Womens' Glee, and more.
All met and practiced after school, and all the kids learned how to use and enjoy what they learned. All the clubs were student-run, with adult advisors, some faculty, some not. Joining some of the clubs also offered a way to make a few dollars on occasion as well, and all provided introductions to the adult community that lay outside the school doors.
There were also a lot of activity clubs; the Ski club, Drama club, etc. Joining one always carried some financial break, like cheap lift tickets, or offered an activity the town did not, and all of them always had a party or two over the year.
I don't know how much of that exists any more, but essentially I.F. High was both a school and a launch pad for most of us.
And, looking at all the kids I went to school with, I realized that more of us males stayed here than left. More girls moved away than boys, but only due to marriage. Lots of them stayed and married locally.
But that was a completely different time. Even if our schools could go back to some of that stuff, things like the student clubs would now have to be insured or something, and for sure, the kids wouldn't have as much freedom to run things now.
And that was back when everyone who wasn't educated really understood how important education was. I saw a lot of kids I knew who came from poor families at a time when there was no kid's safety net. I knew some of them were going to school because they realized it was their only chance to ever get ahead and do better than Dad ever did, back then.
And back then, all the kids who dropped out did so, without any encouragement to come back. Almost none came back, but a few did.
By age 14, I watched a bunch of kids I went through Elementary with leave and never come back, about 1/3 of them. I used to run into some in when I was in High School once in a while. The girls were all married, some mothers at 15 or 16, and happily so, and some of the guys are still driving trucks or following behind them with a shovel. I still see them.
I was happy to see local attorney, Sean Coletti ' s guest editorial get reprinted elsewhere.
I think he represents reasonable parents in D # 93, who are starting to unite. IMO, it's good that Mr. Coletti is an elected Ammon City Council member. I think we could see him involved in reasonable politics in Idaho, down the road. Full disclosure, I don't personally know him, but Sean Coletti is one of my LinkedIn contacts, given a mutual friend. What I can say is he is a leader and not afraid to try something new, from my observations on LinkedIn.
Some said this wouldn't be a fair recount. One more vote opposing the bond was found. The parents group who FINALLY formed and paid for the recount didn't expect different results, but they had to know accurate numbers to move forward both with the Legislature and parent education in D #93. My experience tells me after parents deal with split school schedules, and many haven't realized yet that if they have children in more than one school, there is nothing that says all the children in one home will be on the same schedule. It's very likely parents will have some start school at 6:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m. or 1:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. and others who have the established school hours. Family life as some knew it will be very different.
I think some parents in D # 93 have taken too much for granted, not voted and thought it was a high school only problem. Starting in 2016-2017, all D#93 parents will get to experience this first hand. Some may actually learn the facts vs. listening to skewed and biased information. Some may find they had the extra $150/year or so, in a $190K house. Gas money taking everyone to different schools at different times will most likely be more than a bond tax. An annual $150 will look like a bargain.
Live and learn, those of us who have lived with split schools before know how life is changed. I'd encourage parents to start asking your doctors, dentists, optometrists and more how they will schedule patients. Not everyone can go on Saturday. Do you think life is tough now, wait until your child needs to see a specialist. Nothing says everyone else will or has to change their hours. Childcare - ikes! There are other things to think about, but that's enough for now. At least D #93 hasn't had to lay off teachers like the West Ada district did. High growth and 50 less teachers in Meridian and Nampa. But for this year, D #93 has the highest growth rate in the state.
Parents should think of who represents them on the school board. I wouldn't trust someone who said one thing at meetings then did the exact opposite before voting, and encouraged those he spoke with to do the same. It's a good thing I don't live in D#93.
From Kansas:
"Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done.
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more."
- Kerry Lindgren. All rights belong to Kansas and K. Livgren, not me.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Defeated Bond Yields One More No Vote on Recount
