I wonder who would win a fight between 700 teenage gangstas and the SPD.
The teenagers probably have more weapons.
The 15 teenagers at the BowTie severely injured a man and hurt his daughter as well. Can't imagine the cops having a chance with a hundred kids AND parents at a fight.
I see Niskayuna is getting ready to "reconfigure" some of their schools. They never learn. The 'all in one building' model doesn't work, the schools get too big to be manageable. Many parents spoke out against the original idea of one giant middle school, way back when this whole busing thing started. It isn't a good idea, even in places where you don't have kids who try to kill each other. It certainly doesn't help anything, even in places where it does little harm, and the more we see, here in Schenectady, just how bad an idea shifting kids around and closing buildings is, you would think those in charge would get it through their heads. They don't. I actually think that more schools at the middle school level, with either grade seven or grade eight, not two grades in one building, would work best for our city's kids. Grade six should be back in the elementary schools. Another thing, the more elementary schools you have , if a child is getting problems from another child, you have more options to move kids around. Closing Oneida, For Sale signs went up. They want to drive out the last parents who care.
I see Niskayuna is getting ready to "reconfigure" some of their schools. They never learn. The 'all in one building' model doesn't work.
Depends on your definition of "doesn't work". If you mean it doesn't work, because it is not a good environment for the children, then you are right, it doesn't work. BUT...If the money savings from closing one school by eliminating the maintenance costs, energy costs, and all the other costs of operating a building, can now be reallocated to the salaries of teachers and administrators, then the model worked just as designed.
When the residents can no longer absorb the school tax increases, the first step isn't for teachers and administrators to take a hair cut on their compensation, oh no, it is your children that have to suffer by cramming them into one building. That'll teach the parents to vote down a school budget with a tax increase.
I mean it doesn't work on more than one level. Remember, they closed one middle school before, and had to reopen it, whatever benefit they thought they were getting didn't pan out. We in Schenectady were supposed to get "savings" from school closures, which never materialized, quite the opposite,in fact. It is the same number of kids, for one thing. Another thing, I've been saying for awhile that Niskayunans needed to watch more closely where their money is going. If you ask people where the high taxes go, they will automatically answer, "the schools". That answer doesn't really hold up, because buildings that produce good students aren't really different from buildings that don't, they don't cost any more to maintain. Where does the rest of the tax money go? A lot of people still don't realize that local government tax and school tax are two separate things. Anyway, I'm digressing, but my point is that people who don't know how to budget properly in the first place, or don't care to, make these knee-jerk decisions to "save money" that look good on the surface but don't fix the problems.
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