It has been exactly 1 week since the last update when we submitted an alternate proposal to the administration for review. Since that time we have easily crossed the 500 petitioner mark and are closing in on 600! I've heard from friends that other neighborhoods have been passing this petition around and signing it too. Our claim of building an organized, cross-neighborhood coalition that all supported the same alternate proposal is stronger now than ever. Last week, we submitted the alternate proposal and requested a meeting in order to formally present it to the administration and answer any questions they may have. They politely declined our meeting request but did indicate that they were working on a new proposal with several changes in it. We are cautiously optimistic about the new proposal. I want to stress that it's actually a good thing that they declined our meeting. It tells us that the administration wants to be able to review all the input and make the best plan for the whole district without being overly influenced by any outside groups. I take it that that includes any other outside influence as well. This is great news. The administration team are the most qualified people to make the final proposal decisions. Our tax dollars pay their salaries which, by definition, makes them the professionals here. That's not to say that they won't miss something here or there but that was the point of the public hearings and this petition. That process is working so far. I don't think anyone could claim that we've had an unfair influence on their process or have done anything that anyone else couldn't have done. I'm proud of the way that we organized and presented an alternate proposal with a clear voice. We clearly outlined the issues in the original proposal, used the published data to outline an alternate solution, and communicated what we value. Today, the administration team should be sending an updated proposal to the Board of Trustees for internal review. As I understand it, that provides the board time to review it before it is publicly presented on October 20th (7pm at RRHS Lecture hall). The board won't vote on that plan until the following public meeting on November 17th. We need to sit tight until next week. Once the new proposal is presented we can all go home and review it. I'll send out another update at that time. Many thanks for listening, your feedback, and getting involved!