{"id":2265,"date":"2014-06-04T14:04:53","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T14:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/2014\/06\/04\/an-operational-plan-for-continuous-improvement\/"},"modified":"2014-06-04T14:04:53","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T14:04:53","slug":"an-operational-plan-for-continuous-improvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/an-operational-plan-for-continuous-improvement\/","title":{"rendered":"An \u2018Operational Plan for Continuous Improvement\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For over a year, I have accompanied the \u2018Friends of Neighborhood Schools\u2019 in their efforts to raise awareness to the Moline District\u2019s \u2018Plan,\u2019 and feel compelled to join those who have already sent letters alerting against its goals and methods. Specifically, my concern is with the District\u2019s representation of its constituents \u2013that is, Moline and Coal Valley\u2019s taxpayers. I ask, whose \u2018plan\u2019 is this?<\/p>\n

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The motto for the District\u2019s \u2018Operational Plan for Continuous Improvement\u2019 is that it is a response to a \u201cmoral imperative\u201d to \u2018raise the bar and close the achievement gap for all students\u2019 (www.molineschools.org<\/a>). Yet, what is a \u2018moral imperative\u2019, and what should this mean to a school district? In the opinion of this observer, the School District \u2013main destination of the tax dollars of Moline and Coal Valley residents- should assure -or at least not threaten- the safety of its children, neighborhoods, and communities.\u00a0<\/p>

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With a minimum cost of $17.3 million, the District\u2019s plan guarantees a debt that Moline and Coal Valley tax payers will pay, if lucky, forty years from now.\u00a0 By then, the \u2018new Hamilton school\u2019 will be all but a \u2018state of the arts\u2019 institution. Whose \u2018plan\u2019 is this?<\/p>\n

Ericcson and Garfield neighbors fear the impact of the school closures in their communities, and Hamilton neighbors and business owners fear the consequences of a clearly necessary second expansion of 7th street (a cost to all taxpayers), and the traffic congestions exiting Hamilton on 32nd Avenue. At a recent meeting at Hamilton School on May 6th, Hamilton residents expressed their discontent with the plan loud and clear.\u00a0 Whose \u2018plan\u2019 is this?<\/p>\n

Under the District\u2019s plan, children will have to take dangerous walks to school, the value of their homes will decrease, and the possibilities for their parents\/guardians to be actively involved in their education will diminish. This is particularly salient in the Floreciente neighborhood, whose children will be walking over a mile through some of the city\u2019s least accessible areas (hills, no sidewalks, lack of traffic signs, ravines\u2026.please take the journey if in doubt, and imagine it at below zero temperatures).\u00a0 The District asks that the students \u2013six-year-olds- take the public bus. Yet, no parent wants his\/her six-year-old to ride the public bus alone. For families without a car \u2013and there are many in Floreciente- the cost of public transportation includes $.50 cent fare each way for the child ($1 per day), plus the fare of the accompanying adult ($4 per day, since they have to take the bus back and forth each time).\u00a0 Most of the mothers in Floreciente with a six-year-old have a second younger child, who they cannot leave home alone. For a family of humble means \u2013and assuming the student does not have a little brother or sister-, this represents $5.00 per day, which multiplied by the number of school days per year (185 days if following the guidelines for the State of Illinois) amounts to approximately $925.00 annually (to dispel any doubt, $720 if using the bus pass), in addition to the almost $2,000 in taxes these families are already paying the School District.\u00a0\u00a0 Whose \u2018Plan\u2019 is this?<\/p>\n

And finally, to all the above, let me add the wealth of research showing the value of neighborhood schools in the wellbeing of students and communities. The closing lines of an article \u2018for immediate release\u2019 distributed at the School Board meeting on April 10th reads,\u00a0 \u201cThe district invites the community to share in this celebration\u201d (my emphasis).\u00a0 If by \u2018community\u2019 the District is addressing the taxpayers of Moline and Coal Valley, the choice of the word \u2018celebration\u2019 is inadequate\u2013 after all, this \u2018party\u2019 was never theirs.<\/p>

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Araceli Masterson-Algar, Ph.D., Rock Island resident and volunteer at the Palomares Social Justice Center<\/p>\n

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For over a year, I have accompanied the \u2018Friends of Neighborhood Schools\u2019 in their efforts to raise awareness to the Moline District\u2019s \u2018Plan,\u2019 and feel compelled to join those who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t