Letter to the Editor: More Than One Option Needed in Boundary Consideration

Dear School Board members,    

I'm writing this letter in hopes that the school board will carefully review the recommendation by the boundary committee and see the error in sending Homestead to Murphy Junior High next year. 

I have no doubts that it will be a wonderful and successful school, my issue is with the distance it is from my house.  Why the committee chose to send Homestead to Murphy is still beyond me.  Wolfs Crossing boarders the Grande Park boundary and is closer than our children. 

I have often heard the reasoning that they share a campus with Bednarcik and they have to keep that bond.  Building those two schools next to each other was a matter of making maximum use out of the property the district had purchased not some promise that they will always be together. 

Every other elementary is forced to move onto the next level of their education in a building not too far away why should they be exempt from that process?  Our district like most in this state is short on funding.  Every dollar counts when you are trying to get the most out of what is available. 

Just as your board decided to build additions to our high schools versus opening a new school and incurring more debt, I ask you to look at the dollars spent in this case.  Granted all three school options up for the potential move to Murphy are close, but if you look at the map we are not the obvious choice to be shipped from the most north east corner to the most south east corner. 

Why does it make sense to ship our children down to Murphy past Bednarcik when they are sending kids north to Bednarcik from the Wolfs Crossing boundary? 

Our group has asked several times for the dollar difference on these runs and have been not given the information.  Another large concern for me is the crowding on these buses. 

According to your transportation data provided: A current bus capacity is 72 per the bus builders, Oswego's recommendation for kids grade  6-8 is 50.  If you look at the current routes only a very few are below 50, some as high as 66.  Kids are sitting three to a seat. 

It is ridiculous to think that our kids will be on the bus 45 minutes each way like that. Wolfs Crossing is an area of future growth we are not.  The last thing we need to do is move these kids again in a couple years back to where they started from.    

My hope is that you will ask the boundary committee for more than one option.  Do a full cost analysis on these options.  Provide a open forum where we can ask questions not just give comments.     

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Ted and Kristina Tenney