On another post Anonymous wrote:
New posting:
Article in today's P-G about money spent on now-closed buildings
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/pittsburgh-school-district-spent-23-million-on-now-closed-buildings-676715/
School
Board President Shealey is quoted as saying the amount spent is,
"regretful, but hindsight is 20/20. I have no intention of pointing
fingers at the board at that time. They were basing their decisions off
the information they had at the time."
We know the board doesn't
really make any decisions. This was Roosevelt and co. pulling the
strings and getting into bed with Gates and Broad. This started the
major decline of PPS.
The next article we read should be, "The
investigation of the PPS system," like we are now reading about the city
police being investigated.
On a side note - congratulations to
the Westinghouse boys' and girls' basketball teams for winning the city
basketball championships yesterday. Too bad the picture in the P-G
shows Crenshaw the principal, and Dr. Lane holding up the trophy. It
would have been more appropriate to have the team and coach with the
trophy. I don't think Crenshaw or Lane played yesterday...
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9 comments:
Ha ha!
But the money wasted on closed schools is definitely not funny. And the problem is not so much board members as the failure of administration to provide complete information to board members.
Note that the most recent reports on Schenley concede that high levels of asbestos in the plaster does not seem to be a problem based on recent tests, but advises more testing... whereas when earlier, rough tests showed asbestos there was little or no mention in reports of the recommendation for more precise tests.
Nowhere was it mentioned that the millions spent to move the Robotics program to Peabody was part of the dismantling of Schenley. That would bring the total to $30 million- oh if only the test that many advised be done had been done. That $30 million could have gone right into Schenley....
Roosevelt really wanted to experiment and the funds earmarked for Schenley ($30M, a true estimate of the amount that was needed even when they thought there was a lot of asbestos in the plaster) was too good to pass up.
The article mentions about $6M being spent on Reizenstein, but if memory serves it was more like $15M.
From Heather Arnet's infamous "Beyond Schenley" article,
"Our facilities staff confirmed that the cost of renovating buildings to fulfill the plan will run $40 million to $60 million, considerably less than the $76 million estimated cost of renovating Schenley alone."
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/beyond-schenley-399759/#ixzz2LqklddIi
That was the cost to turn 3 middle school buildings (Reizenstein, U Prep and Frick) into grade 6-12 schools. At least a third of that had to have been for Reizenstien, which was a real mess. Where were the complaints about $60M being spent on buildings to carry out this plan? We didn't hear much about financial problems until AFTER the money was spent.
I do blame the board. They had professionals in the construction field telling them that the estimates were inflated. They had the former principal of Schenley telling them that any asbestos problem had been taken care of in the 70's. They are supposed to represent the citizens of the city and not just go along to further the ambitions of the superintendent. They should have asked the questions and not just taken his answers as gospel. Even worse, they are still just going along.
I t only took the PG 5 years to write the story of the monies wasted on Capitol Costs.
Many of these NEVER should have happened. Frick- an unneeded program,
CAPA 6-12- Middle school performing arts, an unaffordible program,(Most Rogers students DID NOT go on to CAPA and most school districts do not have performing arts middle schools)
Concord and Sterrett were political.
Also the costs listed in the article are incorrect. Just one example Reizenstein was well over 10 million. But, even the low-ball numbers are appalling.
The ghost of Mark Roosevelt and his rubber stamping school board will be felt for years to come.
Lane's photo op with Crenshaw and the trophy tells the whole story.
To Lane it's all about the adults not the kids
What they sold the land at Rienstien for was a crime.
Or maybe to the newspaper that took and chose the photo it's about the adults.
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