Schools
What People Are Saying: Basswood Boundary Changes
Students being assigned to another school has left many Maple Grove parents in the subject area unhappy, yet others are there to tell them to "quit complaining."
Maple Grove residents continue to heatedly discuss a boundary adjustment proposal that will reduce overcrowding at Basswood Elementary but make some students leave their familiar school.
Under an Osseo School Board proposal, Maple Grove residents in Census Area 284 would be assigned to Oak View Elementary instead of Basswood Elementary. Pending School Board approval, Oak View will serve students in grades K-6 beginning in 2014-2015 (currently serves 4-6 grades).
This idea has left many parents in the subject area unhappy, yet others are there to tell them to "quit complaining."
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Below are some of the comments from Maple Grove Patch readers:
Also see:
Find out what's happening in Maple Grovewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
• Osseo School Proposal Reduces Crowded Basswood Elementary, Angers Some Parents
• What You Need To Know About The Basswood Elementary Boundary Proposal
From Lee: Tonight's meeting was very heated, and it became obvious that the board and superintendent have already made their decisions, and this was just lip service to make it seem like they were listening. Based on the timing, it seems like this was deliberately hushed until the last minute so no opposition could build. So, here is a petition gaining steam. I urge you to sign it, and to contact anyone you know in the district whether they are affected or not. It could be you next time...think about it. (Note: The petition has almost 600 signatures with a goal of 1,000).
From Nick J: I have to point out to parents on here that our job in raising our kids is to teach them how to maturely handle life when they are no longer in our homes. I don't know about you, but where I work it is very common for teams to change, projects to be re-organized, transfers to new offices to happen etc. We are expected to handle this as mature people and keep doing our jobs. How is this any different with our kids? Instead of whining about boundary changes use this as an opportunity to teach the kids how to deal with something that will happen more times in their lives than anyone would like. C'mon folks, step up and teach kids to deal with things the right way and skip the whining and complaining.
From Lee: Nick - with all due respect, you are missing the point. This isn't about teaching kids to "deal with things the right way." This is about many things. First off, moving kids from the school with the second best test scores to the eleventh place school - should a parent respond with apathy and let their kids be sent to an inferior school? When they change the boundaries, it affects their property values - parents look very hard at the schools before they buy a home. It affects their schedules - busing kids five miles away is a hardship for some, and makes no sense when there are kids that live a lot closer to Oakview for example. And what kind of message does it send to your kids when you react to adversity by...caving, laying down, and calling it a life lesson? I'd much rather teach my kids that if you don't like something, you speak up; that when faced with what you perceive as injustice, you protest.
From anonymous: Oak View was built on a plot of land right next to Cedar Island. Families who live within walking distance of one school, also live within walking distance of the other. Historically, CI was a "neighborhood" school, and OV kids were all bused - mainly from the west side of 494, and from the south side of Bass Lake Road, east of 494. Not exactly the slums. Test scores at OV went down due to the campus school decision. FO was a failed school based on the NCLB rules, and when kids from FO were bused to OV, the test scores at OV not surprisingly went down. I would like to see a listing of school rankings from 2008 - prior to the campus school decision. I'm guessing OV and BW were pretty close at that time. Change is not always bad, but it is hard. My daughter was switched away from CI to OV for 6th grade in 2009, the 1st year of the campus experiment. We had no choice to stay at CI as it was converted to a k-3 school. Had she been younger, we may have looked into open enrolling elsewhere. We could tell that the campus model was a bad decision from the start, and as I said before, it is too bad that it took the district 6 years to figure this out. Fixing the campus schools back to the k-6 (or k-5) is the right thing to do. Changing boundaries is very emotional, and will be even more emotional if the district decides to move to the 9-12 high school model as 200 students each from MGSH and PCSH will most likely get moved to OSH. Attend the work sessions and feedback sessions to learn about the district plans, and to voice your concerns.
From Kristen: Shame on anyone that signs that petition. Instead of trying to keep Basswood an elite top performing school that only "certain entitled kids' can go to why not try to figure out and put your energy into improving the lower performing schools. shame shame.
Have something to add? Leave a comment below or join the heated discussion on Maple Grove Patch here.
From Nick J: I have to point out to parents on here that our job in raising our kids is to teach them how to maturely handle life when they are no longer in our homes. I don't know about you, but where I work it is very common for teams to change, projects to be re-organized, transfers to new offices to happen etc. We are expected to handle this as mature people and keep doing our jobs. How is this any different with our kids? Instead of whining about boundary changes use this as an opportunity to teach the kids how to deal with something that will happen more times in their lives than anyone would like. C'mon folks, step up and teach kids to deal with things the right way and skip the whining and complaining.
From Lee: Nick - with all due respect, you are missing the point. This isn't about teaching kids to "deal with things the right way." This is about many things. First off, moving kids from the school with the second best test scores to the eleventh place school - should a parent respond with apathy and let their kids be sent to an inferior school? When they change the boundaries, it affects their property values - parents look very hard at the schools before they buy a home. It affects their schedules - busing kids five miles away is a hardship for some, and makes no sense when there are kids that live a lot closer to Oakview for example. And what kind of message does it send to your kids when you react to adversity by...caving, laying down, and calling it a life lesson? I'd much rather teach my kids that if you don't like something, you speak up; that when faced with what you perceive as injustice, you protest.
From anonymous: Oak View was built on a plot of land right next to Cedar Island. Families who live within walking distance of one school, also live within walking distance of the other. Historically, CI was a "neighborhood" school, and OV kids were all bused - mainly from the west side of 494, and from the south side of Bass Lake Road, east of 494. Not exactly the slums. Test scores at OV went down due to the campus school decision. FO was a failed school based on the NCLB rules, and when kids from FO were bused to OV, the test scores at OV not surprisingly went down. I would like to see a listing of school rankings from 2008 - prior to the campus school decision. I'm guessing OV and BW were pretty close at that time. Change is not always bad, but it is hard. My daughter was switched away from CI to OV for 6th grade in 2009, the 1st year of the campus experiment. We had no choice to stay at CI as it was converted to a k-3 school. Had she been younger, we may have looked into open enrolling elsewhere. We could tell that the campus model was a bad decision from the start, and as I said before, it is too bad that it took the district 6 years to figure this out. Fixing the campus schools back to the k-6 (or k-5) is the right thing to do. Changing boundaries is very emotional, and will be even more emotional if the district decides to move to the 9-12 high school model as 200 students each from MGSH and PCSH will most likely get moved to OSH. Attend the work sessions and feedback sessions to learn about the district plans, and to voice your concerns.
From Kristen: Shame on anyone that signs that petition. Instead of trying to keep Basswood an elite top performing school that only "certain entitled kids' can go to why not try to figure out and put your energy into improving the lower performing schools. shame shame.
Have something to add? Leave a comment below or join the heated discussion on Maple Grove Patch here.
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