Technology has an enormous power to engage students in learning and to empower their educational decisions. I was at one of the DC summits where ed tech leaders gathered to provide feedback and this document is a close reflection of the powerful ideas offered up that week.

Based on the proposed options we are likely to be moving central office administration, community education and the alternative high school to Liberty. For the alternative high school the larger facility has some advantages over their current location at Union School. However, there have not been discussions about curricular adjustments based on the likely move.

Will moving the Alternative School to Liberty provide a better learning environment for those students? Would this allow them to have a more diverse curriculum than they presently have?

Is it feasible to use Liberty for any other grades?

Just wondering.

Thanks.

Licensing and/or accreditation would not be an issue.

Whenever an entire group of grade level is housed in one location it does technically make more financial sense. When an entire grade level is all together you have the ability to maximize class size (if you wanted to do that) and therefore might need less teachers to provide instruction. In addition, all your support materials are in one location. Take the library for example. If you have Kindergarten, or any grade level for that matter, spread out amongst three buildings, you typically would need more books in the three libraries than in a single library at the Kindergarten building to support the same number of students.

Liberty School is currently set up to handle any level of students. In 1997 a complete renovation and repair was completed at Liberty School. At this time, the building also went through an asbestos and mold inspection. However, if younger students like those in Pre-K and K programs were to move in to the building, we might very well want to do some renovations to make the facility more user friendly to such an age group. Things like putting in smaller toilets would be an example. Much of this could be paid for through sinking fund dollars.

Steve Laatsch

A clear understanding and the ability to recall fundamental facts and knowledge is exactly what all student need.

How do students obtain these needs? Through proper student to teacher ratios in their classrooms according to their age level.

We must continue to maintain staffing levels or even increase them in some circumstances to meet the needs of our children. We can no longer afford to cut teachers due to the budget. Instead, we must cut other areas.

My first set of questions is for grade K.

Are there liscensing and/or accredidation issues that make it more economically feasible for all K classes to be in one school versus several?

Is it more economically feasible to have all preschool and grade K classes in one school?

Is Liberty School physically capable to meet building requirements for pre-K and K students as it is currently set up?

If Liberty School is not currently able to take pre-K and K students, the what renovation costs are involved in moving those class to Liberty? (industrial hygiene testing [asbestos, mold, lead etc] + contractors + fixtures + materials])

Thank you for encouraging continued communication and dialogue.

Good luck with the journey.