Sitting on a radiator is a poor replacement for a schoolroom desk, but it can be an option for some neighborhood students feeling the pinch of overcrowding.
Small classes held in closets and 40 kids in a classroom with one teacher are symptoms of the greater overcrowding problem, but they’re old news to neighborhood residents.
“We’ve been sitting here in Lake Highlands and thinking that someone was minding the situation, but they have not,” says Diane Lowy, Lake Highlands Elementary PTA president.
Now they are.
If voters pass RISD’s bond issue Sept. 28, more solutions will be implemented to combat overcrowding. If approved, a new magnet elementary school and ninth-grade center will be built in Lake Highlands, along with additions to schools needing more space.
The $174.6 million bond issue will be used on a district-wide basis for technology upgrades and additional space in the public schools.
The district plans to spend $87.6 million on new schools and additions, says Susan Dacus Wilson, assistant to the superintendent for communication and community outreach.
Lake Highlands will receive the “biggest block of additional space funds” because of our area’s massive overcrowding problem, says Bettye Stripling, RISD’s school board president.
The district plans to spend $47.6 million on technology, with $10 million appropriated for hardware and software. The remaining funds will be used for infrastructure and fiber-optics, Stripling says.
Stripling stresses that technology improvements will mainly consist of rewiring school buildings to give them the capacity to house computers.
“If we have a 28-year-old building and someone gave us 15 computers, we would have nowhere to plug them in – without blowing fuses,” says Stripling, who is in her fifth year as school board president.
A resident who owns a home valued at $124,556 – the average cost of a district home – will pay up to an additional $96 per year in property taxes if the bond is approved, Wilson says.
The increase won’t affect homeowners 65 or older because their taxes are frozen and can’t be raised unless the resident increases the home’s value by making additions.
The last RISD bond issue was approved in October 1988. Bukhair is confident this bond issue also will be successful.
“I think our community has always supported the schools. People told us over and over again in the hearings that we needed to do something,” Bukhair says.
RISD has taken the community’s advice, but now it’s up to residents to turn out and vote.
“I’m making as much noise as I can in Lake Highlands that we need to do this,” Lowy says.
Homeowners who only see higher taxes but don’t have children in the school system need to realize their property values are tied to the quality of surrounding schools, says Mike Fosheim, Aikin Elementary’s PTA president.
“Residents’ home values are dependent on the perception of the community, and a school is an integral part of the community,” Bukhair says.
Early voting is available through Sept. 24 at Lake Highlands Junior High; other neighborhood locations, dates and times for early voting also are available.
For more information about the bond or voting sites and times, please call RISD at 301-1180.
