Problems at Coolidge

Dear Mr. King,

Coolidge Play Ground:

When the North parking lot was widened this summer to create a drop-offloop, 8 swings were destroyed. My understanding is when the swings weremoved they fell apart. It is also my understanding that once schoolplay-ground equipment is removed, it may not be reinstalled.

For this reason, many do not understand why the swings would not be replaced at thecost of the district as part of the initial project budget. Should the costto replace these swings have been included in the original budget toreconfigure the parking lot? With recess, health and exercise playing an important part of ourchildren's school day, many feel it is extremely important to replace theswings.

Since the removal of the swings was not at the fault of theCoolidge staff, many feel they should be replaced as soon as possible.Children at this age really enjoy swinging. We would love to see the 8 swings replaced as soon as possible. We appreciate any help you can offerwith this matter.

Another safety issue is the need of a crosswalk lines across PurlingbrookStreet. At this time, the crosswalk guard is concerned for the children'ssafety because many drivers stop so close to crossing children. Thecrosswalk lines would provide a much needed safety barrier. Thank you for making the Coolidge parking lot safer.

Also, last Friday, a third grader in my daughter's class at Coolidge possibly had a knife on the school bus or at school. He has since not been at school. What can you tell me about this situation. Our teachers and principal will not tell me what happened or where. The boy is a good boy, but was being harrasssed at school. All goes back to anti-bullying.

Election Perspective

The surprise primary win of Maureen was a harbinger for what was to come. While many of her supporters were happy that she beat Jack in the primary I felt it would galvanize his supporters and they would pull out the stops to crush her. Jacks pack, put up so many signs it created sign fatigue and in essence, negated all of the signs that just became an optical irritation over time.He then proceeded to make this election a referendum on Jennifer Granholm. I even received some anti Brosnan literature with Kwame Kilpatricks name on it. What? The only person that the majority of Livonia voters hate more than the Governor is the Detroit Mayor. Remember during the recall battle when voters were told at the polls that if the recall succeeded Detroit would be running our district? Detroit pols aren't the only ones that play the race card. Jacks support starts with a very large base of school employees, and most of his workers come from that pool. Check out the picture in the observer newspaper of woman for Jack. Recognize anyone affiliated with LPS? Jacks roots are in education and they run very deep. He also pandered to the Pro Life supporters something the winning council candidates did as well. Although I don't believe the new deja-vu mayor and council will be overturning Rowe v Wade anytime soon. It is a sizable group of one issue citizens that do vote.I do not fault anyone for running to win and once again Jack showed what a seasoned politician he is. When Kirksey entered the race I said he will be mayor again unless some one can beat him. Joe and Maureen were simply not able to do that. The nail in the coffin came during the weekend prior to the election with the saturation of the TV add with Granholm and Maureen posing like sorority sisters with the devastating voice over tag line, " While she was raising your taxes she was bankrolling Brosnan." A reference to not only the Lansing fiasco but the ten thousand dollar campaign contribution. Maureen could have defused the criticism by returning the money and going on the attack. I would have done a mailer linking my opponent to Osama Bin Laden and any other nefarious person that resonates with voters, just to point out the absurdity of it all. The real shame of this campaign was the inability of voters to get anything of substance from the questions and answers at the forums. I hope in the future we move to real debate formats allowing for give and take among the candidates. It's been said we get the government we deserve and we now hold the distinction of having the oldest mayor in the country. As a boomer I only have one thing left to say. Senior Power!

And The Mountain Moved

At Mondays board meeting something unprecedented happened. Two no votes were cast during the vote on items on the consent agenda. It was very dramatic. As the secretary called the vote"Mr. King?," .. "NO. "Mr. Oke?"... there was a long pause........and then it happened. The very person that ostracized me during his first week as a board member, for my solo no votes, took a breath and let the most powerful two letter word fly. "NO." I smiled as the roll call continued with the usual outcome. For one second, however I was more proud than usual to be a BOE member. Kudos to Greg for doing what he felt was right. The item in question was the food purchase proposal that we placed on the regular agenda at the last committee of the whole meeting, but mysteriously ended up on the consent agenda for Mondays meeting. We also asked for the nutritional data on all of the products and that information was not given for all of the items to be voted on. Based on those facts alone, never mind the lack of nutritional value of the food stuffs, everyone should have voted NO. At the very least a strong president would have removed the item in question for future discussion.

Steve,

Do you know if LPS will be hiring a replacement for Kirksey (Cooper site),or is the position not needed any more, since Kirksey will be getting a newpaycheck from the city? He has to at least wait until his 4 year term isup before he can go back on the LPS money-train again, right?

I didn't have a chance to see the last 2 meetings, has anything beenpublicly announced regarding Jay Young's "re-hiring"? Do we have any idea roughly how many bill-able hours per year he is anticipated to turn in to the district doing "whatever it is he will be doing".

Has anyone else on the board had any concerns about the rapidly declining enrollment (only since LI)? Will there ever be a BOE meeting in the"no-spin" zone so we can actually figure out what happened and how to getback on track? I mean, I remember Leipa kept "increasing" his predictionof how many students we would lose this year, and in the end he was stilloff by 100. This is a heck of a lot outside the 1/4 of 1% error marginthey bragged about pre-LI. These people can't possibly still believe it'sjust the economy (especially since PCCS enrollment keeps increasing, andour private schools enrollment isn't dropping). I mean, anyone with anysense would at least admit that there is a strong possibility there is a correlation between LI and the student loss, right?

Community conversations

Mondays community conversation meeting was attended by just six citizens. This format allows for some good discussions and I think we should take this show on the road. If we get it out of the administration building and into the community I think more people would attend. This week the focus was on finances and Lisa and Randy were present to deflect any hard hitting questions. When the topic of Jay Youngs remuneration for his foundation work came up it was discovered he is getting paid his old per Diem rate. Although Randy would not voice the actual number I believe it's 440 dollars per day. This is an awful lot of money to be paid to someone without a specific, definable task to be accomplished. I do not support the revolving door policy that allows former administrators to come back and feed from the public trough. If they want to give back for all that this district has given to them they can volunteer like so many parents do.There was in attendance a new parent to LPS with a ninth grader from a home school background and when he asked about saving money by looking at alternative means of providing ancillary services Randy went into full employment mode explaining how the safety of the students would be compromised if we should do anything other than what we our doing. This is just absurd! How do you explain the fact that 60% of districts in MI have privatized one or more ancillary services with a 90% percent satisfaction rate. To be unwilling to even have a discussion, or compare what other districts are doing illustrates the focus of this district is employment not education. There is no doubt in my mind that we will have to look at the future of food service if they continue to burn through the programs fund equity and start draining money from the general fund. In the glory days of that department we were providing food service for the Garden City schools and making a healthy profit. Those days are gone, as that district has privatized food and custodial service saving millions of dollars and getting better service in return. We need to at least have some information on alternatives if it ever becomes necessary to move in a different direction.