Please note, for some reason this reposted itself to March 25th. It should be dated and placed March 24th.

This makes the 3rd posting in my series on Questioning "sadly mistaken when it comes to the facts..." This time we are discussing the science labs, "Science labs will be expanded and made safe for today's academics."

The Vote Yes ad in March 20th BrookfieldNOW follows much the same train of thought. (The same person who made the comment is the treasurer for the Vote Yes group and member of HSST.)

Photos are from Central High School's chemistry room from this year's tour.

I believe the chemistry rooms are currently set up for 24 students using the lab stations, at least that is what I wrote down last year in my tour notes from East.

Principal LaBonte said they had 28 student lab stations at Central this year. Should the referendum pass, they would be adding 2 more.

Regardless of the actual number, the administration thinks adding 2 is necessary. 

When I figured out how many students were in the average class in my last school post, I came up with 25. Out of that 25 student number, at Central, 1.5 were non-resident. At East, 2 out of 25 were non-resident.

Can you see why limiting our non-resident students becomes very important?

I can appreciate that certain improvements could be made to the science rooms. I just don't think we need a referendum to do it.

Photo 2 shows the chemical closet and emergency shower (yellow object on wall between doors).

Last year, after the referendum failed, I had requested a cost estimate for improving the chemistry rooms twice. Here is one of my email questions: "After the referendum, I had requested price information on how much replacing the chemistry labs would be. This would include new cabinets and counter tops, plumbing, gas supply, chemical storage lockers,  proper ventilation exhaust fans in the ceiling as well as vent hoods for chemical mixing.  I have not heard back from you."

My point being, how do you know you cannot afford to improvewhat you have, if you don't know how much the improvements would be? I have not received an answer. I think mainly because they really do not know.

If you look at  Facilities Fact Sheet 20: Science Classrooms Limit Instruction it states that there are a number of problems in the chem. labs: A lack of science-specific ventilation, lack of chemical storage so teachers would not need to transport chemicals via carts down the halls during busy class break times, corroded faucets, etc., and as mentioned on tour, cabinetry and drawers that do not work.

I think any one of these could be addressed without too much trouble. Ventilation? There was a new (2 years old) vent hood at Central for mixing chemicals (3rd picture).

These science rooms are on the top floor, so a ceiling vent exhaust fan could be installed to improve room air quality without too much difficulty.

Lack of chemical storage at East? Yes, that is a problem. But couldn't the teacher transport the needed items for the day to class and keep in a locked cabinet before school started? This would eliminate the cart transportation during class change times.

Corroded faucets and metal surfaces from caustic chemicals? Ever hear of replacing a faucet or surface as needed? We have done ours at our house. Haven't you? 

Actually, chemistry has become rather tame these days because there is so much concern about volatile chemicals and safety. My college student laments they don't use the fun stuff anymore at school in electronics and physics: its too dangerous.

Cabinetry that has doors and drawers that don't work? Well, if the maintenance staff was directed to stop responding to repair orders over 5 years ago in anticipation of the referendum, I guess that is a problem now. But they could have been repaired before they became such a problem. One solution now would be to install a new lab station or two and use the removed one for parts to repair the remainders?

Another issue raised in that fact sheet were AP classes. AP classes are often very small, yet command a classroom for an entire school period. If AP classes are driving the space issue, perhaps we should consider running them at a different time of day? Maybe extend the school day for AP so they can use labs longer? Maybe combine them at one school? Most students have their own cars (very few upper class men use the school bus system). It is a whole other topic that needs looking into. 

Please note that there is a LCD projector in the classroom in the 3rd photo. 

Next, I'll be working on the BIG issue for this referendum, and that of course is the amount of money being spent on sports. (Think 1.4 acres of new gym related facilities at east.) Stay tuned!

Guest posting: Referendum: a blank check to build or add athletic facilities? 

ACADEMICS, NOT ATHLETICS: VOTE NO.

Elmbrook School District Referendum Links:

HSST Meeting Minutes 

Cost Breakdowns of Type of Work (cost per square footage)

Wording of the April 1, 2008 $62.190.000 referendum 

Architect's Conceptual High School Floorplans--East and Central

Facility "Needs" comparison of failed 2007 and present 2008 referendums

Key Academic Benefits: click on that subject heading.

Tour Schedule  

Tax Calculator  

Frequently Asked Questions

Elmbrook asks for smaller expansion--JSOnline (Also includes links to past articles)

Still no link to the 2008 Election Edition of the Link. Hope you got your copy.

Former 2007 Referendum Facilities Facts Sheets (Still a good read)

The countdown continues: Just 8 days until MILLIONS OF DOLLARS Tuesday!

Email me your thoughts on the $62.2 million dollar referendum.

Links: Brookfield7, Betterbrookfield,  Vicki Mckenna 

OR, WHY LIMITING NON-RESIDENT STUDENTS IS VERY IMPORTANT

This is the 2nd in my series on Questioning "sadly mistaken when it comes to the facts" regarding the referendum.

Following the order of the HSST member's comments, she notes that "libraries will be expanded for the academic need (currently students can't get into the libraries to do research if a class is using the space)."

Now the first question I am asking myself is, what classes are the libraries being used for on a daily basis that prohibit a student from quietly searching the shelves or using a library computer?  A regular class size ranges from 18 to 30 students for the most part. Fact Sheet 19 from last year shows a photo of East's library. In a note to the side it states:

In modern libraries entire classes are brought in to conduct web-based literary and scientific research...Often two classes are being taught computer-based research simultaneously. In Elmbrook, this space is not separated from the traditional study areas...

