Watching The Watchers

I said a few months ago that I wanted to keep my blog positive, to just share the positive things that are going on in Bridgeport.  I really do want to do that, but things are what they are, and I have to call things out as I see them.
It has been a struggle for me to try and keep up with the blog because of family issues.  I haven't posted anything in about 9 days.  Please don't think it is because I don't care about Bridgeport.  And don't think it is because I am not aware of things going on here.  I may be a little behind others in keeping up with events, but eventually I do find things out.
I truly would just like to walk away from this blog because of the time and energy that it takes for me to keep up right now.  If I did give up this blog I wouldn't worry about the Bridgeport Township government, the trustees, the manager, the DDA department, the police department.  I think they are all doing a great job and I have a lot of faith in them.  I see a bright future for Bridgeport with all of them in place.  My only regret is that I haven't been able to keep up with sharing all the wonderful things they have been doing.

It is the future of our school district, our school board, the future of the children that keeps me from walking away.  I have some serious concerns about it all.  I suspect there are some out there that think I am a rambling maniac, that I have some personal problems, maybe even a personal vendetta.    That is not what is going on, please believe me.  I have some serious concerns, some I have shared, some I have not.    There is some information I have been keeping for almost a year that I really want to share but haven't done it.  Not yet, but I see it as being necessary in the future.  Sorry if this sounds really crazy.

So back now to the school district and the school board.  I have seen some good people done wrong in this district, and have seen some bad people come out ahead.  It is disheartening to watch.  There are some current board members that have made accusations against others in the past that they didn't know their place or their roles on the school board, in the district, that they were overstepping their bounds.  But now from what I am seeing and hearing, those same board members are way overstepping their bounds, way overstepping their responsibilities and their duties.  It is just more of their hypocrisy. Sad. 

I have stated in the past that if someone is claiming racism and I don't see it that way, I will say so.  BUT, when I do see racism, I will call it out!  There is something going on right now in this school district that I do believe is based on racism.  One person that is involved I do believe is a racist.  Things I have seen in this persons behavior and heard from this persons mouth myself, makes be believe they are a racist.  We have some really good people in our district.  They care about the children, they make a difference in the lives of the children.  We can not afford to lose these kinds of people.  We have already lost one and that was a sad day for the Bridgeport students.  What I am hearing right now sounds like there is a witch hunt going on towards another of our good guys. There are some innuendos or accusations being made that are way out of line!!

Here is my promise to Bridgeport - If this nonsense doesn't stop, If you try to continue with this, If you try to destroy this good man - I Will Not Tolerate It!  No one in Bridgeport should tolerate it!
To the person or persons that are involved in this, I Will Come After You!  And that is not just for the person or persons actively involved in this -- This is also for the ones that are sitting back and keeping your mouths shut, Sitting back and covering your own ass so you keep your jobs or your little positions.  I am not threatening anyone with any kind of violence or anything like that.  I am just saying that there are some truths that need to come out, I will tell them.

Thieves And Liars Redux

Have I mentioned this month how much I truly despise Thieves and Liars?  Well I do, more than you can imagine.    So here is a reminder to everyone - YOU CAN NEVER TRUST A THIEF OR A LIAR!!  They will steal again - They will lie again.  Some people can never change!

 

A Bad Moon Rising

 

 

Bridgeport Township DDA Board Meeting March 8th, 2017

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Bridgeport Township Board Meeting March 7th, 2017

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Bridgeport Spaulding School Board Meeting February 27th, 2017

On the agenda:
- Citizen Participation begins at 0:42
- Agenda Adjustments begins at 11:28
- District Improvement Plan Presentation by Regina Lamontagne begins at 12:40
- Personnel Report begins at 1:09:08
- Discussion of the Curriculum Committee Meeting  (includes a discussion about consolidating Thomas White and Atkins) begins at 1:11:40
- Board And Superintendent Comments begin at 1:44:30
© 2017 Carla Citizen All Rights Reserved

In the citizen participation period, the Bridgeport Girl's Bowling coach Amy Morales introduced Bridgeport Senior Ally Neelis.  Ally has qualified for the individual state finals and is the first girl to qualify in the schools program history.  Also qualified for the individual boys state finals is Bridgeport Senior Kris Polk.  They needed some financial support to cover the costs of travel etc... to go and I hope they received it.  Congratulations to both Ally and Kris!

Regina Lamontagne provided an almost hour long update on the District Improvement Plan.  I am not qualified to say if this is a good plan or a bad plan.   It sounds good and also sounds complicated.  I truly hope they can make it work.  The Bridgeport students deserve the best!!

