From cinderella1120 at sbcglobal.net Mon May 7 22:23:40 2007 From: cinderella1120 at sbcglobal.net (Cindy Perelman) Date: Mon, 7 May 2007 15:23:40 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Monroe-schools] Vote tomorrow, May 8 Message-ID: <267152.12573.qm@web81502.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Just a reminder....the school board election is tomorrow, Tuesday, May 8. Please make sure you take the time to vote in this critical election. We are all busy these days, but....remember what we've been fighting for these past few months!!! Thank you!!! From sjnorton at miparentsforschools.org Thu May 10 16:08:48 2007 From: sjnorton at miparentsforschools.org (Steven J Norton) Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 12:08:48 -0400 Subject: [Monroe-schools] Alert! Tell your lawmakers to protect school funding Message-ID: Dear friends, I?m sending out the alert below because we are at a critical juncture for school funding. The Governor has already warned school districts that they will lose as much as $122 per pupil by June 1st unless the Legislature is able to find new sources of funding. Our lawmakers in the Legislature are now negotiating over what steps to take to close the school aid deficit for this year. Those negotiations will also affect what kind of funding is available for next year and for the future. No one in Lansing can afford to pretend that this will all go away. Some lawmakers are still under the illusion that the people of Michigan want lower taxes no matter what it does to our schools. We need to tell them how we really feel. Please read the message below and contact your lawmakers as soon as you can. Please also pass this message along to your friends and neighbors, and encourage everyone to make their voices heard at this important time. You can also point folks to the Michigan Parents for Schools web site, which has been covering developments in the Legislature: http://www.miparentsforschools.org/ Or send people directly to our Legislative Action Center: http://capwiz.com/miparentsforschools/ Thanks for your help! Steve Norton Michigan Parents for Schools Take action now! Make your voices heard! The school funding situation is deteriorating further. State officials are expecting revenues earmarked for schools to come in even lower than expected in January -- $100 - $150 million lower than the earlier estimates that were already revised downward. That means a total shortfall of as much as $527 million for this year and possible cuts to districts of as much as $122 per pupil right at the end of the school year unless new money is found. Tell your lawmakers that we need to fix school funding and invest in our schools. Let them know that you are willing to use your tax dollars to help support vibrant and efficient public schools, especially in these difficult times. http://capwiz.com/miparentsforschools/ The Legislature passed, and the Governor signed, a package of modest cuts and some large one-time accounting fixes that covered $315 million of the original $377 million deficit. But now the deficit is growing and the cuts will have to be that much larger unless we agree to find new funding for schools. And the prospect for school funding next year is looking bleak. Join Michigan Parents for Schools in our fight to make sure our state's public schools get the funding they need and deserve. What can I do? 1) Write your lawmakers Tell your lawmakers how you feel about what's happening to school funding. Some ideas: * Now that Michigan's economy is in trouble, this is the worst time to be pulling the props out from under our public schools. * We need to be making investments in our schools, to attract jobs now and to build the future we want for our state. * Huge cuts right at the end of the school year will hurt all schools and be devastating to many districts around the state. * As citizens and parents, we're willing to do our part and make financial sacrifices to support our schools, if we know that the money will be used effectively. * We know that it will cost us something to fix the problem, but it pales compared to the cost of doing nothing and letting our schools decline. Visit our Legislative Action Center to write an email message to the Governor, your state Senator and State representative - and you can do it with one click! http://capwiz.com/miparentsforschools/issues/alert/?alertid=9720526 2) Join our website and sign up for our email list Please visit, and consider creating an account on the Michigan Parents for Schools web site here: http://www.miparentsforschools.org You can sign up for updates of new content on our site, and you can join our email list. We're trying to get parents across Michigan informed, involved and organized so that we can be a constructive force for supporting our public schools. 