Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Level of interest

On the January "Start a new post," Bystander wrote:

"The City Coucil session aired today featured testimony and public comment on the acquisition of a property to allow for the continued growth of the Environmental Charter School. I have heard parents and community memebers speak in support of several PPS buildings with the same passion as was on display today. These are often east end schools. Why is the level of interest greater in some areas of the city?"

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

watching the boardmeeting. is there any correlation between level of public interest and level of a boardmemeber's contribution to the conversation?

Anonymous said...

look at the area of schools being close is where you see new schols coming in such as the Environmental Charter Schools that's my interest i am a tax payer i always have a interest in what goes on in the PPS there is a correlation they are both stakeholders both have a right to engage in conversation

bystander said...

Anonymous 12:41, I think I am following your thinking. The people providing comment at council on behalf of ECS were most often parents of students but also noted "I live 500 steps away from the school" or something similiar. For a charter, ECS seems a lot like a neighborhood school. One speaker, who neither was in favor or opposed to the expansion/relocation of ECS brought thoughts worth remembering as many jump on charter school bandwagons.

Anonymous said...

Bystander,

I hope that the people who jump on the charter school bandwagon do their homework. If they did, they most likely would not be so gun-ho!

Mark Rauterkus said...

$.02 observation:

In the western side of the city there are other options, beyond Charter Schools, such as OLSH, Bishop Canevin, Seton LaSalle. Perhaps those schools, among others, have lessen the demand for the charter school alternative.

Moving from the south neighborhoods of the city to Bethel Park, Brentwood, KO, South Park, etc, is NOT as "drastic" of a family shift for those in the south and west as it is in the eastern quarters. Case in point: Uprooting from Shadyside and Sq.Hill are more UNLIKE Penn Hills on many levels.

bystander said...

Anonymous 8:18, in 5-10 years we will be talking about problems with charter schools the way we talk about traditional public schools now. The details will be different, but charters are riding their wave now and for whatever reason (expansion maybe) they will be hitting their walls with very very few exceptions.