South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Oakville resident skeptical of Mehlville’s Choice School of Innovation

To the editor:

I find it interesting that Mehlville School District Superintendent Chris Gaines should choose to announce his plan for a new Choice School of Innovation just a few weeks after the passage of Proposition R.

Funny, I don’t recall any such plan being so much as mentioned in any of the promotional materials or presentations on Prop R.

I suppose it could be that the superintendent just happened to think of the idea and come up with enough detail to announce it publicly in the short time between the passage of Prop R and the first Call article on the plan. But I think this is just a case of simple dishonesty. I believe those who knew about this plan intentionally withheld it until after Prop R was safely passed, and that they have announced the expected time of construction to be so soon — 2017? — in order to steam roll the community and leave us unable to thoroughly investigate the project.

The district should not be allowed to use any money from Prop R to fund this project. This is not what was sold to us in the Prop R pitch. They told us they needed the money on an emergency basis to meet critical needs — now all of a sudden we have the time and money for such an involved and potentially risky project?

Those who support this project should have to come back to the community and ask for another tax increase. Better yet, they should just fund it themselves, that way they can take responsibility for making sure the project is completed ethically and efficiently. Even now, almost no specific details have been released, yet the project seems to be going full-steam ahead.

The district is in way over its head and it knows it. But as usual, it doesn’t seem to care.

Ethan Crombie

Oakville

Editor’s note: As reported by Staff Reporter Gloria Lloyd in this week’s issue, Mehlville officials emphasize that they will not spend money from Prop R to open the Choice School of Innovation.

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