Klein ISD parents will be Voting NO!

Open letter to Klein ISD parents, Board of Trustees, and administrators:

When we heard there was going to be a school bond proposal on a ballot soon, we were not surprised. With all the housing developments in the northern part of Klein Independent School District – including Auburn Lakes and many others – it was common sense that a new bond was needed to address growth.

However, we definitely were surprised to read that, while the original wording for this bond proposal did include two new high schools in the northern end of the district, as well as many elementary and intermediate schools, the wording has been revised – and the revisions don’t even come close to addressing the overcrowding at two current high schools (Klein Oak and Klein Collins), but will actually create further overcrowding by directing 20% of the bond money to raze and rebuild Klein High School.

If you haven’t read all about it at www.kleinforall.com, you need to do so. Why should our property taxes increase to fund the complete razing and rebuilding of Klein High School while doing nothing to ease the ever-growing student population where we live? This makes about as much sense as our taxes that go to METRO to pay for buses and trains that we cannot make use of.

But in addition to that boondoggle (Klein HS parents must have put together a special interest group to come up with the revised wording in the bond proposal, huh?), the other aspect of this whole thing that defies logic is the idea to put laptop computers in the hands of all high school students. What idiocy this is, especially in the face of what large and small, public and private school districts are already discovering all over our country: 1) that laptops in the hands of all students does not raise academic performance, and 2) that technology for the sake of technology isn’t a wise use of public money in schools. Please read the following articles. If you want links to each of them, please send an email to one of the email addresses at the end of this letter.
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“A School That’s Too High On Gizmos” (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/08/AR2008020803271_pf.html

“Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops” (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/education/04laptop.html
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A much better use of the $38 million Klein ISD wants to spend would be to invest in a district program that will allow parents daily access to their children’s progress. Cy-Fair ISD, Humble ISD, Tomball ISD, and Spring ISD all have on-line programs by which parents can check daily attendance, daily grades, class rankings, and more. Klein ISD’s program called Chancery has the same capabilities, but the district has never implemented these functions. In Klein ISD, we must wait until progress reports and report cards are handed out to learn how our children are doing. As students enter high school and begin planning for college, this information is critical, yet Klein ISD parents are flying blind as college preparations are made.

We’re planning to vote NO on this bond proposal and to encourage everyone else to also vote NO unless these things change:

The building plan needs to return to the building of two new high schools in the northern end of the district, and a remodel of Klein HS.

The laptops-for-all program needs to be scrapped.

There are far better ways our tax dollars can be spent. We certainly don’t need to sit still and fund projects and buildings that are not addressing school capacities district-wide, not to mention are not positive for students and teachers.

VOTE NO! on May 10th at the Klein ISD School Bond Election!