(Corrected) The Story of Monroe Schools; Unplanning vs The Power of Purpose

At the end of the day, Monroe Schools went ahead and approved the cuts of almost 2 million dollars rather than hope for a referendum to bail them out of the budget crisis. It was not a pretty picture. Click on the post in the Monroe Times.

One sentence in the story is very instructive. It speaks of planning the future around "retirements."


O.K. The story would be that if we had a retirement of a senior teacher in an area we would just not teach the course next year? Or would we shift other teachers. It is not clear.

My point is that as assets of a school district or assets of any individual start shrinking, it is temptimg to just use happenstance to meet the future. That might work for a year or so, until it dawns on an organization that they have no clue as to what they are trying to accomplish.

This was vaguely alluded to in Monday night's Evansville School Board meeting. Supr. Heidi Carvin mentioned that in the past there as a notion of being a "comprehensive school." As the Wisconsin school funding formula takes its toll on the dwindling "assets", of the district, it may be necessary to streamline certain curriculum items within others to be more efficient.

The realities of the collegiality of neighboring governmental bodies---- or the lack thereof----- has made it clear that the school system is on its own. It has to chart its future given the assets it has---- and must fashion a purpose it sees as possible. To do otherwise is to invite the tale of woe that is Monroe.

That is as I see it. This is an opinion piece. All views expressed are my own. hussah.