http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/local/parents_air_griefs_at_bingman-blanchette_townhall_meeting_03-10-2009.html

Parents air griefs at Bingman-Blanchette townhall meeting
By BLAIR DEDRICK ORTMANN March, 10, 2009

Three moves in three years. Three schools on one campus.

And the feeling that no one was listening.

Those issues were at the heart of a lively town hall meeting Beaumont school district officials conducted Tuesday night at Bingman Elementary School.

"Promises were made. We were told Bingman and Blanchette would remain separate campuses until the schools were combined. Now, that's been changed," said Mitchell McCloud, whose children attend Bingman Elementary School. "It's already been voted on, so it seems pointless to have a town hall meeting now."

With the two schools set to merge when a new building is completed in 2011, the students of Blanchette were moved into portables on the Bingman campus at the start of this school year.

Now, the Beaumont ISD school board has decided to merge the two schools a year early, putting the 160 Blanchette students in the Bingman classrooms with the 200 students already there.

That move would make room for Fehl Elementary School's 225 students to move into the portables on the same campus.

While Thomas tried to convince those present that having 600 students on one campus or 400 students in a school built for 450 is not overcrowding, parents declared their unhappiness with the decision and the way it was made.

Kay Gilbert, who has a fourth-grader at Blanchette, was one of the most vehement.

"That school was told to go over there, shut their mouths and stay there," she told Thomas. "These are our children If you're too busy to listen to us, what happens to them?"

At the start of this school year, Gilbert said she and other parents told Thomas about problems in the portables, but the problems weren't fixed until February after she wrote a letter to members of the school board and others.

One of the reasons given for the early merger of the two schools, and for moving Fehl Elementary onto the same campus, was that inflation was causing building prices to rocket last summer and fall.

In order to avoid even higher costs, the school board opted to quickly move and start building the campuses early.

Gilbert doesn't believe it.

"You talk about inflation, it's right here, you put it in black and white," she said, holding up a copy of the bond budget, which includes inflation costs of 9 or 10 percent for a number of years. "If you didn't want us to know about it, you shouldn't have put it in black and white."

Thomas said that since the economy tanked, inflation has slowed, but that he still thinks moving forward on the planned schools is a good idea.

"I understand getting uprooted twice is hard, but you're just getting started on merging a year early," he said. "We will never, ever, ever fail to listen to parents and this community. We can't make every decision that people like. I think we have tried to be as honest and upfront with people as we can."

The answers didn't convince some parents that combining campuses now wouldn't cause problems.

"This has already affected students," said Terri Young, whose daughter attends Blanchette. "I have watched my daughter slip this year. And now you're going to move her again? That's why Lumberton school district is so full now because BISD will not listen to us."

Young and another parent, Michael Smith, wondered if anything anyone said would make a difference in the plan to house three schools' worth of children on the same campus.

After the meeting, Superintendent Carrol Thomas addressed that question.

"I can't say that, and I don't want to answer that question," he said.

"When we said we're going to merge, nobody liked that. Now that they're there and that's OK, they don't want to move. All things can still be considered at this point, but the district has to make good, effective decisions at this point."

After the meeting, Young said making decisions based on dollars, and not education, was wrong.

"If there's three campuses here next year, my child won't be here," said Young, who picked Blanchette because of its small size. "Money is important but not as important as education. What I'm getting from him is that monetarily, this makes sense and your child's education is secondary."

Thomas said that wasn't so.

"The child is the most important, not the dollar," he said.

"If you've got less than 400 kids, that's still not a large school. You can make more efficient use of the resources available because you don't have to spend so much administratively and that money can be used in the classrooms."

Once the schools merge, there will be one principal and one cafeteria manager, among other positions that can be combined, including teachers.

The district plans to have those personnel decisions made by June and through pre-set criteria, such as seniority.

Those who do not get a position in the combined school will be transferred to other schools in the district, but will get first chance at jobs opening at the school in the future, Thomas said.