BrandonInfo.com

Governor Mike Rounds is proposing a change in the way the state funds growing schools. If passed, it would take a year longer for schools to get reimbursed for the money they spend each year.

As I understand it, it works this way: Let’s say a school has X students and spends Y dollars in 2008-09 to educate them. The state reimburses the school for the Y dollars in the 2009-10 school year. That works fine if a school has about the same number of students every year. But let’s say during the 2009-10 school year, the school has X+5% students. Where does that extra 5% money come from? Under Rounds’ proposal, the school wouldn’t get it from the state until the 2010-11 school year. That would make schools like Brandon Valley scramble to come up with extra money.

Do you think the Brandon Valley School District should be worried about Rounds’ proposal?

A lady told me today that she saw a grade school child walking to school this morning. She said he was bundled up, but she still felt very bad for him having to walk to school in -15 degree weather.

It reminded me of the time I was in seventh grade and walked home from school in -2 degree weather. I got frostbite on my legs, which were bare. I’d worn a skirt with knee socks to school that day.

It also reminded me of the time my daughter missed the bus and started to walk to her grandma’s from school. It was -2 degrees that day, too. Thank goodness we’d bought her a snowsuit the day before. And thank goodness some good citizen called the police, who found her and gave her a ride the rest of the way to grandma’s.

Do you bundle up your children properly for the weather? If they typically walk to school, do you find alternate transportation for them on bitterly cold days?

The Brandon Valley School District has received Governor Mike Rounds’ Healthy School Award and the $5,000 award that goes with it. The money will be spent on school wellness programs. One of those is the annual health fair, which draws 1,600 people.

Is your child healthy? Do you serve healthful meals at your home? What specific things have you done to provide your family with good nutrition and activity?

I go to water aerobics, but not nearly often enough. I have cut back on my evening snacks, and I have lost some weight (but not nearly enough). There are things we all can do.

The school board last week said no to gym seats that would have more leg room and more head clearance than standard bleachers. These fancier bleachers would have cost $30,000 more than the standard ones.

Some board members said they promised no frills when they advocated for the $23 million they needed to build the new gym, new grade school and to make improvements at the high school and Valley Springs Elementary. And they’re sticking to that promise, they say. At least one board member said that since some costs have come in under estimates, the district could spring for the nicer bleachers and still not exceed the $23 million overall.

Do you attend events in the Brandon Valley High School gym? Would you like more leg room? Would you like to be able to see over people’s heads easier? If so, is it worth $30,000 to you?

I grew up on Sylvan Circle in Brandon, and our back yard abutted Highway 11. Before my fifth-grade year, the Brandon Valley School District changed the boundaries. Everyone east of Highway 11 (Splitrock Boulevard) had to go to Valley Springs Elementary.

I wasn’t happy. I said I’d pitch a tent in the ditch across the road and establish residency there so I still could go to Brandon Elementary, where my friends were.

Didn’t happen, though. I went to sixth and seventh grades in Valley Springs. I think it was a good experience. I made new friends. Coincidentally, a couple of kids I knew from kindergarten in Sioux Falls had moved to Valley, and I got reacquainted with them in Valley Springs. Plus, when both grade schools came together in junior high, I already knew everyone.

Next year, Brandon Valley Schools will open its fourth elementary school. Someone has to attend there. Will it be your child? Maybe he or she will be upset, like I was, to have to leave friends in one school to attend another. But maybe your child will make new friends, like I did, and will be grateful in middle school and high school for those early connections with fellow students.

What do you think about the new school boundaries the district is proposing? Post your thoughts and questions here, and we’ll do our best to respond. And if you have questions, you can ask them at two upcoming public forums at the middle school media center (library), on Nov. 24 and Dec. 8.