Steam Train A-Comin'?
Among its actions at last week's monthly meeting, the Madison Central School Board revealed the names of its new High School Facility Committee. The nifty nine:
- Administrators: superintendent Vince Schaefer, HS principal Sharon Knowlton, activities director Bud Postma
- School board members: Ryan Hegg, Jennie Thompson, Shawn Miller
- Citizens: Matt Groce, Charlie Johnson, Christine Sahr
School board president Tom Farrell tells KJAM these nine will meet weekly until a special board meeting on September 19, at which he expects to receive a preliminary report on options for renovating the high school.
I am encouraged to see the citizen portion of the committee include both Matt Groce, a formal member of the committee that campaigned to include a new multimillion-dollar gym in the high school renovation plan last winter, and Charlie Johnson, who opposed the new gym in favor of a fine arts annex.
I am also pleased to see that project architect Jeff nelson will be available to help the committee evaluate options. I hope he will be able to discuss with the committee the alternatives that this blog sent to him last March.
However, we should note that the committee does not apear to reflect the sentiment of the voters expressed at the polls last winter. The active electorate split almost evenly on the previous plan. However, this committee is made up of at least a two-thirds majority (Schaefer, Knowlton, Postma, Hegg, Thompson, and Groce) who supported the $17-million new gym and renovation plan. Hegg signaled in February that he thinks we should try the same plan again. Thompson declared her support for the same-old-same-old during her school board campaign. Miller and Johnson are the only members on the record as opponents of the original plan... and it is possible that, since his swearing-in in July, Miller has been injected with whatever serum the board uses to turn its members into submissive followers of the will of... well, of whoever calls the shots behind closed doors. (Yes, Shawn, this is a test!)
I hear that the facility committee is having its first meeting this week Wednesday, August 17 at the Madison Middle School. I think the time is 7:00 p.m.... although I can't find any confirmation of that on the school website. Board President Farrell assures us that public participation is welcome... so you'd think somebody from the school would get that information up front and center. After all, when the school wants public participation in early voting, it gets the word out right away....