Dear Menlo Park City Council, I learnt way too late of the planned MCC closure to be able to react in time, and I don't even know the current status, which goes a long way showing that this could be a rushed decision with few people having stakes in it being really informed. To try to give you some background on my personal relationship with MCC, I have two kids, Gaspard and Colin, who are schooled there. Colin was born in the US and entered MCC as early as possible (18 months), which has been a blessing given the very few options there are in or around Menlo Park for children below 3. Gaspard was born in Denmark where we use to live, went to another daycare initially in a very fragile arrangement, and entered MCC as soon as we could. My wife is doing a post-doc in the biology/medical research field at Stanford, I am a software engineer working at Facebook, we do almost everything by bike (you may have seen our giant white cargo bike at times), going to work, dropping the kids at school, doing the groceries. This is not just about me though, I would like to convey the shift in perspectives that closing MCC triggers. - This removes a key schooling option for working parents. Alternatives are (a) to find a school outside of Menlo Park (which is a strong incentive not to live in Menlo Park in the first place), (b) to commute by car, or (c) to select families living in Menlo Park with one stay-at-home parent, statistically very likely a stay-at-home mum. Is that really what the city council wants to push forward ? - The numbers I've seen, mentioning the city budget deficit and several options, paint a complicated situation, I think that I understand some of that and it must be hard for the Council. It seems, however, that (a) the MCC deficit is due to the covid situation mostly (which should hopefully improve by September), and that (b) any remaining residual deficit, very low in proportion, could probably be tackled by other options, for instance raising the fees or proposing additional paying services. Closing an established and respected school is not an easy decision to revert I suppose, I am really surprised that other options are not placed on the table before that. - In the current Covid situation, communication is different, but it is no less paramount. I have trouble expressing how brutal it was to discover that closing MCC seemed to be the leading option with a delay, from another parent, and without any communication on the subject ("would you accept a raise in tuition fees ?.."). It looks very much like this is a decision in search of a justification, from the outside at least, which went a long way in eroding trust in the Menlo Park city. - All the MCC children are living the current Covid situation, no more but no less than other schools. They would like to come back to school, are asking about their teachers. Closing their school on top of that is adding to the confusion of the moment, not to mention sentiments. Yours truly, Benjamin Lefaudeux Received on Sat May 23 2020 - 21:29:33 PDT
