Reply to Mclean boundary changes - can someone please update?

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Reply to "Mclean boundary changes - can someone please update?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When do they plan on making a decision? My child is on 6th so it would be nice to know![/quote]

No specific date mentioned - just planning to implement this fall if they decide to change boundaries.

They should leave things alone for now.  McLean is getting the modular and Cooper will soon turn into a construction site.[/quote]

The modular is simply a replacement for some of the 14 trailers on-site... not intended to be in addition to them.  Some of the trailers had to be moved to the tennis courts to accommodate, and despite all this the school remains well over capacity (even taking those trailers into account).  There's not an ideal situation here, but McLean has been the most over capacity for the longest period of time, so I think there's some urgency to mitigate the situation, even if it means Cooper is over capacity in 2022-23 school year (even that is a bit debatable, I know the project isn't scheduled to complete until summer 2023, but unclear if some/all of the additional classroom capacity might come online 2022-23 prior to the completion of the entire project).  2021-22 would only see a shift of 7th graders to Cooper, so only half the increase realized, and shouldn't create major crowding issues.  Just because there's construction happening on one part of the site doesn't necessarily mean major impacts on the rest of the site.

The alternative of allowing McLean's current situation to persist/worsen and not regain access to some of their facilities sooner is the worse option... they've been dealing with more for longer, Cooper can better deal with a comparatively minor inconvenience in the interim IMO.[/quote]

At McLean, with the modular, the trailers on the tennis court would be removed.  There might still be a few trailers, but it would be less than a handful as opposed to 18.

Cooper would have been overcrowded by about the same amount as McLean in 2019-20, but for a modular already installed there.  With the renovation, they will lose current classroom space throughout the renovation under any circumstances, and it will be worse if they start moving Longfellow kids there.

So the first three options just mitigate an overcrowding situation at McLean and aggravate an overcrowding situation at Cooper.  They really should wait until the Cooper renovation is finished and/or bite the bullet and fund the permanent addition that McLean has needed.  It's unfortunate that it's taken them so long to share the information that makes clear that they don't have any great alternatives, but that's on Jeff Platenberg.  They need to go back and take a harder look at their capital budget and other available funding sources, and stop offering "options" that are just three varieties of bad. [/quote]

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