| School District | Resident Pupil Units | Adjusted Pupil Units | Adjusted Pupil Units/Resident Pupil Units |
| 001 Minneapolis | 51412.25 | 37390.8 | 73% |
| 270 Hopkins | 8266.05 | 8376.69 | 101% |
| 271 Bloomington | 12125.4 | 11788.42 | 97% |
| 272 Eden Prairie | 11034.52 | 11033.52 | 100% |
| 273 Edina | 8506.2 | 9683.43 | 114% |
| 276 Minnetonka | 8617.07 | 10341.77 | 120% |
| 277 Westonka | 2922.47 | 2584.21 | 88% |
| 278 Orono | 2445.67 | 3133.86 | 128% |
| 279 Osseo | 26643.53 | 23830.73 | 89% |
| 280 Richfield | 5360.75 | 4839.41 | 90% |
| 281 Robbinsdale | 14255.39 | 13954.6 | 98% |
| 282 St Anthony | 1105.39 | 2038.05 | 184% |
| 283 St Louis Park | 4856.35 | 5122.35 | 105% |
| 284 Wayzata | 11419.38 | 12220.99 | 107% |
| 286 Brooklyn Center | 1684.69 | 2449 | 145% |
NOTE: The data appearing in this post was supplied by Hennepin County Taxpayer Services upon my request. Any conclusions or inferences derived from or developed by its use are strictly the opinion of Don Mailey and not Hennepin County Taxpayer Services!
If these numbers are even remotely true, heads should be rolling! At least we are more attractive than Minneapolis------que the old mock roar.
ReplyDeleteYes, Anonymous 12:17, unchecked attrition is never a good thing for any organization. I understand the district has made some weak attempts at recruiting, however, there is a Freshmen Business 101 premise that says it takes 4 times the effort to find a new client as it does to retain an existing client. As a board member, I would consider this a critical phenomenon that needs to be addressed ASAP.
ReplyDeleteThese are the kinds of things the public will be appraised of weekly by me as a board member, as this is an issue that needs to see the light of day to be solved!
Interesting! I want to thank you for being willing to put yourself and your family into the middle of this rather mean spirited battle. We are one of the open enrolled families who left the Westonka District last year. And no, we did not leave because of leaky roofs, poor maintenance on buildings as many of our Westonka friends would like to believe. We still live here and love the area. We left because of what was and is happening within the buildings. You can update, you can add technology, you can put up modern signs - none of this changes the fact that many teachers and administrators fall back and rest on "great test scores." If we teach to the test, we are doing our jobs. Really?? Well, not good enough for our family. We were tired of the district trying to get our kids to fit into their system instead of being willing to finding a solution to actually benefit and challenge our kids. So, we left. Our kids were all placed into a very successful adv. program with another district and are doing very well. My kids all had buckets in their classrooms, sat in 90 degree rooms. Is this acceptable? Absolutely not! Would I support funding the fix to these issues? Yes I would, even without my kids attending Westonka schools. But I want to get rid of the feeling that we taxpayers are not getting the best bang for our dollars. I am very concerned about 25% in soft costs. This is very high. Imagine building your home and being told a forth of the cost is unknown? So, count me as an undecided vote regarding the bonds. Count me as a yes vote for you, and for any other candidate who is willing to challenge the status quo with intelligence, respect, and the desire to better the Westonka School District.
ReplyDeleteThe post on 10/28 could have been written by my family. We couldn't get out of that district fast enough.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anonymous 4:55! It is never popular to be the one who cries "the emperor has no clothes." The controlling faction continues to cherry pick numbers and slap each other on the back while attempting to shout down anyone who questions them. It is interesting that they have not attempted to attack these numbers straight from the MDE:
ReplyDeletehttp://dreambigwestonka.blogspot.com/2011/10/campaign-promise-to-you.html
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What would it take to bring your students back to Westonka? How about you, Anonymous 8:00, is this in the realm of possibility?? We have been on the verge of leaving as well, but really love most of the district's teaching staff--and my children had no desire to leave.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!!!
My kids are doing so well and are finally being challenged academically - I don't see us coming back to Westonka. The kids have many more class choices in their new district, and socially they are extremely happy. Also, all are involved in sports and love their new coaches and teammates. My kids would probably not be willing to transfer back, even if Westonka were able to cater to all their wishes, which no district is able to do. We tried working with administrators and teachers for an entire school year before leaving, and just were not getting solutions that worked for our kids. When the roadblocks and defenses started going up, that was our signal to seriously start to look at what was offered in other districts. For us, a successful advanced academic program was number 1 (meaning, kids who were in the upper 95% of NWEA, intelligence, etc. were only accepted into the adv. classes), no 8th grade at the HS, a wide variety of class choices to accommodate all our kids, successful sports program, and, of course, our children's desire to attend school in a new district. It was not an easy decision, and we took a lot of time making it. One of our children would have open enrolled mid school yr, but we didn't allow it. Thank you for asking. My advice to you is do a lot of research, visit the schools you are interested in multiple times, and definitely talk to your kids. The grass isn't always greener, and you want to avoid changing your children's lives for a worse situation. For us, it has been the best decision we have made regarding our kids' education and social growth. They are happy, and so are we.
ReplyDelete