I thought I'd write up a little summary of how things went at the School Board meeting last night. I'm sure everyone knows by now that the Eastman story has taken lead over our little battle, as far as the news reports. I didn't see any coverage that we submitted the petitions, though Channel 2 did interview Miriam before the meeting.

Miriam delivered her speech and submitted the petitions and a packet for the school board which contained a copy of her speech, Jack's response to the engineering report, and a letter from the Historical Commission to me and an attachment to that letter that showed the avenues of financial grants, etc, that would/could be available. (If anyone want copies of this stuff, I'll be happy to send it. All you have to do is just ask! (lumoto1@gmail.com) But I will have it all on my webpage eventually.)

After it was over Bishop Wright and Woodrow Reece came up to Miriam and myself. Woodrow says, "We have to talk."

(Bear in mind the following is greatly paraphrased as I am not too good at recounting conversations.)

Well, Reece has apparently totally flip flopped, at least from what we understood him to be saying before. They both were saying we need a new school. I was so surprised because I thought Woodrow was on our side. But I said something about the historical significance, etc.

Wright said basically, "So what! Charlton Pollard had more history."

I said something about people being really mad if they replace SP.

Wright said, "Well, people got mad about Charlton Pollard, as well," etc, with the tone of people get mad, they can just get glad again -- that's my words, not his.

I said something about the funds available thru Historical.

Reece said, "To the tune of 40 million?"

I said, "Well, I don't know. It is would be some amount that would be helpful."

Reece said, "The school should be new," and rambled on something that I can't remember now because my brain was trying to comprehend what I was perceiving as a total about face.

I said, "You mean like Pietzsch?"

"No, no," they said. "Have you seen the new designs?" I didn't have time to respond to that comment but -- they already have new designs??? Definitely need to follow up on that remark!

Well, needless to say, it wasn't a pretty picture.

Anyway, they had to go into Executive Session and asked us to wait. We asked Ingram how long they would be and he said no way to know, that they could feasibly be an hour and we didn't want to wait that long. So, I left my phone number for Reece to call me and we left to go eat. When I got home at 10:40, he had called at 9:40. So I called him back today and left a message for him to call me when he has time to chat about it.

The engineering report is so obviously padded it should be criminal. If you want to see the report and Jack's resonse, you can access them both from my webpage (http://lumoto.com/southpark).

Miriam forwarded me an email she received from Jane Hebert who went to the SP Neighborhood Watch meeting last night. In her email she stated,

Had a good meeting at South Park last night, but right now folks that live there are not concerned about the school, they are more concerned about the crime going on in South Park, along with all the deterioration.

Those that were there that attended South Park have already signed the petition - the Blacks that were there that I asked to sign the petition -- feel a new school is needed for their kids and to improve the community.

There will be a meeting of the bond committee with the school board Monday. If any of you haven't written your letters or made your phone calls, NOW is a very good time to do it!

Sherry Moyer Sharp
lumoto1@gmail.com
http://lumoto.com/southpark