Comments on: Discussing Decatur School Enrollment: Today and Into the Future

By: Can We Talk?

Can We Talk? — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 13:15:19 +0000

My understanding was that there was a board meeting on the 10th and the proposal for Beacon was put to the board.
So, does anyone know how the board viewed the $6million tab for Beacon the supt recommended? How Is the process moving forward?
I did not see a vote on the minutes section from the meeting.

By: At Home in Decatur

At Home in Decatur — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:42:51 +0000

I’ve thought about it overnight and realized that your characterization of my making positive remarks about CSD but then qualifying them is apt. Problem is that it’s really my opinion. CSD is capable of some fantastic stuff and I am so grateful for the ways that it has positively impacted my family. Lately, I am particularly grateful that it is not DeKalb County which had some of the better public schools back when I bought a home in Decatur. CSD also has some issues that do not seem to get addressed without a fair amount of comment from families and/or the community. That is not dissimilar from any government agency, even the best. It’s ok for folks to point out issues on blogs, in conversation, at meetings, as long as they are not attacking individuals, even if not everyone agrees with them. It’s even ok to point out those issues repeatedly if the commenter thinks they are relevant because issues do repeat themselves, hence today’s post “…However, city residents Judd Owen and Pat Herold discovered errors in a CSD consultant’s data estimating enrollment counts for the potentially annexed areas, upending the cost/revenue estimates created by the city…” The problem is that a repeated comment with which you do not agree can be irritating when you are a frequent reader of this blog. I know I feel that way, sometimes even a little sick to my stomach after reading political comments that offend me. But our choices are to ignore them, post a rebuttal, or stop reading.

……….unless of course DM institutes a self-plagiarism rule! There’s software for that!

By: Diane Loupe

Diane Loupe — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 14:11:57 +0000

Parents hate trailers, but they seem like they’re a cost-effective alternative to building a new building when enrollment is fluctuating. When I attended high school in the New Orleans area, the trailers were among the few classrooms that were air conditioned. So we loved ‘em. Because, as you might have heard, New Orleans has a warm climate.

By: smalltowngal

smalltowngal — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 02:40:46 +0000

With all respect due to you as an earnestly engaged member of this dialectic community, AHID, you are deflecting again. (Tomato, to-mah-toe — yes “lust” is not precisely the word you used. I indulge in hyperbole. You deflect. Let’s all own it all.)

RE the broader issue: I’m not trying to pick a fight, and I absolutely am not looking to rehash the CSD reconfig debate. But I do think that discussions about the present and the future of CSD would be more constructive if everybody would stop framing comments with reference to alleged motivations and perceived slights of the past. You claim to be interested in guarding against “it” happening again, which requires accepting the premise of what “it” actually represents — what happened, exactly? There was, is, and ever will be disagreement on that point.

There’s a lot of good, constructive middle ground between the extremes of blind complacency (which I don’t think will ever be an issue in the City of Decatur) and constantly qualifying any positive comments about CSD with, “but…”

By: smalltowngal

smalltowngal — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 02:11:38 +0000

In all honesty, I was banking off your comment in order to avoid responding directly to AHID because I honestly don’t want to embark on a re-re-re-re-rehash of the central debate.