Vote for overcrowding

I went to the Eastover/Cotswold school boundary meeting Monday night at Eastover. A few hundred people crowded into the auditorium to listen to CMS talk about the two proposals. I have two observations.

First, I thought CMS did a terrible job presenting the proposals, explaining why it had come to this and what brought us here. They never stated why this particular area was chosen over others, although if you look at the map it's pretty obvious. The data they provided was difficult to interpret and incomplete at best. The moderator frequently failed to answer plainly stated questions. I am a huge supporter of CMS. But this meeting was a good example of why they have an image problem.

Second, it seemed to me the vast majority of people there were taking a strong stand in favor of overcrowding. No, of course they didn't put it that way. But when all the emotion and rhetoric is removed, their basic plan was to do nothing. Many said they wanted to let the situation "auto-correct." While that would certainly minimize the pain of the people living in the affected area, it does nothing to minimize the pain of the people who believe the situation now is intolerable and bound to get worse. I wish I believed the situation would auto-correct itself.