So let me get this straight. The school district is short on funds and is looking at budget cuts and then authorizes a company to conduct a survey regarding a levy and bond referendum at a cost of $14,500 to interview 400 people. That's $36.25 per response from a person that the board spent. Couldn't they have used a stamp to mail out the survey to all residents, or posted the questionnaire on their website for free and take an advertisement out in the PL American letting people know the questionaire is on their website? No, instead the school spends $36.25 per response. They are cutting programs because there isn't enough money in the budget and then they spend $14,500 on a survey on how to raise taxes to get more money! Is this fiscal responsibility? Maybe the board should sit in on an economics or math class. No wonder we don't have enough money from the budget to get to our kids in the classroom with the board spending money like this. I'll bet that the kids could spend the money more wisely in their own classrooms if it went directly to them instead of through the board and then we could do away with the boards stipend too and save even more! I have a question for all the board memebers. Why should I vote to give you more of my money when you aren't spending the money you're already taking from me wisely? Good luck trying to get a new referendum and levy passed now.

Here's what I get from Johnson's rant:. "I refuse to vote to fund public schools, I refuse to get formally involved, I refuse to get educated on the topic, but I will complain endlessly." And that's fine, but quit trying to convince others the sky is falling when it isn't, you just hate the sky.

Being a member of the school board is a no-win situation. They will never make a decision or spend money in a way that makes everyone happy. Never. They rarely hear praise, but frequently hear criticism.

I believe you actually used less of the "debate" style discussion and more of an "attack" prior to me. I reacted in a similar manner. Can I justify the spending? I don't have to because it's not my decision. In general I am in agreement with the intent of spending the money and my experience in business doesn't raise any redflags related to the cost.

I actually think I made an fairly accurate assumption. Ranting about $14,500 strikes me still as a great example of someone who is not involved but thinks he/she knows better and combs through the expense reports line item by line item looking for ANYTHING to use as proof positive that irresponsible spending is occuring.

And to my credit, based on your admission .....makes me think, what other monies is being spent that may not be getting put to the best use....I was close to, if not 100% accurate in my assumption.

Are you complaining endlessly? No probably not personally, but what you did was plant the seed in the community, it'll grow and multiply and mutate by itself until a small but vocal population will be calling for a revolt and rallying to cut funding.

While you mention support of the schools in the past, you don't refer to the past referendum specifically, I made an assumption that you don't support the schools because your tactic mimics the anti-referendum tactics of CAG, looking for anything they disagree with, and using it to further their anti-referendum agenda.

I still don't think I'm far from the truth.

While your comments seem solid on the surface, underneath I find areas to disagree. The accuracy of any statement sent via the election process is only as strong as the percentage of voters participating. I can't quote the actual turnout numbers, but I think they were less than 30% of eligable voters for the past election. So of that small (minority of population) number, the concensus was against the referendum. But I think that's all you can take away from it.

As far as extra curriculars; band, sports, etc. it's not just whether parents "want" their kids to participate, it's also whether they can "afford" those activities oiutside of the school structure. What you get, is a pronounced division between economic classes in the school which seems logically wrong.

School should be a place for every child to be given equal opportunity to discover their passions and reach their potential. Not just those from more affluent homes.

gdubya. Let me say that yes I did specifically vote for the last referendum/levy. You keep saying I'm not involved. Do you want me to go to every board meeting and all other meetings open to the public? Will that then make me "informed" enough to your satisfaction? You state that being on the board is a no-win situation and rarely hear praise. I believe that is true. But lets remember they chose to run for the board and serve the community in this way. They are free to resign or not seek re-election. No one is making them serve. It is their own free will. I believe overall the board has done a good job. It is an honor to be voted for and receive the voters support in order to serve. In these tough times, I think every amount of spending needs to be evaluated to see where savings can be made in order to make the money go further. I think we will just have to agree to disagree. You believe the $14,500 was well spent and I don't. End of story.

I don't believe you.

Instead, I think this is merely the excuse you will prop up to justify your vote because if you think just a little, you'll realize how foolish it is to think that standing in front of Cub to conduct the survey is FREE. As Dotconnector posted previously, in order to get valid, unbiased results there is a bunch of work that comes before survey questions are asked and afterwards and none of that is free. The School Board members would also be compensated for their time.

noconfidence is 100% right, and regarding the kids selling stuff, my kids do it as little as possible...if they WANT to that's fine, but I find it disgusting that schools expect kids to go around and sell stuff to fund their own education.

