Red Cedar Elementary School Programming

East Lansing Public Schools [ logo ]

ELPS recently distributed a survey about programming in Red Cedar school.  I don’t know if the survey was designed to forecast enrollment for different types of programming but it has resulted in many parents getting wound up.  Below is a Public Response post I wrote on April 29, 2017 discussing Red Cedar programming if the $93M bond passed.  I believe the numbers have changed only slightly in the past two years.

Mike Conlin

April 29, 2017 PUBLIC RESPONSE POST

Punchline: If the bond passes, … Read more →

ELPS Bussing Costs // Mike Conlin

Back of a School Bus

EAST LANSING PUBLIC SCHOOL’S BUSSING COSTS

The recent controversy about the transition plans associated with ELPS implementing their elementary school reconfiguration made me curious about ELPS’s bussing costs.

I was shocked to find that ELPS spent $1,171,207 on student transportation in academic year 2017-18.  The graph below shows that this is a 61% ($443,478) increase in ELPS’s student transportation costs over the past eleven years.  Note that contracting out ELPD’s general education bussing to Dean Transportation, through the Ingham Intermediate School District (ISD), beginning … Read more →

Let’s stop playing checkers and start playing chess // Mike Conlin

East Lansing Public Schools [ logo ]

Many parents with children in East Lansing Public Schools (ELPS) have been in an uproar the past couple of days over the crazy transition plans the school board proposed.

As ELPS begins to implement their elementary school reconfiguration, it is clear that no one has done any credible analysis of: (i) how the elementary school catchment areas should be drawn; (ii) how the school of choice decisions should vary across schools and grades; (iii) how permeable boundary requests affect these decisions; and (iv) what … Read more →

Candidates for East Lansing School Board // Matt Kazmierski

East Lansing Public Schools [ logo ]

On November 6th, East Lansing residents will be voting to elect four school board members. There are currently six candidates running for the open seats. Below you will find some helpful, informational links on the various candidates.

If any of our Public Response readers have additional questions that they would like to ask the candidates, please reply to this email… and if we receive enough, we will put forth your questions to the candidates and post their responses in another email.

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Lansing State … Read more →

Possible Settlement with City Center II Developer? // Eliot Singer

City Center II Rendering

From the latest ELi story on the Project Formerly Known As City Center II, it appears DRW, the big-league Chicago day-trader, is going to settle with the former developer, in order to put an end to litigation and get those $10 million legacy MBT credits and brownfield money.

The MBT credits and 2008 brownfield were assigned to the lender and there is no evidence they were ever returned to PDIG/CCTP in the Cuyahoga settlement. There is also no evidence the lender assigned the credits … Read more →

Latest Tax Giveaway for Project Formerly Known As City Center II // Eliot Singer

City Center II Rendering

1) Revelation that DRW/Convexity was going to ask for a brownfield waited until after the vote on income tax.

2) There will be no money to pay for public services for the project for the duration of the brownfield (which could have been spread out longer, at 50/50 tax increment, if any tax diversion is warranted). I see there has been another shooting in the Grove St. garage, and with reduced property tax millage, the contribution toward public safety from the DDA TIF district … Read more →

District Bond Implementation // Kathleen Edsall

As a member of the District Bond Implementation committee, I have attend monthly meetings where we receive progress reports as well as discuss input from the individual school committees and school forums and make recommendations based on this input and our combined experiences in this community. The committee consists of principals, the architect (GMB), Clark Construction, EL planning, ELPL, community members, board members, cabinet members and the superintendent. The committee structure is posted on the website.

The major focus, of late, has been Red … Read more →

re: East Lansing or East Laggard? A vote for fossil fuels? // Maria Lapinski

For posting please –thank you!

I would like to echo the sentiment of James Anderson’s post. Our family came to EL because of its reputation as a progressive community; we stay here because we believe in many ways it is progressive-ish and that there is a shared sense of place that is lacking in the surrounding communities.

Yet, for 10 years, our community dialogue on education, including the school board, has been focused on buildings rather than the substance of our schools. Although Mr. … Read more →

Farm to School // Eliot Singer

Reading Jim Anderson’s post on school reconstruction reminded me (in a non sequitur way) that I’ve been wanting to urge East Lansing schools to get involved in the farm to school movement.

http://www.canr.msu.edu/farm_to_school/

I would also suggest looking at a city and MSU College of Education jointly sponsored charter school along the lines of Greenspire in Traverse City.

http://www.greenspireschool.org

 

Eliot Singer

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