Sentinel Student Defends Sign + Public Meeting Tonight
by jhwygirl
Sorry – didn’t know about tonight’s meeting until I read this. It was posted at 5:15 p.m. today.
Reposted directly from Christina, the student in charge of project coordination for the Sentinel electronic sign project.
Hello! This is the project coordinator for the Sentinel Sign Project, Cristina. I am a senior at Sentinel and would like to provide some more information for any readers interested in learning more about the sign and when and where they can make their opinions heard. The sign is being built by the Sentinel DECA Chapter with no taxpayer dollars. All the money is being fundraised from advertising on the sign, in accordance with school policy, and sponsorships. Because Sentinel is on public lands, we are exempt from city ordinance and adhere to State law instead.
We have gone through the proccess at OPG and have sent out the applicable notification to all residents. The sign is the size that it is because it is unique. It was found at an auction and is the cheapest we could find. Because of its price, we as a student group can afford to construct it. There are many things the students have done to make the sign as non-intrusive to the community as possible.
All the work has been done by 50 Marketing students under advisor and teacher Mark Hartman. Mr. Hartman, Josh Hamilton (the Public Relations committee chair), and myself will be presenting our project at the Lewis and Clark community meeting tonight at 7:00 p.m. and will also be doing a presentation on Wednesday night, the 21st of January, at Sentinel High School in the Margaret Johnson Theatre at 7:00 p.m. Please come and get informed about our sign and let us know your thoughts. The official Public Hearing for the School Sign will be on January 28th at 7:00 p.m. in the city offices building just North of the courthouse. Please come to the 1st floor of the building and join us! This project has been a wonderful learning experience for all of us and we want to do everything we can to make this sign mutually beneficial to everyone involved. Thank you for your time!
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Pingback on Jan 27th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
[...] remember? The one that student project coordinator Christina came by to defend? Don’t miss the comments on that [...]
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January 15, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Didn’t see much that would make a legal argument for a variance.
January 15, 2009 at 7:58 pm
They don’t need a variance under state law. They don’t have to comply, as Christina is aptly pointing out.
I guess they could if they wanted to – but from her post, it is clear she doesn’t seem to think that they have to behave as part of the community.
Shockingly arrogant for a senior in high school. They’ll have their meetings and feel good about it and do whatever they please.
Great civics. Leaders of tomorrow. Scary.
Yes, it’s all ponies and rainbows and unicorns!
Do the schools in Gallatin comply with zoning?
January 15, 2009 at 8:00 pm
I still put forth the question – our ordinance prohibits off-premise advertising. If they use that sign to advertise, say, the auto body shop down the street, is the auto body shop not in violation?
How can the generate revenue from advertising when a school is not a commercial entity?
January 15, 2009 at 8:42 pm
The school is exempt, it’s true. However, if they’re exempt, why make all those cutesy arguments?
However, if it were about education, and not money, they’d go through the process of requesting a variance. As it is, they only need to hold an informational hearing and then tell the neighbors too bad for you, we are exempt.
As it is, they levy all that money for the “transportation levy”, spend it all on buses, then put schools on local streets and not give a thought to the safe routes to schools for parents and kids who walk and watch all those empty buses and drop off parents driving by on their streets. No wonder the high school kids have been educated not to give a damn about the neighbors.
January 15, 2009 at 9:19 pm
As you point out..”if it were about eduction”…
I go to DECA’s website and I wonder what in the world these kids are learning. In the real world, they’re going to have to comply with laws and regulations. In this little fantasy they’ve whipped up, they can erect a sign that would be illegal outside their exempt-from-regulation world, make a profit on a sign that would be illegal outside their exempt-from-regulation world and advertise stuff on it that would be illegal outside their exempt-from-regulation world.
But hey – we’re all invited to come! Thank you for your time!
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Maybe I should be nicer?
January 15, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Well, marketing and PR aren’t the most upright of professions, but you’d certainly prefer to see kids develop a soul before selling it.
I just question the district/school administration’s role in this, because the bad publicity seems hazardous in the long run. Like I said in the other thread, files get emptied during election season. Scott Waldron, Ron Waterman … the list goes on.