Schools do not need to be "architectural statements", they need to have four walls and a ceiling, parents can pay for the extra curricular activities their kids want to do and we can put money back into the education, not all the other crap that people seem to expect a school to do these days.

Gdubya :

No one said anything about dirt floors and what is wrong with concrete floors? Works for the Target Center, Xcel Energy Center, University Of Minnesota,Normandale and wait parts of the Mall of America has them too. So do me a favor unplug your router and stop wasting bandwidth.

Yep, I exaggerated to make a point, that being that a lot of contributors here don't think through the statements. Just because you can type 50 words a minute doesn't mean you should.

The comment ...Schools do not need to be "architectural statements" is ignorant of the truth. Truth is, every building is making some sort of statement. It's the concept of "Branding", which means much more than just a logo. In this case the brand consists of 4 things, District 719, Prior Lake and Savage and all the residents. Every interaction residents, students, visitors have with the district, its buildings and people is an opportunity for the brand to say, "THIS IS WHO WE ARE". The district thinks we (you, me, Prior Lake, Savage) "ARE" better than a strip mall 4 walls and a ceiling school. And I agree.

It appears the brand, as communicated by the highschool, is being positioned as "Contemperary upscale, ready for the new century". I like it, I can connect with that.

You can always second guess execution, but I don't support creating a brand image for us that says we're strip-mall cheap.

You're funny. Stop "reacting" and start "thinking" about what you type. Do you think I'm making this up? The fact that you sacrifice the Hummer to feed your family IS part of your statement! And that ain't bad, it's practical. Why is it so hard for your to understand?
There's the real world, and there's the subset that you understand. If this is over your head, that's too bad, but it is the real world my boy.

Is there an ebay store at your stripmall?

I'll try to take the conversation another direction.

Think of the money the district paid for the survey from their perspective. They see it as an investment. If the referendum passes, it will have been money very well spent. Why? The district will have to make draconian budget cuts of $7,000,000 or $8,000,000 if the referendum does not pass this fall because an existing levy is expiring. The $1,000,000 or so they have cut per year the last three years will seem like pocket change compared with what they will have to cut if the referendum doesn't pass this fall.

With the stakes that high, it is easier (for me) to understand why the district would spend $14,000 on a survey.

What? Branding? A school district that has a monopoly and virtually zero competition? That's one of the most ignorant things I have ever read...school need to teach our kids in a safe, healthy environment, that is their job, and due to the fact it's a gov't run monopoly is the primary reason that the public school system is producing undereducated children while spending record amounts of money on stupid crap like "branding".

OMG...branding...wow...

I'd rather produce a better product in a lesser building...but more superficial, image-concerned, one up on the Jones' people probably feel otherwise. Branding and outward appearance are so far down on my list of what is important to my kids education it's not even visible from atop that high horse of yours.

I think gdubya is Westerhaus.

Q:.....Why dont you answer the question? What does making a statement on " who we are this is Prior Lake " have to do with education?

A:....In reality the brand is not directly connected to education ( I assume you mean the ability to teach kids and have them learn). I didn't say there was. I'm simply trying to get you to a point where you understand that every building is making an architectural statement and why thought is put into the design process. I'll stop trying now.

DBMasters:...... Samething. Just trying to help you understand how and why things happen. I'll stop.

..."it's not even visible from atop that high horse of yours." Give me a break DB. If trying to rationally explain how and why "I" think we got the building we got puts me on a high horse, you must find yourself stuck on the pony ride alot.

While I can't quote anything right now, there are correlations between peoples ability to think creatively vs. their state of mind. Environment can certainly affect a persons state of mind. Architecture is part of the environment, you get the picture; oh wait... you don't.

Noconfidence:
....I think gdubya is Westerhaus.

I bet you say that to everyone you disagree with.

Ignoring the highschool and redtail ridge, can you provide me (us) a list of "massive waste of the past"?

Because those are going to be the obvious responses, and you can Monday morning quarterback those decisions to death. In addition, that is "Bond" money and I was more interested in examples of massive waste that is "Levy" (classroom) money.

I'm at a loss for words. I have a fundamental disagreement with most posts on this site. It seems to me no matter how much the school district strips programs, reduces the budget, when will it be enough? You can always be anti-something because there will always be something to be anti.. But, when you are in a district where there is a brand new school built that sits idle, don't red flags start to rise? There is less offered in this district than when I was in school 20 years ago! I never thought I'd have less to offer my children than what I received... arn't we supposed to offer our children as good or better lives/learning than what we had, isn't that what this country has been built on?