Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Education / Woods School Board Won't Back Down on Rezoning, Chairman Says
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 6:42 AM
At least one key public official isn't fazed by the NAACP's civil rights complaint against the school board. School board chair David Fox says he remains adamantly in favor of the student rezoning plan. There's been "no conversation at the board level to do anything any differently," he says.
Fox also insists the board will keep its promise to spend an additional $6 million on Pearl-Cohn's cluster of schools next year, despite the district's budget troubles. Fox tells Pith:
"I don't think there's a scenario in which we can't spend it. The board has been consistently clear. We do zero-based budgeting every year. We start over again rebuilding the budget. We have been clear publicly and with the administration that, as the budget process begins, additional resources for the Pearl-Cohn schools will be one of the first elements put into the budget. I don't see any scenario in which those resources are not made available. ...
"The additional resources are going do things that we think are necessary to educate the children in the schools to high national standards. I think as a way for us to demonstrate that we can educate our at-risk children to high national standards, so I don't really see it as optional."
In which case, we have a suggestion: Take the money out of Hillwood High's budget.
Comments (4)
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Well, in a way it will be taken out of Hillwood's budget. Depending on how many N. Nashville kids opt to go to Pearl-Cohn, Hillwood will lose teachers. The money follows the kid. And David is right about the budget...it's built from the ground up. It would be political suicide not to put those additional resources in there...I'm not saying that they have to do it, but...
Not only will those students who go to Pearl-Cohn get additional resources from the budget, but it is an Title 1 school, meaning that there will be extra money on top of everything else. Hillwood High does not have the ability to raise the money that Pearl-Cohn will get extra...it's about 500 dollars a student. For 800 students, that would be $400,000.
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If the vote still is divided the way it was originally only one person has to change their mind. And, of course, the only person who can bring it back up for reconsideration is someone who voted for it. West Nashville elected officials seem to create situations that cause the taxpayers a lot of legal fees.
The vote was 5 to 4, mostly along racial lines. Not a very good precedent to build unity and progress. It will be interesting to see if the vote is brought back up. Of course, only one of the "for" votes can bring it back to the floor. West Nashville elected officials seem to have many ways to spend the citizens dollars on legal fees.
