Daily Question

Question for Monday, April 6th, 2009: Previous

Should Westlake construct new schools?

A 24-member committee carefully studied the aging facilities and determined that overcrowding was a primary reason to recommend that new schools be built. The committee recommended that a new high school, a new intermediate school, and one or two new elementary schools be constructed. The school board is considering placing a capital bond issue on this November's ballot. The amount is yet to be determined, but how will the voters react to this request for money in these financially unstable times?

Our schools have always rated high in educational excellence. We need to keep it up the quality.

The schools may be overcrowded now, but before we commit to building additional schools, I'd like to see a study showing that the population of school-age children will be at a similar level in the future. I don't think it's wise to invest in additional capacity for students if the current overcrowding doesn't project into the future.

The schools should be concentrating on education and fostering community service among the students, not on new buildings. I don't believe we need new buildings. Why not more thought to renovating some of the existing buildings? Look at Lakewood, they rehabbed a bunch of their buildings.

Westlake has always had excellent scores statewide which is because of great teachers in a good learning environment. In this global economy, we have to ensure that excellence is not only maintained but moves forward. If Lakewood can build new schools, Westlake can and should.

Good grief! We will have kids in portable classrooms at Burneson and Parkside this year and teachers teaching off of carts and displaced during planning periods. We can do better than this! Having modern school buildings with enough space helps retain the best and brightest teachers and fosters an atmosphere of high achivement. I for one, also don't want to see my property values tank because Westlake falls behind in the education rankings.

I don't know if this matters, but I hear that more private school kids are switching to Westlake city schools because of the economy. If this is true, the classrooms may be becoming more crowded. Then the schools will need more space, hence new buildings.

ABSOLUTELY! I can't think of a better way to WASTE money. If my fellow citizens of westlake weren't so stuck up they'd realize that now is definitely not the time to be investing millions and millions of dollars in new construction on something that can be postponed a few years