The FWCS entourage gave another presentation about their $250 million building proposal at Harrison Hill, my former Jr. High School, a classic building from 1924 which still looks great. The dozen or so in the audience who were not district employees were honored with some Mark GiaQuinta oratory followed by a slide show on various building problems and an explanation of the financial aspects by Kathy Friend.
There was little detail given on the actual work to be done in each building. The work is listed in three catgories - structural, learning environment and safety. The structural part was almost all HVAC with a heavy emphasis on AC, accounting for nearly 50% of the total project dollars. Actually fixing structural stuff like walls, windows, masonry, etc. accounts for about 15%. That's the aging and deterioration they've been whining about for years. Learning environment is about improving the cosmetics. If I had presented something like this to corporate management, they would have picked it apart in five minutes and sent me packing. That's what the board should do but that won't happen. GiaQuinta gets pissed off driving to work past Imagine on Broadway every morning knowing it's air conditioned. This will allow him arrive at the office in a better mood to deal with turnip bombs.
Apparently the project will be tackled and bonded in three phases of $120 MM, and two more at $60 MM. The district may actually put the first phase on the May primary ballot themselves. If it doesn't make it to the ballot, the project would take money still available under the caps away from all the other taxing entities that might want to use it. If it's approved in a referendum it all goes on top of the caps, and won't affect anyone else. At least that's the way Kathy Friend explained it and I tend to believe her.
They tried to explain how this "deterioration" all came about without mentioning the $150 million diverted to racial balance over the last 22 years. Last time that was their excuse although then they couldn't explain what the other $350 million was for. Now they're only talking about the money they've lost more recently to the caps and the bad economy, although they're still spending millions on racial balance every year. When I brought that up at the end of the meeting, it didn't go over well with Wendy.
Last time the JG called $500 million "sensible". In the Sunday Perspective Karen Frisco called $250 mllion "modest". (Another columnist on Page 3 called American public education "abysmal".) So now we know mathematically that "sensible" x 1/2 = "modest". By extension we could postulate that "arrogance" x 2 = ("M" + "W").
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You know it is all BS. One of our sister schools is an Indian Mission school located in the middle of the desert, with 80 - 100 year old buildings. The total spending is $5,822 per student. The students are very improvished, they come to school from homes without electricity, running water and kitchens! Yet, the school has some of the highest passing scores in the state. (Now, it is AZ, so the test could be watered down, like IN.) However, the high school students have a 100% passing score in reading and writing, and a 90% in math. 90% of the students go to four years of college, many with full-rides. Buildings don't matter. Poverty doesn't matter. Parenting or the lack of it doesn't matter. Great teaching does matter.
On a side note: FWCS could have had a good amount of funds. In the early 2000s, they had to install televisions and video players in every classroom. For every 1,000 classrooms they spent approximately 500,000 dollars. They also have cable. Isn't cable one of the first things to go, when a person is tightening down the hatch.
Digging through a pile of bullshit is an essential life skill. I can't think of a better place to perfect that skill than an FWS meeting or a better place to demonstrate that skill than the May primary.
Wendy would say you need to have a little compassion.
Wendy's kids are VERY well off! I rarely find a kid in Fort Wayne who is living in hut, with mud floors, no running water and NO wells around, and no electricity, Find one, I will be compassionate towards them, and allow them access to a strong education at a good local private school.
One with air conditioning of course.
My Native American tribal students don't barely have heat at home, let alone air conditioning. Hell, they probably wouldn't even care about a stuffy, hot classroom, as long as they are learning how to read.
I was there and most of what you report is an out and out lie. I suppose that is why you have the same 3 people who continue to buy your bullshit. Of the 242 million, 4 million was to put chillers in 6 schools. That does it for AC. Gee, Evert, hows that math background working for you?
Hi, Mark! - I pulled the numbers off a detailed spreadsheet that was in the folders that were handed out at the second work session. The total for twenty schools under "HVAC system " is $75,783,076. Further over there are 6 chillers in other schools for $3,130,000. that's nearly $80 million out of a $175 million subtotal, about 45% of the whole project relatedto HVAC. There may be a boiler or two in there but I would bet the vast majority of it is for AC.
From the same spreadsheet I added curtain walls, windows, roof catchup, masonry. The "our buildings are falling apart" stuff. It came to $23 million. The slide show was a confirmationthat you haven't even been keeping up with basic maintenance. That's the stuff that should fall under structural. HVAC I'm used to seeing under mechanical. Your categories seem to be designed to draw attention away from the AC.
OK, off with my head. Why don't you have Tracy put a detailed chart in the JG so we can all see exactly where the money is going. Enlighten us ignorant tyaxpayers. They did that last time for each school. Remember you called me a liar last time for reading the list for Irwin Elementary straight out of the JG.
By the way, I'm still waiting for the press conference on last spring's ECA scores. The ones that got the high schools the C ratings, same as Homestead and Harding.
So by your calculation, AC costs are $80 million, even though this is for HVAC, for example, at Snider the heating and AC piping will be replaced, as well as the controls for all the valves.
Out of a $242 million project, I come up with about a third, not half as you stated. But then I attended FWCS.
I notice that you don't mention that to pay for the entire project, a median home in FW with a value of $90,000 will see an increase in taxes of $27 per YEAR.
Thank you for equating FWCS high schools with Homestead. A student can get a good education at any of those schools.
Siesta - Fine, Homestead gets a C with 80/90% passing rate while FWCS high schools (north of Coliseum) get a C with 40/50% passing rates. Looks about the same to me. But to dispel all doubt, have Wendy call a press conference, announce the ECA scores and explain all that to the public.
I got my 45% number using the raw figures without architects, contingencies, etc. added on. You got your 1/3 by dividing the raw HVAC + chillers number by $240 million. Again publish the details for each building so the rest of us FWCS graduates don't have to guess what Wendy has up her sleeve. Her number one objective since she's been there has been to get all the buildings air conditioned. So put it on the May ballot and let's see what happens.
If the entire $242 million project were approved and completed, the end result would not provide AC in every school building.
Why doesn't someone pull City Ordinance Chapter 150 dealing with minimum standards for commercial buildings and compare this to FWCS proposals? I understand this ordinance was written off of property maintenance codes used by most of the country and State Building Codes. If it passes these codes, why are we putting more in when we're strapped?
Publishing the detailed descriptions and justifications of the work in every building in the local papers might answer a lot questions. Especially the components of an $80 million (plus design and contingencies) chunk of HVAC. It might also raise questions that they don't want to deal with.
Equipmnent age would not be a justification for replacement in a business, for example. Reduced cost of maintaining it or energy cost in running it might provide some return on the investment in new equipment but we never found that to be enough to justify replacement in a plant. Not even close.
Evert,
If Mark wants to write on your site so much why doesn't he create his own blog sight? Oh, I forgot, he just does all of his talking during FWCS meetings. At least I think he does, because I have not watched any meetings since they made it the Mark GiaQuinta Show.
Let's not forget that the district also had the opportunity to divert a portion of their ridiculous $17M transportation budget to the capital fund last year. The only catch was the union had to agree to no raises. The union wanted the raise so 100 teachers were fired and they didn't get to use the money for capital improvement.
But it's all about the kids...
So now 5 people have read this blog.
Don't forget Wendy tried to get AC for the FWEA twice for about $100 million and got shot down by a previous board with more sense. With $80MM for HVAC and $45MM of fluff in there this time, the FWEA members who still have jobs should be happy.
Don't forget to vote in May.
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