Klein ISD dad encourages you to Vote NO!

Subject: Open letter to Klein ISD Board of Trustees concerning the 2008 bond


Below you will find a copy of the open letter sent to Dr. Cain and the Klein ISD school board concerning the upcoming 2008 bond election on May 10th. I urge you to read the letter and forward it on to as many people as possible as it raises some valid questions about the bond.

Dear Dr. Cain-

I have a question that will decide my vote on the 2008 Klein district school bond. The current bond includes a plan for a new high school to be built at a cost of $130,000,000 and to be used for the first two years after completion by the students from Klein High while Klein High is demolished and rebuilt at a cost of $150,000,000. This, of course, adds a tremendous financial burden on the entire district and delays the entire district benefiting from the new school and only benefits one high school, Klein High. In summation, my question is what is the difference between my children and the children at Klein High School?

The reason I ask this question is because we have been in a situation before where several schools had to be demolitioned and the students were placed in temporary buildings and used buildings without HVAC. You may remember me from the community meeting that was held at Klein Oak High School regarding the mold remediation that took place at Northampton Elementary in 2005. At the meeting, I had several concerns:

1) I asked you why we could not use other schools, as opposed to a combination of partial use of Northampton Elementary and temporary buildings, while Northampton Elementary was going through demolition and being rebuilt due to the mold.

2) I was concerned that the education of the students there would suffer as they spent the academic year in nearly 20 temporary buildings. The already overcrowded classes at Northampton would become more of an issue in the temporary buildings.

3) I also had a concern that the gym that was to be used for lunches did not have a HVAC system for the area where the children would be eating lunch.

Your answer was succinct. You stated, in essence, that this was an isolated incident only affecting a few elementary schools and that it could be handled without impacting the rest of the school district. You assured me that my children’s education would not be impacted and that the Klein administration and staff were up to the task. Due to the fact that some parts of the school such as the gym (which has no HVAC) would be open during construction and would serve a dual purpose temporarily, I was concerned for my children’s health and safety during the extensive construction that would take place. You assured me you that my children would be kept safe and a healthy environment would be maintained.

Based on your answer to these questions, I have a couple more questions regarding the use of the new high school that will be used for Klein High School students upon its completion while Klein High School is being rebuilt.

1) What is the difference between my children and the children at Klein High School? The situation of the two schools, of course, is nearly identical.

2) Is there any other district in the state or country that has held up the opening of a new school to reduce significant overcrowding across the district so that a significant minority of students within the district did not have to be inconvenienced by their school’s remodeling?

3) Since Klein High is only one year older than Hildebrandt Intermediate, is there a plan to demolition Hildebrandt and allow those students to use a new intermediate while the reconstruction is occurring?

4) Do you plan on using this same approach when the other Klein high schools reach the same age as Klein High?

5) Since all schools that were built prior to the passing of the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 are not up to the standards set forth in that act, are you planning on no longer taking advantage of the grandfather clause and updating all schools built before the act?

6) The gym in which my children ate lunch at Northampton Elementary had no A/C at anytime in the area they ate lunch. Are you saying the buildings at Klein High do not have A/C or just that it was not originally built into the building?

7) Since Klein High is the best performing high school in the district from an academic standard, do you think by relegating Klein High’s interests to a point more in line with the rest of the high schools within the district that we may be able to improve the performance at the other high schools?

8) Given Klein High’s high academic performance, is it possible that the overcrowding throughout the district is having a bigger impact on academic performance than the issues you raise about Klein High?

9) Is the overcrowding at Klein High due to the fact that parents of the students at Klein High refused to go along with the original school board plan to rezone some children from Klein High to Klein Collins when it opened and, therefore, all students for Klein Collins were taken from Klein Oak, reducing it to a 4A school?

10) If conditions are so bad at Klein High, why did those parents not jump at the chance to send their children to the newest high school in the district, Klein Collins, when they had a legitimate chance to do so in a way that would have better balanced the district and not had such a negative impact on Klein Oak as it lost many good teachers during this time?

11) I can assure you with the highest level of confidence that use of computers is not something higher institutions of learning place any amount of significance on during admissions. They focus on how well a student did in the fundamentals and on SAT/ACT scores. Do you think if we do not have enough money to address overcrowding for the entire district that we should be spending money on laptops for some of the schools?

12) My final question is the same as my first - what is the difference between my children and the children at Klein High School? I will be happy to let you and the school board meet my children. I am sure then that you will gain a new perspective. I am sure you will see there is no difference and restructure this bond to either include enough money for the entire district or redistribute the existing money across the district to reflect the entire district’s needs.

I know the school board is having a closed meeting this Tuesday, May 6th, at 7:00pm at the Klein ISD administration building. The core purposes of the Open Meetings Act are to enable public access to and to increase public knowledge of government decision making. Please open this meeting to the concerned parents of this district.