3) Get involved locally Get involved in your local schools, talk with teachers and administrators, and help find ways to work together to deal with this crisis. Talk to your neighbors about what's happening and what is at stake. Tell everyone about this web site and what we are trying to achieve here! Encourage other parents to make their voices heard as well - in Lansing as well as in your home town. Together, we can make a difference! -- Michigan Parents for schools is a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy group for parents and other concerned citizens working to ensure adequate and stable funding for all Michigan public schools. To find out more, please visit our web site at http://www.miparentsforschools.org. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.miparentsforschools.org/pipermail/monroe-schools/attachments/20070510/c28e4bae/attachment.html From cinderella1120 at sbcglobal.net Thu May 17 12:33:58 2007 From: cinderella1120 at sbcglobal.net (Cindy Perelman) Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 05:33:58 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Monroe-schools] 5/6 grade band in Monroe; is it "safe"? Message-ID: <14992.30762.qm@web81514.mail.mud.yahoo.com> As some of you may have heard at last night's 5th grade band concert in Monroe, the school board will review the future of the 5/6 grade band program next Tuesday night. The music department has met and reportedly has worked out some details which would allow the 5/6 grade band program to continue without costing the district any more money. These recommendations will be presented to the Finance Committee of the school board prior to their meeting next Tuesday night. Then, that recommendation will be presented at the school board meeting immediately following the Finance Committee meeting. Although the program appears at this time to be "safe", I think we should still have a group of interested parents at that meeting to show our support. If you are able to attend, it is currently scheduled for 7pm at the Administration Building. Please "spread the word". Thanks. From cinderella1120 at sbcglobal.net Fri May 18 17:25:41 2007 From: cinderella1120 at sbcglobal.net (Cindy Perelman) Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 10:25:41 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Monroe-schools] Important-from Monroe Superintendent of Schools Message-ID: <501425.97234.qm@web81509.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Please mark May 23, 24 or 25 on your calendar for this (see below for your appropriate date): Earlier this month, the state legislature announced a $122 proration or reduction in funding for the current school year. This is devastating to school districts across the state of Michigan . This means, in the remaining month of school, school districts would need to eliminate money already budgeted and spent from its current school year budget. This is unconscionable. We need to let legislators know in Lansing that we will not stand for this lack of support for public education and most of all the lack of support for the thousands of students that are learning in our classrooms each and every day. How can Lansing justify increasing the state corrections budget by 16.4 percent over the last five years while only increasing the K-12 school aid fund by 3.1 percent?? The Senate and House must work together to resolve this funding issue. This is not about political party issues; this is about the future of our students and the future of the state of Michigan . Please call or write your legislators and let your voice be heard. We cannot just sit idly by while public education is being dismantled across the State. We are asking that during the week of May 21 - May 25, that we target certain days to have various, interested groups calling legislators in Lansing . Monday, May 21 Superintendents Tuesday, May 22 Board Members Wednesday, May 23 Parents/PTA members Thursday, May 24 School Employees Friday, May 25 Community Groups/Community Members/City Government Randy Richardville, State Senator PO Box 30036 Lansing , MI 48909-7536 senrichardville at senate.michigan.gov 1-866-556-7917 Kathy Angerer, State Representative S0989 House Office Building PO Box 30014 Lansing , MI 48909-7514 kathyangerer at house.mi.gov 1-517-373-1792 Kate Ebli, State Representative N0990 House Office Building PO Box 30014 Lansing , MI 48909-7514 KateEbli at house.mi.gov 1-517-373-2617 We urge all of you to alert your communities and join us in getting our voices heard. We are asking school districts from across the state to band together and let them know that they need to support public education. Legislators have often been quoted as saying that they are not hearing from local school people. We would like the calls directed to the following: -Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop 517. 373. 2417 -House Speaker Andy Dillon 517. 373. 0857 -Everyone???s local legislators *If your locals are supportive, please call to thank them for their efforts and encourage them to keep up the fight. If you are on my email list & are not from Monroe, please contact your respective representatives. Thanks for listening. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.