Unanswered Questions and the "Stealth" School Project

Last week a Dexter resident asked some specific questions about the Fern Road site, after having gotten no reply through the usual channels. The comment made by the resident is here; I urge you to read it. Note too that the District apologists and Board Members reading this site seem to have not read his comment or have any answers. (Based on their consistent misunderstanding of our postings here, we know these people aren't good readers or close readers, so it's more accurate to say they don't even seem to have MIS-read his comment. In fairness, TolstoyFan made a try - thanks! -- but probably is not in a position to answer the meat* of the question.)

There are going to be a lot more questions arising in the next two weeks, inside and outside of the information meetings and the Library forum.

For example, people will want to know the financial impact of the project. They'll want to know the timetable of the approval process and also of the project itself. They'll want to know what -- if anything -- is planned for the upper 75% of the Fern Road.

They'll want to know what facilities are planned for athletics, for performances, for other functions. They'll have a lot of questions about transportation and the costs of transportation. They'll need to know that a vote for a K-8 site means the closure of both the Garland and Exeter schools -- permanently.

Any attempt to confine the discussion to the site! only the site! is going to look like an attempt to stifle the (long-avoided) discussion. (You already get a sense of the fears this -- a wide-ranging discussion -- brings up by the reaction, and non-reaction, to some of the posts at this website.)

It'll be interesting to see what answers the District has; their answers will play a large role in determining the success or failure of the effort.

We note that a scan of the District's web site would hardly let anyone know there was anything at all happening -- no info on the effort at all, nothing under NEWS or for Parents or even on the top level page!

One commenter (anonymous -- imagine!) wrote "Why would it take three months to present information about the site?" It wouldn't, of course, if the intention is to keep things quiet. Nothing indicates that this isn't the strategy. Sure there's the "Now, it's our turn!" flyer, republished in the Eastern Gazette last Saturday. Is that the only "info"?

Or are we to get a fancy "Community Connection" issue #2 from David C. Wollstadt -- some kind of slick "p. r." piece? This is likely -- a last-minute (because it is the last minute now) blitz.

I wonder how many questions that mailing will answer, or how many it will create?

*"Will public water and/or sewer be run down the Fern Road and will existing Fern Road residences (that already have private wells and septics) be required to connect to the public water and or sewer."