New Woodburn Community School

OPPOSING THE MILEGROUND SITE

Via WAJR:

The proposed green school that would be built on the mileground has become an issue in the [school board] race, with [Harry] Bertrum and [Junior] Taylor wanting to slow the project down and reconsider the location of the new school.

“I’ve had so many people from all over the county, a majority of people that don’t want it built there. Why are we building something that there is no public mandate for?” wonders Taylor. …

However, current board member Mike Kelly says the board has extensively evaluated several sites around the county, and the mileground is the best fit. …

Kelly also says he hasn’t heard the outcry from a majority of people that don’t want the school built. He says there are the Woodburn residents that do not want to see their school closed, but otherwise he hasn’t heard the same complaints as the other candidates.

Mike Kelly pretends he has not heard the general view of the public because he does not want to hear it.

Has he forgotten about the petition with hundreds of names on it signed by people from all over the county, gathered months ago in a mere few weeks?

Did he miss our demonstration on the Mileground where car and truck after car and truck honked support for opposing a school there?

Does Mike Kelly think the Mayor of Morgantown and the Morgantown City Council are nobody and represent nobody? The Mayor of Morgantown on behalf of Morgantown City Council wrote a letter to the school board president urging Monongalia County Schools to keep a school in Woodburn rather than building at the Mileground site.

Morgantown Mayor Bill Byrne wrote to the school board on February 25, 2010 :

“On behalf of Morgantown City Council, I am writing to express concern about plans to close Woodburn Elementary School…. We feel that it is imperative to educate Woodburn Elementary…students at their current location…. This is an opportunity to develop compact urban schools using an urban scale of development, avoiding a sprawl.”

Mike Kelly has shown no sign of being anything other than a rubber stamper of the superintendent, much like the rest of the board.

Junior Taylor hears the public and is by far the best candidate to represent the will of the public on the school board.