Tuesday's school board meeting

[Jack Porter <jporter@moscow.com>]

Friends of Neighborhood Schools (FONS) encourages people to take some 90 
minutes of this busy time of year and attend the Moscow School Board 
meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 18, at the Junior High multipurpose room.

This may be one of the few opportunities for public input before the board 
makes its most important budgetary decisions for the 2002-03 school 
year.  These include whether to attempt a modified supplemental operating 
levy, what it should include, and whether to close schools if that levy 
fails or is not attempted.  The board has set itself a Jan. 15 target for 
these decisions.  It may back off and allow more time, but in the meantime 
we must do what we can within that framework.

The board plans a "work session" at 630, followed by its regular monthly 
meeting at 730.  Time is allotted for public comment near the beginning of 
the regular meeting.  Whether or not you comment here and now, we encourage 
attendance, both to hear for yourselves what is discussed and to 
demonstrate interest in further dialogue.  One reason the Nov. 15 
supplemental levy failed, we believe, was insufficient public involvement 
in the decisions leading up to the levy proposal.  Now the public is paying 
attention, and we need an opportunity to work out as a community the 
difficult issues raised by Moscow's school funding situation.

FONS is an informal citizen group that arose a few months ago out of 
concerns about the school district's plan to close the high school, 
Russell, and West Park and replace them with new buildings on the city 
fringes.  Our focus has shifted after the Nov. 15 operating levy 
failure.  New buildings (requiring a 2/3 bond levy vote) will probably be 
on the back burner for some time now, but the 2002-03 school budget has 
important implications for neighborhood schools.  West Park is again 
threatened with closure, and even without that step, class sizes throughout 
the district are likely to increase.

FONS members have come together from various directions, but small, 
walkable schools with small class sizes are important to all of us.  Some 
of us focus primarily on the student experience, others on how the schools 
affect their neighborhoods, others on preservation of historic 
buildings.  You can learn more about FONS on the website we have started 
at:  http//users.moscow.com/kinkeade/fons/fons.html

Jack Porter
FONS steering committee