Ugly Hedgehog - Photography Forum
Home Active Topics Newest Pictures Search Login Register
General Chit-Chat (non-photography talk)
School District Decision
Page 1 of 3 next> last>>
Mar 17, 2023 13:18:43   #
jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY
 
Our local school district is trying to make a tough decision. With declining enrollment, how should it allocate its buildings? We have one of the largest districts in the state. Until ten years ago, we had four elementary schools. Now we have three, and the board is trying to decide which one of them to close and where to put the kids. Around 1952, they build one large school for all the kids, K-12. That closed down the one-room schoolhouses. As enrollment grew, the four elementary schools were gradually built in four communities. I might be wrong, but I seem to remember a total enrollment of about 5,000 when we moved here fifty-six years ago. Now, enrollment is around 1,100.

Everyone wants their kids to go to the local school and have a short bus ride. No one wants to have kindergarten kids mixed in with seniors. Everyone wants lower school taxes. If a school is open, it requires light, heat, maintenance, a cafeteria staff, and cleaning. This is in addition to students and teachers. Regardless what the board decides, people will be unhappy. A question someone has to decide is how many kids would be required to keep an elementary school open?

I might be wrong, but I don't remember school busses being a thing in the 1950s. I seem to recall my mother driving me to school and me walking home afterwards. Maybe they became required when both parents started working.

Reply
Mar 17, 2023 13:53:36   #
Soul Dr. Loc: Beautiful Shenandoah Valley
 
When my Dad was stationed at Ft. Knox in Kentucky, we lived in the country. It took over a 1/2 hour to get to school on the bus. Nearest neighbor was about a 1/2 mile down the road.

Will

Reply
Mar 17, 2023 14:14:16   #
therwol Loc: USA
 
jerryc41 wrote:
I might be wrong, but I don't remember school busses being a thing in the 1950s. I seem to recall my mother driving me to school and me walking home afterwards. Maybe they became required when both parents started working.


There were school busses decades before the 50s. Perhaps they weren't common where you went to school. Don't you remember Beaver getting in trouble on the school bus? Do I need to mention the show?

https://www.transfinder.com/resources/School-Bus-Routing-History-of-the-School-Bus#:~:text=The%20earliest%20reports%20of%20a,existence%20and%20becoming%20more%20popular.

Reply
 
 
Mar 17, 2023 14:24:35   #
pendennis
 
jerryc41 wrote:
...
I might be wrong, but I don't remember school busses being a thing in the 1950s. I seem to recall my mother driving me to school and me walking home afterwards. Maybe they became required when both parents started working.


My mom went to a rural high school in the early 1940's, and she rode the school bus for about ten miles.

Reply
Mar 17, 2023 14:58:06   #
tramsey Loc: Texas
 
I grew up in a small town of 2500 people. The only kids that got a bus ride were the kids that lived out of the city limits. I lived on the far side of town and walked. Some of the country kids lived closer than I did and they rode the bus. At the time no one thought a thing about it, I lived in town so I walked and that was it. I don't know the total enrollment but my graduating class was 75 strong and one building for everyone

Reply
Mar 17, 2023 16:49:27   #
DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA
 
jerryc41 wrote:
... No one wants to have kindergarten kids mixed in with seniors...


When I was a kid, last millennium, we had one school. There were two buildings on the campus, housing K-5 and 6-12. There was one gym for all. We had no problems that I recognized having kindergarten kids and seniors in the same campus, although they were in different buildings and the buildings were connected.

And we walked to school, through snow, uphill.............

Actually, in High School we had one student who lived in another town, about 3 miles away. He was on the track team and he ran to school every day. We didn't have busing.

Reply
Mar 17, 2023 20:15:51   #
TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC
 
Without suggesting anything racially derogatory, the integration of schools in the 60s and the attendant desire to create racially diverse schools, increased bussing within urban areas dramatically. Also, the addition of “magnet schools (at least in NC where I live) increased bussing. Prior to that, most students lived in proximity to their schools, and walked, rode bikes, or were driven by their parents.

Reply
 
 
Mar 18, 2023 05:59:30   #
John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK
 
Same here Jerry. When we moved the village had a Secondary School. Numbers fell, not significantly, but enough that the Education Board chose to shut the school saving costs. They've been busing kids for nearly 30 years now.

They sold the land and a housing estate was built there, now there's enough kids to warrant a school but no budget (and no land) to build one. Not being able to see beyond the end of their nose has cost them (and us) a fortune.

Reply
Mar 18, 2023 08:20:05   #
Stephan G
 
jerryc41 wrote:
Our local school district is trying to make a tough decision. With declining enrollment, how should it allocate its buildings? We have one of the largest districts in the state. Until ten years ago, we had four elementary schools. Now we have three, and the board is trying to decide which one of them to close and where to put the kids. Around 1952, they build one large school for all the kids, K-12. That closed down the one-room schoolhouses. As enrollment grew, the four elementary schools were gradually built in four communities. I might be wrong, but I seem to remember a total enrollment of about 5,000 when we moved here fifty-six years ago. Now, enrollment is around 1,100.