Notice, it says "Often two classes". If you click the Fact Sheet 19 link, you see a color photo of East's library. I counted 50 computer stations in that sea of desks (there might be more beyond what the photo shows). Depending on the class size, even if there were those 2 classes in there "often" times, the student count would be 36 - 60.  It still seems a student or two extra could be accommodated to quietly do their own research.

Is the library space conflict a result of lack of planning on the teachers part?  If separate areas are desired, could they use those office cube walls that businesses use for privacy?

My second question is, what is a student doing roaming about during school hours anyway? It has been a while since I was in high school. Are students free to roam about when not in a class? If they are, Central students could go to the Brookfield Library if they are permitted to leave campus.  

But my questions aside, this points to how the non-resident student population causes problems for our own resident students.

If space is at such a premium that it is driving this referendum, shouldn't we really analyze what our schools would look like without the extra non-resident students before we build?

UPDATE: I am not sure what the high school's current enrollments are. I arrived just a few minutes late for the Central Tour this year and Principal LaBonte had already given that statistic. (I forgot to ask later.) According to the district website, Central is at 1,425, and East is now at 1,361 total students*, with 220 of those 2,792 combined students being non-residents. 

Cindy Kilkenny's Fairly Conservative estimates the high schools to be close to 1,400 each this year. 

Looking through a number of articles and other sources though suggests Central and East enrollments to be around 1,350 for this current year, according to a Dec. 2007 Freeman article, Board: With new facilities, more students could enroll:

Board members found issue with the prediction of 1,150 students total attending each high school, which is about 200 less than currently taking classes at the district high schools.

The 1,350 number is off by 11 at East, but it sounds too low for Central. If anyone knows the exact numbers at Central, please comment.  

Regardless of the current enrollments, the 1,150 recommended student total for each high school came from the HSST team, a Journal article stated. And the HSST is a: 

...board-commissioned group -- consisting of four residents who voted against the April referendum and three who voted in favor -- [they] recommended a $61.2 million plan to accommodate about 1,150 students who live in the district, based on projections of declining enrollment.

Districts weighing costs, benefits, is another article that speaks to the issue of fewer non resident students: 

Elmbrook's situation emanated from a task force crafting a second referendum to renovate and expand Brookfield Central and East high schools.

Task force members pushed to tie the buildings' planned capacity to resident-only enrollment projections. The School Board added back a little space, but not as much as the plan rejected in last spring's referendum would have provided. And it tightened its formula to decide how many open enrollment students to accept. Its total open enrollment population - which has grown steadily since 1998, from 19 students to 441 this year - could slightly decline next fall for the first time.

So if our non-resident student numbers could decline next year, and our resident student numbers are decreasing each year because of declining enrollments, we should be gaining extra space every year. Extra space in the library should become less of an issue then too IF we hold back on the non-resident student numbers.

Central's non-resident student population this year: Open enrollment - 64, Chapter 220 - "about 2 dozen" Principal LaBonte stated during our tour. Total non-resident students at Central = "about" 88. A reader commented that the Annual Report stated non-resident high school students = 220. Possibly Central is a bit more than 2 doz? (I will update this if I get an answer.)

East's non-resident student population this year: Open enrollment - 71, Chapter 220 - 47. Total non-resident students at East = 118.  

How does this impact the class sizes?

I will take East, because the numbers are known as of today. Divide the total enrollment, 1,361 by 4 grade levels = 340.25 students per grade level. Divide that 340.25 by 25 students, the average class size? = 14 (13.61) separate classes of 25 students each.

Divide the total 118 non-resident students by 4 grade levels = 30 (29.5) non-resident students / grade level. Divide that 30 students / grade level by the 14 separate classes = 2 (2.10) non-resident students per average class.

Of course the grades are not evenly distributed and the non-residents are not even through the grades either. But, you can see that non-residents do add 2 extras for some classes.

In some classes this is not a problem, but in others it is.

If the problem with the library is that we don't have room for that student who comes in from time to time to do independent research, eliminating 4 unnecessary students from those 2 classes using the library becomes important. 

As with most "problems" driving this referendum, I think there could be ways to work them out within the system...if the school district would want to.

* The actual enrollment number changes throughout the school year as students move in and out of the district. East's numbers were obtained today.

Guest posting: Referendum: a blank check to build or add athletic facilities? 

ACADEMICS, NOT ATHLETICS: VOTE NO.

Elmbrook School District Referendum Links:

HSST Meeting Minutes 

Cost Breakdowns of Type of Work (cost per square footage)

Wording of the April 1, 2008 $62.190.000 referendum 

Architect's Conceptual High School Floorplans--East and Central

Facility "Needs" comparison of failed 2007 and present 2008 referendums

Key Academic Benefits: click on that subject heading.

Tour Schedule  

Tax Calculator  

Frequently Asked Questions

Elmbrook asks for smaller expansion--JSOnline (Also includes links to past articles)

Still no link to the 2008 Election Edition of the Link. Hope you got your copy.

Former 2007 Referendum Facilities Facts Sheets (Still a good read)

The countdown continues: Just 8 days until MILLIONS OF DOLLARS Tuesday!

Email me your thoughts on the $62.2 million dollar referendum.

Links: Brookfield7, Betterbrookfield,  Vicki Mckenna