Greenland Update

The July 14 D-Day for the Greenland, Arkansas school district is rapidly approaching. So what's going on?

June 24: Greenland counters the seven reasons for annexing the district.

June 25: They fired their superintendent. The Pennsylvania Avenue psychic says, "I knew that."

June 26: Good news: District deficit isn't $300,000. Bad news: It's $139,000. School board starts passing the hat at board meetings. Emperor nods approvingly, directs Reba Dunford to buy a REALLY big hat.

June 27: The neighboring Fayetteville school district says, "No thanks. Stay right where you are."

June 28: The neighboring West Fork school district says, "Greenland! Come on down!" Just kidding. The hot potato gets passed from Fayetteville to West Fork to...

June 29: School's future is a source of angst in community. Madame Marie reports she's two-for-two.

June 30: The district borrows $121,000 to maintain solvency. The loan raises the district's debt liability at that bank to $621,000.

July 1: ...the neighboring Farmington school district, who says, "thanks, but we already have students."

While I treated the Greenland situation rather lightly in this post, this is a lose-lose situation all around. No one wins in this tragedy. Especially the students.

Substitute "Morrisville" for "Greenland". "Fayetteville", "West Fork", and "Farmington" could be "Pennsbury", "Bristol", and "Council Rock". All of a sudden it starts to hit home how serious this situation is.

These students are treated like latter-day Typhoid Marys, rejected at the schoolhouse door by a George Wallace wannabe. *Some* of the financial problems are not Greenland's fault. Some of the forced Winslow annexation's financial issues changed the complexion of Greenland's budget. And now with this extremely fresh example, the neighboring school districts look at their bottom lines and fervently pray for this cup to pass. How many of these same conversations have been held within Bucks County school boards over the past six months since the Emperor announced he was interested in selling our kids to the lowest bidder?

I really do hope that Greenland can come out of this intact.

I hope the Bulldogs can too...