Talk of East Texas

By News-Journal

September 12, 2008 8:59 AM | Link to this

All,

Additional discussion is happening at a more recent entry. Find it http://www.news-journal.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/lnj/entries/2008/09/09/longviewisdunveils2new_cam.html

By Kristi DiStefano

September 9, 2008 1:47 AM | Link to this

I am unable to post a comment on the following article, so for now, I will do so here. I am Kristi who is quoted and I would like to clear up a couple of inaccuracies mentioned.

We do not live in Pine Tree - we live in Longview. What we mentioned that was because we have a business located in the Pine Tree ISD, we could have pursued placing our child into that school district, but chose not to. I only skimmed the article just now, but noticed this mistake as well as miscommunicating our overall desires regarding the situation. It is not necessarily our desire to see construction halted on a new campus for Hudson Pep. We simply want all possible solutions to be considered including moving the campus to a location more convenient for the students attending there.

As I mentioned in the meeting tonight, I come from a family full of educators. I hold those that give of their personal lives for the good of our children in the highest esteem.

Hopefully, the final resolution to this situation will be satisfactory to all parties involved. It is unrealistic to be able to make everyone perfectly happy in any given situation, but a common ground and an amiable solution is definitely worth striving for.

Article mentioned above located at:
http://www.news-journal.com/hp/content/news/stories/stories/2008/09/09/09092008_LISD.html#

By Pep Parent

September 9, 2008 12:39 AM | Link to this

…reposting due to formatting issues in previous posting…

Hudson Pep isn’t centrally located at all for those actually attending there. In the case of this particular elementary, the location of the school has no bearing at all on who attends there - testing and other academic criteria make that determination. It is utterly ridiculous for the school to be located in an area that is inconvenient to almost all of the students attending there.
At the board meeting tonight, it was discussed that there were no real alternatives to the current plan of building the new campus in the current location and using Pinewood Park in the interim in order to keep the school near the current location. I still do not understand why that is a requirement. Even if it is, why not go with the other option that was mentioned by the board to move to a location that was further out with no neighborhood surrounding it.
It wasn’t stated exactly where this potential property was located so it might even be more central to those actually attending. Even if not, it might be a viable and good option anyway.
Moving a little further out in an area with future potential could be very good in attracting expansion to a new area of the city. When newcomers consider moving to Longview, wouldn’t it be a great draw to have a great new school available for those who have proven themselves academically? Just as importantly, is it not wise to build that school in an area that people would be drawn to? It would also be prudent in planning for the future. If thought isn’t given to expansion then at some point the district will find themselves in the same situation - looking for land and coming up empty-handed in some areas. Building a school away from congested areas has been proven to work - Doris McQueen is a prime example.
Here’s a proposal - the district owns the land where Hudson Pep is currently located. Why not build the new Pep building in the area mentioned above or maybe even consider broadening the location possibilities to include places that might not be close to the current campus, but even more convenient for the students there. Then the current campus would be available for Foster Middle School which being relocated, also. One consideration of the board is to in at least some manner combine facilities of Foster Middle School and Hudson Pep, but talking much at all with most parents will let you know that they are not in favor of that proposal. I’m convinced that a better solution is available. I assume board members desire the best for the students. Hopefully they will consider options put forth that might solve some of the issues they have brought up with changing the current plan. I hope, and would assume, that surely they would not rush to push this through after the meeting tonight considering that they have said that this was just in the discussion phase. I respectfully ask that they take a step back and consider these, and any other feasible solutions.

By Jimmy Isaac

September 5, 2008 5:23 PM | Link to this

Luke, Hudson PEP is actually pretty centrally located, if you look at the entire district map. In fact, the most central intersection in the district is near the Eastman Road/Cotton Street intersection, and Hudson is a less than two miles south.

By Luke

September 5, 2008 9:47 AM | Link to this

Since PEP is a campus used by all students in the district, LISD should find new location more centrally located within the district.