LONG POST - SORRY. Quick highlight reel of tonights bond hearing - - from my perspective: Dr. Dupre presented to an unfortunately empty-ish room. His bond presentation was well done overall; he laid out the history leading up to this point; he detailed pieces of the bond package; and perhaps most importantly (to me), he addressed quite a few red-flag issues that have come to light. 1 - REGARDING RIVERSTONE ES: he stated unequivocally that Riverstone ES (#47) will be built whether bond passes or not; he is aware that he has told the community the school could be built with current unused funds - if bond goes thru, those unused funds would be used to pay for short-life-span tech items; if bond fails, those funds will be dedicated to the Riverstone school. 2 - REGARDING REZONING/BOUNDARY/FEEDER: Dr. Dupre stated a number of times how important a part of the process the boundary/feeder work is; he stated that this critical piece is underway right now as the Board has begun to discuss policies and procedures via workshops. He said that he sees the bond and feeder//boundary work as happening simultaneously bc they are both necessary for accommodating district growth. 3 - FISCAL CONSERVATIVISM: Dr. Dupre assured the room that all built-in contingency amounts are there b/c of radically increasing construction costs and land costs; he assured all that if in fact the contingency funds are not needed, they will be used for additional future facilities needs. Having said all of that, I did ask that the District provide a tip sheet to the community at large prior to next weeks hearing to ensure that folks are well-informed and understand truths surrounding certain pieces of misinformation. I still believe the bond is happening far too quickly - - is a month a long enough timeframe to ensure all is have been dotted and ts have been crossed on a $540M bond? Im thinking no. I also still stand firm in thinking that it would be wiser to do the no/low-cost improvements (feeders, boundaries) FIRST before entering into a $540M bond. But - as one mom of an Oakland student said at tonights hearing - - for many parents/kids in overcrowded schools, the bond cant happen soon enough. So - I encourage you all to do the digging, and come to the meeting, and learn the details and facts for yourselves! If you have more specific questions, please feel free to PM me. thx!
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 02:48:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015