Four Ludington School Millage Myths: DEBUNKED!

[XLFD]

Our late arriving spring still has a lot of things flying around Ludington that aren't insects, it's outright lies propagated by the Ludington Area School District (LASD) and their allies, many who should know a lot better.  Many do, but they reiterate tired homilies, have sympathetic and friendly print and social media print them over and over again so that it will be rote for the majority of the population when May 7th comes. 

Incredibly, many of the 'self-evident' claims they broadcast to the area just so happen to not make a lot of sense under analysis.  

MYTH 1:  The Lower Elementary Buildings are Functionally Obsolete and Need Replacing

"The State of Michigan defines the useful life of a school building at 40 years old."  - Vic Burwell and March LASD flyer

"These buildings are well used and bursting at the seams, and do not always provide the ideal learning environment necessary for success in the 21st century." - Shelby Soberalski

DEBUNKED:  The state legislature has never passed a bill up to the governor for signing into law declaring that the useful life of schools are 40 years-- in fact, one can only seem to find that declaration in pro-millage literature throughout the state.  It may even seem reasonable in these days from a culture that promotes disposability and recycling among many everyday things.

Yet, what makes a learning institution prestigious, that is, what makes a school inspire respect and admiration from prospective students and their parents?  Is it brand new buildings following the latest trend in education.  No, it's quite the opposite:  every single college and school at the top of 'most prestigious' lists not only possess buildings over a hundred years old, they feature them prominently in their marketing literature.  The top 3 universities by reputation in 2018 in the world and their oldest building(s) still standing that add tremendously to that aura are:

1) Harvard University: Massachusetts Hall (1720)

2) MIT: MacLauren Building, Killian Court, etc. (1916-17)

3) Stanford University: Main Quadrangle (1887-1906)

Cambridge and Oxford Universities, the next two on the list sitting in England, have buildings over 500 years old.  The same holds true for the three most prestigious non-secondary schools of the world:

1)  Phillips Exeter Academy: Academy Building (1912)

2)  Lawrenceville School (NJ): campus buildings built in 1894-5, it's a national landmark

3)  Phillips Academy Andover (MD): Bulfinch Hall 1819 and Graves Hall 1882, Pearson Hall 1817 

New buildings constructed to last for about as long as their roof does (30-40 years) do not inspire too many people and this is already part of the DNA of the proposed new school on Bryant Road.  Such transience started being the norms for new schools built since the middle of the twentieth century, when the thinking changed to where new school buildings every forty years seemed a better idea.

This thinking describes every Ludington school but one, built back when schools were meant to last more than a couple of generations and architects stood proudly behind their design:  Foster Elementary.   Built primarily in 1925, Foster Elementary currently serves about 450 3rd-5th Grade students in the heart of Ludington's residential districts, using only 12 of 16 classrooms within the walls.  It has been renovated a couple of other times over the last twenty years to modernize and expand, in recognition of the proud heritage it has had for nearly one hundred years.  It shall never be a centennial school if this millage passes.

MYTH 2:  You Can't Teach Superior 21st Century Learning in Inferior 20th Century Schools

"We have had problems recruiting people to live in Ludington due to our out dated educational facilities... We need to have schools that reflect our commitment to our future" - Eric Erwin

"Providing a new up-to-date facility will enhance the foundational opportunities of development... The LASD secondary complex will also be updated to 21st century learning" - Mary & Don Klemm

DEBUNKED:   How many different ways of teaching were tried in the 20th Century?  Too many to count, and a diverse range of 20th Century teaching methods are taught successfully still in 20th Century and older facilities.  When our educators can't even explain the tenets of 21st Century learning and why it demands we alter our facilities so dramatically, you may just find yourself glomming onto the latest fad that may wreck our educational system in Ludington.

After the Visigoths sacked Rome early in the 5th century which ushered in the Dark Ages, would not the 5th Century Learning that followed be a bit inferior to the Fourth Century Learning of the Romans?  The same could be analyzed here in comparing what are called 21st century skills with what Ludington is accomplishing without fully investing in the trend.  

Many schools have had recent upgrades, some have embraced 21st Century protocols to prepare for a digital age, but guess what:  Our quiz bowl team is the current state Class B champions, and our archaic 20th Century skills have fostered an O-bot team that has qualified for the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) worldwide tournament for the second year in a row.

Looking deeper at 21st Century skills, we find that they emphasize the four 'C's:  Collaboration, Communication, Critical thinking, and Creativity.  They also embrace the implementation of the two 'C's in education:  Common Core.  Common core is a top-down approach from a set of educators in Washington DC that likely have no notion of the skills you need to thrive in your region.  It also seems to go completely counter to the four 'C's (read this recent essay by a noted educator).  

