Dear Parents,

As you may have noticed, our children's classroom sizes have steadily increased. At Jack Daley Primary School, there are seven kindergarten and first grade classes, which is an increase from 5 classes each grade just 2 years ago. There are 5 second grade classes which will obviously need to increase for the next school year to accommodate the upcoming classes. If you visit the school you will notice that the Music and Library classes have already been moved into a small and insufficient sized building. There is only one free remaining classroom at the Primary School. At the Elementary School all grade levels have increased to 5 classrooms and there are no available classrooms.

This fall there will a bond on the voters ballot. This is directly quoted from the Voter Information regarding the bond. "The bond is to provide a funding source for renovating buildings at the Primary and Elementary schools and the construction of a new Middle School. The buildings have been in use for many years and with renovations will allow more efficient utilization of space, upgrades in the area of technology and extend the life of current buildings.... The development and renovations are necessary to help maintain lower class sizes and to continue the quality of education being delivered to the residents of our community."

The Upside: If the bond passes, it will allow funds to build additional classrooms and maintain current buildings and staff.  It is the goal that classroom sizes will be smaller and current standards of education will be upheld.

The Downside: If the bond does not pass it is likely that half day kindergarten will be instated, class sizes will be increased across the board, and it is likely that open enrollment will cease. Some may say that getting rid of open enrollment will solve the problem, however, the school with the largest amount of those students is the high school, therefore the removal of open enrollment will not alleviate the problems in the lower grades. Open enrollment has actually dropped almost 5% in the last few years.  The real growth in our schools is a direct result of the growth in our community.   Also, by eliminating open enrollment, the district will loose the approximately 1 million dollars it receives by accepting those additional students. Therefore, this will actually create a harder financial toll on the district, still necessitating larger class sizes and smaller staff.

So if the bond passes what does it mean for you? If you are a homeowner your property taxes will increase approximately .90 cents per $1,000 assessed value. So if your homes assessed value is $150,000, your property taxes will go up $135.00 per year, which equals $11.35 per month.

This Tuesday, August 21st at 6pm there will be an informational meeting in the board room at the district office. Mr Nelson and Mr Bowman will be available to give information and answer any questions about the current and future situation of our district including growth, facilities and the fate of our classroom sizes. Please come and show your support for our Schools!

And if you need further incentives refreshments will be provided!

Thanks for your support!

Thatcher PTO