I watched the KAMU candidate forum, and I have to say, some things that school board candidate Kyle Barrington said are just alarming. First of all, in his first minute, he said "we have to rezone our schools" THREE times. He said "we will never have permanent boundaries". He also said the "community wanted the board to make all the [boundary] decisions" which is why the board created FC Local, the policy we now use to rezone. I was unaware that the "community" wanted to opt out of having a say in rezoning??? He went on further to say he would change that rezoning policy 4 ways (I'm paraphrasing here): 1) creating parent committees from each school to partake in the boundary discussion, 2) move the discussion date up 2 months to October instead of December, 3) grandfather current 8th graders IN THE FUTURE and 4) allow the board to override grandfathering the 8th graders with a majority vote (I'm still scratching my head on those last 2 as the majority of the board voted against grandfathering this spring). Then he said again in his conclusion that we will have to rezone a lot in the future. This guy seems like a 1 issue candidate, and he's got a love affair with rezoning.
Oh yeah, his 2nd issue is that he is against single member districts because they "divide a community up". But rezoning over and over will bring the community together? Especially when the board is only representing a couple of neighborhoods in town, and those conveniently never get rezoned. Will parent committees from each school make everyone play nice during rezoning and bring the community back together? I'm highly skeptical.
Oh yeah, his 2nd issue is that he is against single member districts because they "divide a community up". But rezoning over and over will bring the community together? Especially when the board is only representing a couple of neighborhoods in town, and those conveniently never get rezoned. Will parent committees from each school make everyone play nice during rezoning and bring the community back together? I'm highly skeptical.