It took me several days to get this board meeting video uploaded and ready to share.  It has taken me even longer to write this blog post because there is something that has been weighing on my mind and I have been deciding on how to address it or whether to even address it at all.  There are actually many things that weigh on my mind with the Bridgeport School District but I will keep it to just this one item in this post.

It is the plan they talked about in the Building & Grounds/Finance meeting on Mon Feb 27th, which I do have posted on this blog and YouTube, and then again in this regular board meeting.  They are talking about consolidating Thomas White Elementary with Atkins Elementary and Atkins Middle School.  Kindergarten through 8th grade would all be housed in the Atkins building.  I can usually see both sides of an argument, I can even debate both sides with myself, but this is one I am struggling with.

They have looked at this option in the past for the cost savings it would possible produce, but I believe that it ended when it was decided that the cost savings would not be enough to justify the change.  The Bridgeport School District will be getting out of deficit soon it is projected, which will be great.  We have the much needed renewal of the 10 year 18 mill non-homestead levy and the 3 mill sinking fund levy up for vote on May 2nd and I hope that they both pass.  The financial health of our district is an issue that should be getting top priority, without it we are doomed.  Bridgeport does not have the tax base that it used to have, and we continue to bleed students from our district which means we continue to bleed money coming in.  I don't believe that we are bleeding as many students as we were but any loss of students is a loss to our district in so many ways.

They say they are looking at this option now for academic reasons.  They do discuss this line of thinking in both of these meetings on Monday. That is where I am struggling, to see their line of thinking.  My question is why can't they solve those academic issues without having to consolidate the schools to do it?  Will consolidating the schools actually help to solve those issues?  Are the underlying problems causing the academic issues so ingrained in our district that it would take a total overhaul to fix them?  Would it take a complete overhaul from the school board, to the administration, to the teachers and staff to fix them? Another words, a total house cleaning.  Is it someday going to require the state to step in to fix the academic issues?  I pray not!!

When I look at the school districts surrounding us, especially the higher achieving districts, I don't see any school that has 9 grades housed in 1 building.  You have to take into account that some of these other districts are larger districts, with larger tax bases.  Even the smaller districts, ones closer to the size of Bridgeport, are benefiting from the school of choice option and drawing in students from the poorer performing districts. Saginaw Township has several elementary schools with only grades K to 2nd, several with K to 3rd or K to 5th in one building.  I believe Freeland has K to 2nd.  Frankenmuth and Birch Run have K to 4th. Carrollton has K to 5th.  Would having 9 grades in 1 building truly be condusive to academic success and to the environment for the students?  I don't have an answer to that question, but I hate to see our district be used as a test and end up failing.  It is the students who will suffer the most if it turns out to be a failure.  And also in the end the whole school district, and the township, will suffer if it turns out to be a failure. There is a lot at stake here and failure should never be an option.

So it sounds like consolidating these three schools into one building would create one new school.  There would no longer be a school in our district that is in priority status.  At least that is what I got out of discussions from both of these meetings.  That sounds great doesn't it?  It was even mentioned in both meetings that getting out from under the School Reform Office would be a unintended beneficial consequence of consolidating the three schools into one new school.  But if the underlying issues that caused the school to fall into priority status are not fixed, then how long before the new school falls back into priority status again?  If only the same several grades continue to fail, will the entire new school fall into priority status?  I don't know how having the 9 grades in the one school will affect those kinds of issues.   So maybe by consolidating the schools into one they can bypass the SRO for awhile at least, but what about the students in all of this?  Will the schools continue to fail for the students?  What will the future hold for the students?  This is their future.  There really is only one priority in all of this and that is the students, PERIOD!!  If they can get around the SRO but continue to fail the students, then what is the point in it all?  Will it just be delaying the inevitable?

One last concern I have about this plan is that some parents will not support this plan and instead will pull their students from Bridgeport and move them to another school district, or never enroll their students in Bridgeport to begin with.  I do not know how parents will feel about this.  If parents will pull their children from Bridgeport because of this plan, Bridgeport can not afford to lose many more students.  They have not voted on this plan yet in a school board meeting but I think they will be voting on it in the near future.  From what I heard in these two meetings, it sounds like they are seriously looking at this and making plans on moving forward with it.  If there are parents or concerned residents in our district that approve or disapprove of this plan - you need to let the administration and school board members hear your thoughts on this.