10/02/2025
Thank you, Mr. Mapes, for addressing our club and sharing such encouraging news: 96% literacy proficiency among third graders, college freshmen entering with sophomore credit hours, and growing investments in skilled trade training.
We also appreciate your transparency about school finances. As a group of 50, we were proud to hear about the holistic approach your team is taking to address the challenges you inherited. Your experience and proactive efforts—renegotiating contracts and bonds, securing healthcare savings, making smart purchases, pausing raises, and reevaluating facility use—are exceptional financial clawback strategies.
We also value your candor about the difficult reality of graduating 1,800 seniors each year while welcoming only 1,000 new kindergarteners. It underscores the scale of the challenge ahead.
You truly are the CEO of a $300M corporation, guiding it with an entrepreneurial eye toward long-term health. We understand it will take 3–5 years to correct course, and we thank you for your leadership. The health of our city is directly tied to the health and prosperity of our schools.
