Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutBrandon Gallagher1 C.Jay Coles From:Robert Simison Sent:Tuesday, October 02, 2018 5:25 PM To:Cameron Arial Cc:Chris Johnson; C.Jay Coles Subject:FW: New submission from meridiancity.org/council/request.html Robert Simison | Chief of Staff City of Meridian | Mayor’s Office All e-mail messages sent to or received by City of Meridian e-mail accounts are subject to the Idaho law, in regards to both release and retention, and may be released upon request, unless exempt from disclosure by law. From: Formspree Team [mailto:submissions@formspree.io] Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2018 5:19 PM To: mayortammy <mayortammy@meridiancity.org> Cc: Anne Little Roberts <alittleroberts@meridiancity.org>; Treg Bernt <tbernt@meridiancity.org>; Joe Borton <jborton@meridiancity.org>; Luke Cavener <lcavener@meridiancity.org>; Genesis Milam <gmilam@meridiancity.org>; Ty Palmer <typalmer@meridiancity.org> Subject: New submission from meridiancity.org/council/request.html Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet. Hey there, Someone just submitted your form on meridiancity.org. Here's what they had to say: Request for Mayor and Council Name Brandon Gallagher _replyto gallagher.brandon@westada.org Street Address 12081 W. Demeyer St. City Boise State ID 2 Zip Code 83713 Subject Owyhee High School Agenda Item Message Being under the weather tonight, I will not be present at the meeting to voice my thoughts, so I wanted to make sure to submit to the council in writing. As a member of the West Ada School District staff, I would like to voice a request to considering annexation of the parcel intended for the building of Owyhee High School. I read the commission's minutes from the September meeting suggesting the denial of the annexation based on two grounds, first being the patchwork of annexation and second the secondary access to the site itself. While I understand the problems presented by bringing more area under control of the city and the possibility of having to annex additional lands for future developments around the site, the addition of the high school should bring in positive growth for Meridian. Having worked in multiple states as a school administrator, one of the highlights I have seen after moving to the Treasure Valley has been the secondary offerings of the West Ada School District. I have even pressed my o wn children to not attend their (very good) neighborhood schools in Boise in order to attend our secondary program here in West Ada School District, the top choice programs being located in the City of Meridian. I think as we look at growth, we want to consider the future of our area, that being highly educated citizens who want to add positively to the community. This is something West Ada schools are bringing to the table in a strong manner in our high schools within a state that funds education among the lowest in the country. I think the risk associated with the annexation as a patchwork for this parcel is much lower than the risk associated with decreasing the quality of the education experience for our community by continuing to add students to high schools which do not have room for them. Regarding the second concern about access, I think this is something that is going to have to be worked out in a project such as this regardless. There will always be concerns and battles with adjacent properties and competing interests of community expansion or traffic patterns. These are issues which I am confident can be resolved while moving forward with the project, given the close working relationship West Ada School District seems to have within our community. To potentially stall the project due to an access road issue which is relatively minor would be a major mistake. As someone who has had very real threats to campuses I have worked on, including relocating a whole school in Hawaii due to threat of lava, I can tell you that access issues can be solved quickly when coming together. This can be done even when dealing with two schools located side by side, as we were when we had to relocate our elementary school onto a high school campus for an entire year and added 500 students and all the associated traffic with a single month's notice. This project has a much longer timeline and through working together during the project, the task of creating workable access points for student safety can easily be accomplished with all of the expertise that exists in our community. My hope is that the Council sees this as a surmountable obstacle as well and approves the annexation in favor of continuing to provide an excellent education for current and future citizens of Meridian. 3 Sincerest Regards, Brandon Gallagher, Ed.D. Principal, Joplin Elementary This form was submitted at 11:18 PM UTC - 02 October 2018. You are receiving this because you confirmed this email address on Formspree . If you don't remember doing that, or no longer wish to receive these emails, please remove the form on meridiancity.org or click here to unsubscribe from this endpoint. Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet. Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet. Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.