The only way to keep students from driving to an edge of town school is if
there is NO pakring provided, and heavy parking restrictions in the
surrounding neighborhood. High school kids love to drive to school. Its
a rite of passage. I find the thought of a new high school at Mountain
view truly frightening for the traffic mess it wouold generate.
dave peckham
On Mon, 9 Oct 1995, Lois Melina wrote:
>
> >
> >According to the Daily News, a key element of this proposal is building a
> >new high school on a multi-acre site on the edge of town and converting
> >the existing high school to cojunty administrative offices, with possibly
> >some state offices as well.
> >
> >I have several reservations about this proposal including:
> >2. High school enrollment has been flat the last few years, which makes it
> >hard to justify a new, larger building.
>
> This is true, but let's take a look first at whether the current high school
> is even adequate for the current enrollment numbers. Classes start at 7
> a.m. so that there can be enough classroom space (I really have no problem
> with that, but it is indicative that they already have expanded within the
> limits of space and time.) The class sizes are large--I was told there are
> three sections of trigonometry this year and two of them were at max, which
> in my opinion is larger than optimal for a math class.
>
> Furthermore, look at what is going on at the junior high. My son is a 7th
> grader and since first grade has been part of a huge "bulge" coming through
> the school system. The junior high had such an increase in enrollment that
> they had to add an additional lunch period this year. That meant
> "splitting" one class period--kids go to half of their class, break for
> lunch, then resume that class--not exactly an optimal teaching/learning
> situation.
>
> I don't know the numbers for the elementary schools, but I think they have
> stayed high as the population in Moscow has grown.
>
> Throughout my children's education here people have been justifying not
> building more facilities because they don't expect the numbers to stay high.
> As a result, my son, at least, has typically had 30-some in his classroom.
> I think it's fairly well accepted that reduced class size is positive
> correlated with better learning environments.
>
>
> >3. With the current location, it is at least theoretically possible for
> >some students to walk to school. If the high school is on the edge of
> >town, everyone drives. (Look what has happened in Pullman, where the new
> >high school (1973) was built on the north end of town.)
>
> Nonetheless, I think it's easier to find creative solutions to mass
> transportation than to overcrowded classrooms.
>
> Lois Melina
>
>