Dear MJCS friends,
For almost four years now, the Mid City & Bayou St. John Community has fought tirelessly to bring top-quality public education to our community. It is humbling to think about everything we have accomplished together already and the tens of thousands of volunteer hours that have made it possible. We have reached another moment where we have to take a stand.
Please attend the meeting on Monday, July 18th, 2011, 5:40pm, at McMain School, 5712 South Claiborne Ave. This is the public hearing about proposed amendments to the School Facilities Master Plan in School Board District 6, which includes Morris Jeff’s permanent location at the “Fisk Howard” site.
This is an important meeting for our future. If you are able to attend, please let us know you are coming at info@morrisjeffschool.org or Volunteer Spot RSVP. If you cannot stay for the entire meeting, please meet to show your support so we can have a large group of representatives. We are advocating three specific changes to the current version of the Master Plan:
#1) Clearly identify Morris Jeff Community School as the program that will occupy the new school built at the Fisk Howard site. The RSD already held a round of public hearings in the Spring for that purpose. RSD officials, including the Superintendant, have committed the site to the Morris Jeff community in several meetings. It is time to end the pretense that there is no connection between “planning buildings” and “planning programs”. Such a distinction is incoherent. “Programs” (i.e. people) need to know where they will be located in order to participate in planning and design. For Phase 2 schools, it is the 11th hour. Name Morris Jeff to the Fisk Howard Location.
#2) Increase the size of the Morris Jeff / Fisk Howard building to at least 800 seats. The current proposal for Fisk Howard is only 556 seats, too small for Morris Jeff by at least 200 students and too small to meet the growing need of public school students in Mid City & Bayou St. John. For three years, the RSD has committed that Morris Jeff will have its permanent home in Mid City, where it was built. Fisk Howard is the only viable site. The RSD and its Master Plan must reflect the commitments to our community and its children that have been made and reiterated for over three years.
#3) Set a date certain IN AUGUST for design to begin on the Morris Jeff / Fisk Howard project. RSD committed to us that the design phase would begin in the Spring of 2011, i.e. several months ago. Several Phase 2 schools already are in design. For the new Morris Jeff building to be ready by the time it has been committed — and by the time we will outgrow our current location — design needs to begin immediately.
This is our fight, and it is an important one. We’ve won each one before us in the past, and we are confident we will win this one too. But it is not the time to become complacent. It is the time to act. Remember to let us know if you can come on Monday.
Yours,
Morris Jeff Community School