Voters tend not to forget these little kerfuffles.
January 15, 2009 at 11:22 pm
DECA’s presentation during the Tuesday night BCPS Board meeting was basically a cheer-leading session for student adviser Mark Hartman; a good bit of the cheer-leading actually coming from certain board members. And one board member actually went as far as saying something like: “please reserve one of those $1,000 spaces on the sign for my business.”. Seems like an indication of a pre-determined outcome and a vested interest to me. Another board member benignly referred the item to a MCPS board committee, as I understood it.
So perhaps there will be more opportunity to let the MCPS board know that it is this community and our neighborhoods that nurture these kids. They spend just a few years in a school and want to leave a decades long legacy for residents to live with! That’s not fair to the neighbors of the school, commuters who frequent South Avenue or folks who enjoy our town’s visage from the ridgelines.
I’d like to re-iterate someone’s poignant comments from Jaffe’s list-serve that commercial signs are like an Arms Race and one entity will always be looking to top another to get attention. It is up to the community to establish boundaries for that race. We have already done that. These students and the MCPS Board should respect that.
January 16, 2009 at 6:38 am
Thanks SeenClearly – the MCPS Board met this past Tuesday, and if they mentioned an upcoming meeting during last night’s cheerleading session, it was likely the High School Principal’s Meeting on Tuesday, January 20th from 8:20 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in Room 14 at MCPS’ Administration Building, 215 South Sixth West
Here’s the public meeting notice webpage for MCPS.
Oh…and who was that Board member? There are a few up for election this May. As klemz notes, an issue like this could result in a shakeup on the Board. Whee!
January 16, 2009 at 2:14 pm
They’d be making a mistake if they started any (sub)committee or board action on this until the community meetings / hearings were done.
“…who was that board member?” :
I could not see the name plate; but the MCAT guys were there and I believe a secretary was taking minutes.
I guess I should rename myself SeenNotSoClearly.
Does anyone have a better address/room number for where the official hearing on the 28th will take place? “…city offices building just North of the courthouse.”, is a bit ambiguous.
January 16, 2009 at 4:19 pm
The School Board does not have to take any action. This is the project of a situdent activity group.
The meeting on the 28th is the City Board of Adjustment. It is held in the City Council Chambers, at 140 W. Pine, 7:30 p.m.
MCAT is replaying yesterdays meeting – thanks for the MCAT mention – on Saturday at 7:35 p.m. Also on Wednesday at 5 p.m. I’ll have to TiVo that and get the persons name.
Was it a man or a woman?
January 16, 2009 at 5:05 pm
“And one board member actually went as far as saying something like: “please reserve one of those $1,000 spaces on the sign for my business.”
Hmm, ethics?
January 16, 2009 at 5:18 pm
It’s kinda like a big f-you to the public, if you ask me.
January 16, 2009 at 6:14 pm
You don’t have to wait, the AV kids at MCAT will burn you a disc of any meeting for just ten dollar.
January 17, 2009 at 11:35 am
Let’s face it, their ‘cheap’ sign is going to be butt ugly.
Just like with the conversion to digital TV, what they are doing is taking away a public good for private benefit. So, I call b-shit! In this case, they are selling of the public amenity of scenic beauty by scarring the community we live in. I, too, am part owner of that aesthetic resource and it is part of the reason why I live here.
You want to sell it away from me, young student club activists? Then, I’m going to want to be paid. I’ll take .1% of your proceeds. Is that OK?
Just like Geoff Badenoch mentioned on Bob Jaffe’s listserv, we’ve got a sign war going on in this town. No, not between folks who want signs and folks who don’t, but between the businesses that need signs. If we allow them to escalate the size, the brightness, and the flashing zippo graphics to catch our attention, then they will. Those who can afford the biggest/brightest/flashiest will.
On the other hand, if we set the ground rules based on what the community wants and police adherence to the law, then every small business has a good chance of communicating their goods and services to the public. Without pissing us off.
So, will you be able to see the Sentinel sign from Mt. Sentinel or from Blue Mountain or from the new open space lands above Mansion Heights? Not on foggy days, I guess.