This is Part 3.

Current candidates are highlighted. Click on any image to access larger versions and the whole album.

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As noted earlier, District 428 cannot find a way to fully staff the new DeKalb High School with custodians. Decisions made in 2008, as detailed in the following Facilities Planning Facility meeting minutes below, helped lead to today’s failure. Read the rest of this entry

What the hey:

Committee members were given a “fly-over view” PowerPoint presentation of the new high school by ATS&R architects. The new 400,000 square foot school will feature an all brick exterior with contrasting colors to give the building a prairie-style look. Other features include a glassed-in clock tower that will hold the original clock of the former high school that was located on the site where Clinton Rosette now stands. The facility will include a 2500-seat capacity competitive gymnasium plus an athletic field house. According to a report in the Northern Star the facility may have a football stadium as well.

Let’s review. They’ve chosen brick over precast, which would have saved mightily on labor costs. They’ve refused to downsize in spite of the dramatic change in projected enrollment, and they’ve rejected the idea to leave the clock tower as a project for private funding. Somehow we ended up with a field house in the plan, the indoor track has lengthened, and a verbal (FPC) agreement to provide stadium “infrastructure” has turned into a proposal to build the entire stadium.

BTW, last month at the Facilities Planning Committee meeting, Dr. Briscoe asked the architects to look into the cost of building new elementary schools as part of the Phase 2 “equity referendum” discussion.

We’re on the verge of a Big D and they’re still spending money like drunken sailors. My apologies to sailors, actually: at least they spend their own money and they get a grip once they sober up.

The materials sub-committee starts at 3:30 p.m., full Facilities Planning Committee at 6:30 p.m. Plans for the high school are being wrapped up.

Then they will discuss Phase II, including floating ideas about consolidating some of the elementary schools.

High school core for 3000 and initial classroom space for 2500, and they still think Phase II will pass? What color is the sky in their world?

There were meetings about police station funding and the new schools last night. I am very interested in the new station but since I wrote a letter about the high school it seemed fitting to attend the latter meeting.

The core size of the high school, at 3000, is treated as a done deal by the Facilities Planning Committee. Last night they were trying to decide on initial classroom capacity and it looks like they’ve landed on 2500. One member cautioned against “lopping off” classroom space as it would cramp the style of his wife the teacher, who knows ever so much more about educating our kids than we do so would we please just leave all this to the professionals.

Here’s what the professionals have in store for us:

Yours truly was paid a huge compliment when, at the end of the meeting, it became apparent that several FPC members had spent a whole day analyzing my letter so they could ambush me with it. Read the rest of this entry