There were a few important bits from Tuesday night’s meeting that I think most people who were psyching themselves up to speak neglected to hear. First of all, there are concerns from this staff that the money (almost $2 million over the lifetime of the programs) that has been allocated to the non-Title 1 school innovative programs may not be kosher because base funds are supposed to be doled out relatively equally and there was not a commensurate amount in GF $ that went to Title 1 schools when the innovative programs were innovating.
Let me repeat that for the people in the back. Because around $2 million have ALREADY been spent over the lifetimes of these innovative plans existing that came out of NON RESTRICTED FUNDS that are supposed to be doled out equally to ALL SCHOOL SITES there is concern that the District should not simply keep on keeping on making the same error because some families really, really, really want to keep their innovative program because that’s not how you do GF funding.
And, regardless of the heart warming stories about how special Bay Farm Middle School is to select students the main questions for consideration, per the Superintendent, can be paraphrased into these three points:
- Does Alameda actually need as many middle school programs that it currently has given the declining enrollment that is not exclusive to Alameda. This is not including the charter programs because those the district has very little control over.
- Are the offerings at BFMS somehow more important than the other middle schools programs which would necessitate keeping it open at the expense of other middle schools and/or other programs in general.
- If the BFMS model is important to keep open, is it in the right location in order to help the widest number of students particularly the lowest resourced families in Alameda.