If 21st Century learning can only be accomplished through radical changes of the school and its curriculum, this should thoroughly be analyzed by the public as to see why it is not as adaptable (and successful, as our academic teams illustrate) as 20th Century learning. 

MYTH 3:  The Public was Actively Involved and Closely Listened to in the Process

"During the planning process: 11 community forums/Transformation/Think Tanks were held."  - March LASD Flyer

"The LASD strategic planning process has been in the public eye, and discussed in open LASD board meeting discussions since 2015... Clearly LASD believes that an accurately informed public is critical for our community." - Rick Plummer

DEBUNKED:  According to the LASD's own facilities assessment page, the community were only involved in five 'meetings', beginning about a year ago:

April 25, 2018:  Think Tank

May 31: Facilities Development update to community 

June 27:  Community presentation Scenarios F,G,H

Sept. 25:  Community forum

October 10:  Community Forum

The board had presentations to them on the project May 21st, October 29, and November 19th where the public was able to attend.  At the last meeting they chose between two scenarios that were never brought before the public prior to that meeting (scenario J and K), yet the local media left out that they would be choosing any scenario that night, nor was it on the agenda.

Frankly, they tried to keep the public out of the loop for the longest time, because there isn't one solution that the public would be happy with, the survey suggests that.  LASD didn't start providing the public information on its site until I suggested they do that as part of a FOIA request last June.  

I attended the very last community forum as an observer, where Scenarios A-H were bandied about along with a couple of other ideas and saw enough to reason that the public would be listened to but not heard any of the general consensus of those gathered become either scenario J and K.  These were two artificial options that favored the contractors, not the taxpayers.

MYTH 4:  Going Over $100 Million in Debt is a Great Investment in Our Kids

"An investment into the long-term success of our daughters, school system and community."  - Seth Earl

"The proposal represents a great deal of money" - Mike Nagle

DEBUNKED:  Going deep in debt is an investment in long-term success of our community?   All of the children going to LASD schools right now will be paying for these 'improvements' for many years should they decide to stay in the area, providing those jobs magically appear from companies moving into the area who are not taken aback by the increased tax burden placed on them by a 'yes' vote on May 7, 2019.  

But even before that, you and every business in the district will be collectively paying out millions and millions of dollars each year to pay for the luxury of moving our kids into the 21st century and outside of the city limits in a quiet little forest.  Some individuals are assuredly at their break-even point, but what of our businesses?

Harsco recently took their 300 union jobs south and over $15,000,000 out of the local economy, other businesses are just eking by or preparing to reevaluate their position and whether they can succeed.  Those that leave, leave behind more debt for the rest of us; those that consider moving here, see a millage rate ready to go up significantly and reconsider. 

This is a great deal of money, which piles up with all of the other infrastructure improvements needed in the area that has sent the City of Ludington tens of millions in debt for mandated water and sewer projects, with tens of millions more to come.   This falls not only on city residents but on all those other townships and Scottville who effectively need to fee the service ever upward.  

School improvements cannot be looked at in a vacuum, there is a bigger picture here that is not being looked at by the average pro-millage person.  Would you put your own household in deep debt on a speculative venture like this is, where the 'improvement' might actually hurt your family more in the long run?

CONCLUSION:  This millage is not only being pushed on us by an almost exclusive cadre of wealthy investors affiliated with West Shore Bank, who are the likely benefactors of the interest on our debt payments, but also by Christman Construction and GMB Architects who seem to have been given the informal nod by LASD long before there was competitive bidding performed this last November (not to mention the other three contractors who didn't have to submit bids for their services).  The competitive bidding process was deeply flawed, as will be duly pointed out.

You will find that many of the above links lead to the Mason County Press, as they have featured nine letters to the editor over the last 18 days (that's one every two days) all in favor of the millage in one way or the other using one or more of the four myths.  Is it just coincidental that the editor of that website has a wife that sits on the Scottville (MCC) School Board who is probably just waiting in the wings to introduce more debt to her school district if Ludington's bond measure passes?  I know one area 'news' source that will market that.

[Willy]

According to the MCP only about 30% of eligible voters turned out to have a say on putting themselves and others deep in debt. The kicker to that is only 19% of the total registered voters approved the anchor that was placed around our necks. I don't know how this vote would have gone if all voters turned out but I do know that letting less than 20% of the people deciding my future debt is not acceptable, but want can be done? Unless those that did not vote are lying in bed wrapped up in traction I must declare that you are stupid and lazy citizens who should move to a Country where you would not be allowed to vote because then you would have your excuse not to exercise your freedom and rights.

[stump]

 I guess on the voter turn out 30% is about average. The vote in  May is another thing, I think all votes should be done during election periods. More , not much more people do vote during that time  and there also wouldn't be the extra cost . But if it was held then it might have failed. To all you uninformed renters ,OH NO!!!!! your rents going up.  Land lords can't take another hit