Questions for CSD’s Board Today
I emailed these questions to CSD’s Board of Education just now.
Dear City Schools of Decatur Board of Education and Superintendent:
During today’s meeting or in writing this week, would you please answer the following questions. Doing so could help the community coalesce and move forward.
1. How many children in the City of Decatur do you estimate do not attend a high-quality ECLC/daycare because their families are unable to afford it? What are your projections for that number going forward? This is an attempt to understand unmet need so that our community can, in good faith, find a solution. I will support an effort to make sure every kid in Decatur who needs tuition-free daycare/ECLC gets it.
2. Please share how much it would cost to update/upgrade existing buildings to meet that unmet need. Our community should be able to consider the costs of the alternatives when considering an ECLC.
3. Please share updates on any plans to renovate and repair other buildings.
4. Will you please commit to putting long-term financing plans for a new ECLC to a public referendum. If not, why not?
5. Will Board Member James Herndon please share in writing with the public the circumstances in which he would abstain from voting on issues related to finances or the ECLC. We shouldn’t need to wait until votes and meetings to know if he’s going to vote or not.
6. Would you please publish P-card line items with dates and not try to slow/stop scrutiny with inflated hourly estimates or ORR requests? For 2024, 2025 and 2026.
7. Please explain why Superintendent Whitaker has not been suspended pending the investigation’s outcome? Her statement about her husband’s work being separate from her work at CSD rings hollow after her husband invited his friends and colleagues to speak at the last board meeting, then THANKED THEM on his social media.
8. Would the superintendent and the board please issue a statement assuring students, families, educators and staff that discrimination of any kind contradicts CSD’s values, and specifically name Muslim, Jewish and trans students and their families. Bigots keep attacking them by name. Leaders of our community owe it to them to support them by name.
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