Everyone wants their kids to go to the local school and have a short bus ride. No one wants to have kindergarten kids mixed in with seniors. Everyone wants lower school taxes. If a school is open, it requires light, heat, maintenance, a cafeteria staff, and cleaning. This is in addition to students and teachers. Regardless what the board decides, people will be unhappy. A question someone has to decide is how many kids would be required to keep an elementary school open?

I might be wrong, but I don't remember school busses being a thing in the 1950s. I seem to recall my mother driving me to school and me walking home afterwards. Maybe they became required when both parents started working.
Our local school district is trying to make a toug... (show quote)


Having grown up in the city of Chicago, we lived three city blocks from the grade school. Most of the kids walked to school. Although some of the younger ones were escorted by their parents and some were driven to the school. High school, for me, was about five miles away. Took the CTA city bus with a transfer to the CTA train then walking about mile, or another bus, to get to the school. So most of my fellow students used the public transportation to get to the school. Did most of my homework on the trip back to home. There were a few school buses for the high school. (There was that one day that I got to the high school, only having to turn around and go home. The school was closed due to snow!)

Reply
Mar 18, 2023 09:00:28   #
jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY
 
I grew up on Long Island, and schools were within walking distance - whatever that is. Today, I'm sure the kids ride busses. State laws govern how far a kid can walk before he qualifies for a bus.

I wanted to use Google Earth to check the distance from my old house to my school, but "Unfortunately your computer does not support WebGL graphics acceleration; Google Earth cannot be loaded." I've used it before, but I guess G.E. is now more demanding.

I clicked on Learn More, and it said my computer does support WebGL. That's not at all surprising: it does and it doesn't, just like Schrödinger's cat. 😂

EDIT: I got G. E. to stay open, but measuring isn't available. Using the scale at the bottom, it looks like school was 2.5 miles from where I lived.

Reply
Mar 18, 2023 09:24:17   #
jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana
 
jerryc41 wrote:
Our local school district is trying to make a tough decision. With declining enrollment, how should it allocate its buildings? We have one of the largest districts in the state. Until ten years ago, we had four elementary schools. Now we have three, and the board is trying to decide which one of them to close and where to put the kids. Around 1952, they build one large school for all the kids, K-12. That closed down the one-room schoolhouses. As enrollment grew, the four elementary schools were gradually built in four communities. I might be wrong, but I seem to remember a total enrollment of about 5,000 when we moved here fifty-six years ago. Now, enrollment is around 1,100.

Everyone wants their kids to go to the local school and have a short bus ride. No one wants to have kindergarten kids mixed in with seniors. Everyone wants lower school taxes. If a school is open, it requires light, heat, maintenance, a cafeteria staff, and cleaning. This is in addition to students and teachers. Regardless what the board decides, people will be unhappy. A question someone has to decide is how many kids would be required to keep an elementary school open?

I might be wrong, but I don't remember school busses being a thing in the 1950s. I seem to recall my mother driving me to school and me walking home afterwards. Maybe they became required when both parents started working.
Our local school district is trying to make a toug... (show quote)


Busses were the thing for rural kids in Indiana well before the 50s. My mother talked about riding one to elementary school, and she was born in 1907.

Reply
 
 
Mar 18, 2023 09:31:51   #
BebuLamar
 
I don't know I paid more than half of my property tax to the school district. I don't have kids and I never went to high school or lower in the USA. I did go to college but that doesn't belong to the school district.

Reply
Mar 18, 2023 09:39:37   #
jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY
 
BebuLamar wrote:
I don't know I paid more than half of my property tax to the school district. I don't have kids and I never went to high school or lower in the USA. I did go to college but that doesn't belong to the school district.


I get a school tax bill from the school and a property tax bill from the county. A friend told me about neighbors of his who pay less than $50 a year in property tax. Don't they have a house? It's the inequality that makes so many people pay more than their share.

Even people who don't drive have to pay to maintain the roads.

Reply
Mar 18, 2023 10:01:43   #
whatdat Loc: Del Valle, Tx.
 
tramsey wrote:
I grew up in a small town of 2500 people. The only kids that got a bus ride were the kids that lived out of the city limits. I lived on the far side of town and walked. Some of the country kids lived closer than I did and they rode the bus. At the time no one thought a thing about it, I lived in town so I walked and that was it. I don't know the total enrollment but my graduating class was 75 strong and one building for everyone


Likewise. I grew up in a yoen of 25,000. Only kids from outside the city limits rode school buses.

Reply
Mar 18, 2023 10:04:46   #
home brewer Loc: Fort Wayne, Indiana
 
We lived way out the city limits and I attended kindergarten in a elementary starting in 1955 school I road a school bus 3.2 miles one way for about 2 years until a new school elementary school was built 1.2 mile bus ride because US30 was in the way. The middle school I attended was a 2.8 miles bus ride. I walked and then drove 1.4 miles to the new high school.

Reply
Page 1 of 3 next> last>>
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.
General Chit-Chat (non-photography talk)
UglyHedgehog.com - Forum
Copyright 2011-2024 Ugly Hedgehog, Inc.