How the Workshop went...

The workshop went as scheduled. Started at 3 pm and ended at 5 pm.
It was encouraging to this PSJ member that other options were presented for capacity issues at Space Coast other than to bus students out of PSJ.

The most defining term that was said by many in this meeting was... Port St. John is unique This is the most accurate thing I have heard. A cookie cutter answer will not apply here!

Mr. Larry Hughes behaved outrageously! One time he even singled out the principal of Clearlake yelling, "What is so wrong with your school?" WOW! That was out of line.
Of course you read how he offered to buy the PSJ student new cars, sorry Mr. Hughes- 7th/8th graders don't drive. The figures he threw out were as ridiculous as his behavior, the cost of new construction is not per one set of students it should be spread out amongst all students in the future who will benefit from construction.
He also said that the kids would be bussed down I95 and it would not take 45 minutes. Ummm, I think he needs to take a trip to where the bussing zone is--it's right on US1. Is the bussing safety manager really going to say the safest route is to bus children on I95 (one of the most dangerous freeways in the US) instead of the baseline of the proposed bussing area US1. Remember, "safety first."
No mention by Mr. Hughes of a split shift.

What I learned new...
The schools need to be at or below 100% capacity by 2013. That does not mean we need to fill Clearlake with our students. Mr. DiPatri confirmed this in the meeting. Sadly, if the school board does not stop out of area transfers from that school they will continue to be under utilized.
There was hardly any mention of closing Clearlake, actually the reverse; there was talk of assessing the school in a year after the IB program is up and running.

What continues to concern me...
PSJ was constantly referred to as a declining community. Really?
I think of PSJ as a first time home buyers community with young families.
They also use internal school board numbers to support this. In any other situation, wouldn't one consider that- the fix is in? I heard something else disturbing; the 2000 census actually added a retirement community from Melbourne in our PSJ numbers. Any one good at research to this point? That would be interesting to know if the school board bases their findings on a census. PLUS we all know how the community has changed since 2000.

Well, I'll add more later, sometimes, I just have to take a break from all this.