GSIS and Ma On Shan

Just so that everyone is aware the results were as follows:

No to the compromise proposed by the board.

No to the move to MOS.

I would like to say thank you to everyone that has taken part in this thread and all of your input has been greatly appreciated. I would also like to say thank you to all the parents that stood up for what they believed in and working together to make things happen.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Genome
 
So glad with the results. Yet, what is next?
The deadline is still end of March? Students are still going to MOS?
I really hope that the board really listen this time, for there is still lots of noise on the floor today at the meeting, from both the English stream and the German Stream.
 
Yes, indeed, what next? Go ahead and risk being sued? Come up with another compromise proposal which, by the look of tonight's voting result, is likely to be rejected too? Ask the Government to extend the deadline which again is unlikely to be of much help? Tell the school community that it's no longer in the best interest of the school to move to MOS, but on what ground? If it's on the ground that it's bound by the resolution tonight, the Board members should all resign at the same time because they are not in a position to discharge their duty properly. Tell the school community that there is in fact no urgency or there are other solutions, in which case they have to explain why they have all along presented it as the only option that's available within the next 2 to 3 years. Some of course would say that their problem is self-inflicting. But I don't envy their position especially they are not getting paid.

If I were the Board , I would probably rethink carefully the whole decision. Is it really necessary and urgent? If the answer is still "yes", try to seek an extension of the deadline for 2 to 3 months and then make a last attempt to see if some kind of arrangement can be made that the opposing parents may find acceptable. If it still fails, the only proper thing for the Board members to do is to resign.

Of course, another alternative for the Board is to leave the matter pending and then wait and see if the quality of education really declines. If the results do deteriorates, then parents will come back and ask you to do something about it. Perhaps it would be easier then to convince everybody to make a move. But the problem is that there won't always be a site waiting for you and once the results go downhill, then you will only attract inferior students. The problem may become a vicious cycle and can't be turned around easily.

Let's see what they will do.

parent said:
So glad with the results. Yet, what is next?
The deadline is still end of March? Students are still going to MOS?
I really hope that the board really listen this time, for there is still lots of noise on the floor today at the meeting, from both the English stream and the German Stream.
Click to expand...
 
I am sure not in the near future, esp with the students attending now. As for the future, parents have a fair ground to think what is best for their children and decide whether they want to send their kids to any decanting site. The issue is the school failed to attend the matter 10 yrs ago and forced the existing children to live with the consequences. It is clear that many school are decanting now and after a 2-3 years when they r finished, then the hotel school will be ready for another school again. We just need to avoid "rush hours"
 
I have been thinking about what the board will do. In my opinion knowing them they will just push through MOS. On every piece of literature and on every comment made last night they were adamant that there was no other solution. It almost seemed as if they were singing the same mantra "THere is no other site. There is no other site" as if they had given up looking.

What I would suggest is everyone take a step back and start the rebuilding healing process. Lets see if we as GSIS members and community can come together and work together to build something we can be proud of. There has been such a rift torn in the school that we need to take a look at everything from the top down and rebuild with everyones help. There will be things that not everyone would like but hopefully we can keep this to a small percentage as opposed to half the school which were not convinced by MOS.

I think the next move is with the board and I would be interested to see what there next move is. Lets hope it is the right one.
 
One side is saying (1) there has been a shortage of space problem for almost 10 years and (2) having the redevelopment is the only solution and (3) MOS is the only site available within the next 2 to 3 years and (4) if we don't act soon, the quality of education shall decline. The other side is saying "no" to MOS at all costs. The difference is just too big and I don't think any compromise can be reached.

I have been thinking, instead of moving the Kindergarten and the Business College to Pokfulam, can we move the whole Primary there? Afterall, it's a primary school site and the class size of a local school is usually a lot bigger than that ours. The next question is to find somewhere for the Kindergarten and the Business College. I have no idea how big the Business College is. As they are grown-ups, it's a lot easier for them to travel even over long distance. Since we are redevelopoing Middle Building in Phase 2 only, can the Lower Building house the Kindergarten? I know it will cost us a lot more to do it this way and it will involve moving everybody around at a one or two years' interval. But since there is no perfect solution, any step that will move us forward is better than none. It's just a wild guess and I sincerely hope that something can be worked out. My feeling is that doing nothing is the worst choice. To me, even cutting down the size of the school as the last resort is still better than doing nothing.
 
Hi all. Sorry to break in, but as far as I remember, someone has already asked the school about moving the both primary sections to PFL and the answer was No, because the cap of PFL is about 3XX. I don't exactly remember but it was around 320-350 which can't house both German and English sections....
 
caty0606,

Thanks for the information. To be honest, I don't know if it works. But looking at the 2007-2008 yearbook in the school website, I noticed that there were 89 kids in the kindergarten, 480 in the Primary and 40 in the Business College. Out of these 480 kids in the Primary, we had 272 in Y2 and below and 208 in Y3 and above. Assuming that this year's figures are similar, then under the "compromise proposal", we will have 401 (= 89 + 272 +40) in Pokfulam which is not too far away from 480 which is the total number of Primary kids we had. So instead of having the Lower Primary there at Pokfulam, can we say keep some of the Lower Primary with the kindergarten in the Lower Building? What I am thinking is that if we had a choice of moving everybody elsewhere, we of course would like to imitate DGS and get it done as quickly and as cost efficient as possible. But now we might not have a choice, then we must make do with everything we have got. If we can't do a large scale redevelopment all at the same time, the only way forward is to do it by parcels. The solution might not be perfect and the classroom may even be a bit cramped, but hopefully the redevelopment of the Middle Building will at least benefit our kids when they go on to higher grades. By the way, even though some of the parents might not agree with me, when I heard Dr. Green inviting a parent (who has a Master Degree in Education) to attend some of the classes to see how cramped the classrooms are, I got the impression that he is telling the truth or he is at least convinced that we have a big problem in hand. Another thing is why is the Board taking all these troubles to push the proposal forward if it's really unnecessary and when they know fully well that they will meet a lot of resistance. They aren't likely to be doing it for fun. Anyway, my point is all of us will be losers if we don't follow this matter up with a solution. In 2 to 3 years time, another batch of parents are going to make objection to any move and waiting patiently for a "better" site may just turn out to be nothing but a wishful thinking.

caty0606 said:
Hi all. Sorry to break in, but as far as I remember, someone has already asked the school about moving the both primary sections to PFL and the answer was No, because the cap of PFL is about 3XX. I don't exactly remember but it was around 320-350 which can't house both German and English sections....
Click to expand...
 
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