Who Won the Battle?

Two schools are closed; one stays open. In a TV interview on April 4, 2001, Dr. Kaplan answered that she is not sure if the district will try to close Arrowhead next year because it takes six months and a lot of effort.

The smallest school in the district will stay open while Cherokee, a normal school with two sections per grade, class sizes close to the district's average, and cost per mainstream student under $5,000, as was published recently by Kansas City Star, will be closed. Can this be called as the district's victory? In spite of almost 8 months of intensive advertisement of the necessity of the school closing vs. one parent's flyer, the result of the elections was close to 50/50.

We do not know yet why the Nall Hills community lost election, but Cherokee lost because of a lack of leadership. "We have the type of government that we deserve," is an old proverb. John Sanches at Cherokee was the first parent who raised the school closing problem and called the first meeting. However, the mentioned meeting did not end with the election of a committee and a leader. Rather, John elected some active parents who formed a group that he led. John organized a few events, including the collection of petition signatures, and nobody can blame him if Cherokee lost the election because nobody elected him. Parents, can blame only themselve that they lost the chance to keep Cherokee open. Arrowhead parents did it. They did not. They lost not only Cherokee, but also they lost unique atmosphere that made Cherokee so special for them.

Almost from the beginning, the parents' body was split into 3 groups with many individual splinters who did not agree with John. Rumors and behind-the-back gossips and even nasty letters did not help. John and his group, though they worked to keep Cherokee open, worked in secrecy from other parents, who got news from newspapers rather than from John.

Cherokee is closed, and parents should pack for the move to Pawnee or Overland Park, but first they should clean up the mess because at the schools of our destination they will face many problems that they should solve together, and the school finance problem is one of them.

We do not believe that the SMSD administration won the battle. The school finance problem was not solved. About $1.8 million in alleged savings did not solve the problem.