Last March, during the 2003 round of budget discussions, the School
Board went through the Administration's list of proposed cuts item by item
and voted to put some items on a "do not cut" list. The proposed
cut to the TAG budget made it onto the list by a vote of 5-2. After
the vote, we wrote to the Board and thanked them for protecting the TAG
budget. We also invited them to our parents meeting later that month.
Here's what we heard back from them.
Bill Clingan - Although Bill was unable to attend the meeting,
he wrote back, saying "I really think we should expand TAG. We are
at a difficult juncture, but we need to find ways to support all children
that attend MMSD." (Email, 3/22/03)
Ruth Robarts - Although Ruth was unable to attend the meeting, she wrote back saying "I am totally opposed to any further dilution of TAG. I think Rainwater should look as hard at administration and Business Services as he does at schools." (Email, 3/21/03)
Note: See also Ruth's comments about
TAG in our questions to School Board candidates
Shwaw Vang - In accepting our invitation, Shwaw wrote "I support TAG because I believe that MMSD needs to teach all children." (Email, 3/20/03)"
In another email, he wrote "as the budget process progresses I will work with other Board members to make sure that TAG is included in next year's budget. I believe we need to educate those children who are struggling, and I also believe that we need to challenge those students who excel." (Email, 3/20/03)
Finally, in his campaign literature, Shwaw states that he is “working
to support strong Special Education and Talented and Gifted programs.”
Ray Allen - Although Ray did not reply to our email, he did come
to our meeting and said to one of us afterwards that what’s really needed
is an increase in the TAG budget and services. Ray also was the one
who suggested that our group present to the BOE’s Performance and Achievement
Committee (something we have yet to do).
Carol Carstensen - Our memory is that Carol seemed to experience
a bit of a turn-around at our meeting last March, in that she seemed to
be learning a lot of new things about TAG that could influence her position
in the direction of greater support. Historically, Carol has not
been a supporter of TAG services. She may have been one of the two
BOE members who did not vote to put TAG on the “do not cut” list last year.
Because it was a show-of-hands vote only, we cannot verify that.
Bill Keys - Bill attended our meeting last March and seemed generally
very supportive. We are fairly certain that he voted to put TAG on
the "do not cut" list last year, though cannot be absolutely sure.
Juan Lopez - Juan has the most consistent history of voting against TAG. He did not vote to put TAG on the “do not cut” list last year and he did not attend our March, 2003, meeting. And yet, Juan was very responsive to my emails last spring (he left two telephone messages for me) and offered to meet with members of our group to learn more about our view point. We never took him up on his offer because the TAG budget looked pretty secure and because we didn’t want to add unnecessarily to his calendar during the budget and referendum season.