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Editorials
Maintain public input on school boundaries : Editorials : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisMaintain public input on school boundaries
| 7/22/2010
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As we reported last week, the Oswego School District Board received a proposal from a consulting firm to provide a variety of services to the district relating to the drawing of future attendance boundaries for district schools. If the board decides to hire the firm, it could cost up to $70,000, depending upon the services the firm would provide.
Todd Colvin, associate superintendent, acknowledged that $70,000 is a lot of money, but suggested it might be an expenditure board members would wish to consider given the $150 million to $250 million the district expects to spend in the coming years on school building projects.
In considering the consultants' proposal-or any others from competing firms-we believe the board should proceed very cautiously.
We agree with Colvin--$70,000 is a lot of money. In fact, it could more than cover the cost for the salary and benefits of a classroom teacher.
Until now, a succession of district administrators has done a generally done a good job in forecasting the district's enrollment and drawing up school attendance boundaries.
Besides the additional expense, we are concerned that consultants the board might hire will be less familiar with the school district community as the district's administrators who are here every day and therefore less accountable.
The board should also be wary that the presence of consultants might serve to limit public input into the process of drawing boundary lines. When current boundaries were drawn up for the district's two high schools several years ago, district administrators made sure interested taxpayers had plenty of opportunity to make their own suggestions and opinions known. Taxpayers should have the same opportunity-if not more-for input on the next boundary plan.
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