BEX IV Denny Meeting
I was unable to attend last night.
If you did, could you let us know what was said or your impressions.
Here's the West Seattle Blog wrap-up of the meeting (complete with video). Apparently the biggest issue discussed was the merging of Arbor Heights and Roxhill and how late in the timeline their renovation would come.
Again, Arbor Heights is in the top three of worst condition buildings in our district. They want it fixed sooner rather than later. From the West Seattle Blog:
(District officials acknowledged that capacity issues are taking precedence over school-condition issues in planning of this levy.)
You could hear this as an issue at the Eckstein BEX IV meeting - "we have capacity issues."
It's a rock and hard place for BEX IV. If could have another bond, this wouldn't be as big an issue but the district can't risk losing with a 60% bar that a bond requires.
From the WS blog;
Capital projects/planning director Lucy Morello said, “If the community really doesn’t want to co-locate Roxhill and Arbor Heights, we won’t do that,” but added that no scenario has enough money to rebuild Roxhill as well as AH.
Roxhill would also be willing to move to the Hughes building if their building is too difficult to maintain.
Arbor Heights and Roxhill do not want to be pitted against each other. Also, AH has 375 students and Roxhill has 380. That is too big for one school so again, here is where boundary lines would come into play. Meaning, it is likely that Roxhill's community would break up.
But the district wants to save money and combining these schools would allegedly save money. (Clearly, not having two school staffs to pay would save money but at what cost?) AH would be filled with no room for growth. It would be very upsetting to close Roxhill only to reopen it in a couple of years.
If you did, could you let us know what was said or your impressions.
Here's the West Seattle Blog wrap-up of the meeting (complete with video). Apparently the biggest issue discussed was the merging of Arbor Heights and Roxhill and how late in the timeline their renovation would come.
Again, Arbor Heights is in the top three of worst condition buildings in our district. They want it fixed sooner rather than later. From the West Seattle Blog:
(District officials acknowledged that capacity issues are taking precedence over school-condition issues in planning of this levy.)
You could hear this as an issue at the Eckstein BEX IV meeting - "we have capacity issues."
It's a rock and hard place for BEX IV. If could have another bond, this wouldn't be as big an issue but the district can't risk losing with a 60% bar that a bond requires.
From the WS blog;
Capital projects/planning director Lucy Morello said, “If the community really doesn’t want to co-locate Roxhill and Arbor Heights, we won’t do that,” but added that no scenario has enough money to rebuild Roxhill as well as AH.
Roxhill would also be willing to move to the Hughes building if their building is too difficult to maintain.
Arbor Heights and Roxhill do not want to be pitted against each other. Also, AH has 375 students and Roxhill has 380. That is too big for one school so again, here is where boundary lines would come into play. Meaning, it is likely that Roxhill's community would break up.
But the district wants to save money and combining these schools would allegedly save money. (Clearly, not having two school staffs to pay would save money but at what cost?) AH would be filled with no room for growth. It would be very upsetting to close Roxhill only to reopen it in a couple of years.
Comments
Interestingly, Lucy Morello made a reference to "a few people in the community" raising the idea of "hey, let's combine Roxhill and Arbor Heights!" I find this perplexing. Is THIS how they problem-solve? Joe the Plumber calls Lucy up and says "howza 'bout we merge Eckstein and Washington and make a whopper middle school?" Badda-bing, badda-boom, it's on the BEX Option chart.
'"At my age around here, there are not very many other opportunities to make what we make," Milby said before beginning her 6:30 a.m. shift last October. "As long as my body holds up, I will keep working. But the way it feels, I don't know how long that will be."
Milby's job here in Kentucky is a world away from Amazon's rapidly expanding campus in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood, where high-tech talent has created one of the cutting-edge companies of the Internet age.'
Why is it I can relate more to Milby than Bezos, yet I'm, by no means, at minimum wage? Because Bezos and his company have way more pull than a parent with students in SPS.