This is a follow up to my previous of the same title. Today I got to spend some time with Steve, the facilities director of the school district. (Glad that I finally found out his title instead of grand Poobah, haha). Steve is a very well spoken man with a great passion for the school district. He told me his story of how he came to the facilities dirctor and basically it came down that in this state you need a degree in order to teach and once he got into the classroom he figured out real quick that teaching sucked. So he opted to go into managing facilities and found a job at a local amusement park and worked his way up through the pecking order and got the top facilities gig at the park. As with everything in life, changes happen and Steve decide to go back to education and went to the school district than rose to the top spot after a few years. Now as Facilities director he has control over all areas of the school system's facilities.

His latest project is overseeing the renovation of the Primary school (kindergarten and 1st grade). The budget is somewhere around $15M-$16M depending on cost overruns and unexpected construction dificulties. I toured the exterior of the building with Steve and he explained that everything was stripped out of the building...i.e. interior walls, plumbing, electrical, air conditioning and even then floors. Big remodel expected to be finished by August of next year. He and the board hired a construction firm that is a CMR. Steve has worked with this company in the past and is very confident in their abilities to do a good job with workmanship and budget.

Steve also showed me the Junior High School. Wow, is all I could say about the school. He told me this school won a world wide architectural award for best design of a school. Lots of bells and whistles within this school. A 900 seat theater complete with sound booth sky box and a huge stage. Just awesome. There was a full gymnasium next to the theater. The entire school is embedded within a mound of dirt on the front side which makes the school look like it is build underground. Walk to the backside of the school and it's three stories with the ground floor the cafeteria, theater, and gym along with consession areas for the theater. The top two floors are classrooms. I didn't ask the cost of this building but I'm thinking it was around $12M. It houses about 200 kids. Steve was proud of the firefighting systems within the building. There were a few cones hung from the ceiling and they pointed downward. These cones were high volume fans which in cooperation with the fire alarm system push smoke out of the building via automatic opening doors. So, when a fire breaks out the fans come on and the exterior doors automatically open and the smoke is pushed out to keep the area free of smoke so the fire fighters can enter and not deal with a lot of smoke.

Next we took a quick trip to the Vo-Tech campus. It is an old building which is falling down. Literally. A new"ish" section of the building is pulling away from the original building. So the school board has voted to build a new Vo-Tech campus. Upping the square footage from 43K to over 84K sq. ft. Great opportunities for learning a trade. Nursing, welding, boat repair, chef school, tier 1 and tier 2 automotive repair, and electrical and a couple of others. Steve's son went through the Vo-Tech side of electrical and now works as a lineman for the local electrical company. Makes good money. A former student, who went through the welding course offered at the Vo-Tech, came back to the high school to tell the students who don't want to go to college how much money they can make by getting a trade under their belts. He works as a welder, brought his pay stubs along to prove his earnings, and showed how, with a little effort, he makes over $150k/yr. I didn't ask about the cost of the proposed Vo-Tech building, though. But I feel that this is a great avenue for kids who don't want to go through the drudgery of college. The land is already appropriated for the building and has stakes marking out the corners.

Then we went driving behind the elementary school. There was a women's softball field and a practice baseball field. The elementary school looked alright, nothing eyepopping but definetly better than the old elementary school down the road.

Finally Steve took me offroading behind the Junior High school. Literally down a dirt trail. He explained the school district had purchased 150 acres of land contiguous to the other campuses. As we were driving in the woods there were colored marker tape here and there. Steve explained that "over there is where the tennis courts will be, here is the frisbee golf course and back there is the cross country running track." On the way out of the woods I asked Steve how much was these things going to cost. Without blinking he said," around 8 or 9 million dollars and about a million of that for dirt and rock removal and relocation". To me that is staggering for pushing dirt around. But such is life.

Overall I was very impressed with Steve and his passion for this school district and wanting to make it the best in the state. In my opinion he is well on his way to accomplishing that goal. His explainations as to why the buildings cost so much was in line with my research. He understands the relationship betweent he architecs and the construction CMR. He likes the way all parties in the building process are on the same page. And he keeps apprised on all aspects of the Primary school remodel. Steve is a hand on guy who is very good at what he does.

The one thing about the time I spent with Steve was the cost of the tennis courts and frisbee golf course and track. Although Steve thinks this is a great addition to the schools extracurricular activities, I'm thinking it is unnecessary expenditures. How many kids will be frisbee golfing? How many want to play tennis on a daily basis?

But that is my feeling and now I am asking the GAW community what I can do to put the brakes on the expenditure of the funds to build these courts and courses? They are ready to break ground so do I have any power to stop the $9M dollars being spent? I and a lady were the only people at the school board meeting and there is a policy that if you want to address the school board you've got to put your name on the list. So I get to speak to the board for three minutes, but I don't think that will do anything to change the minds of the seven board members. I am but one voice saying "don't spend $9M on needless tennis courts". No other community members will speak up because they don't want to go to the board meetings. Will one voice be enough to stop the expenditure? Will I have to go to every board member and voice my concerns? Will they do what I ask? Has the dye already been set? Can I alone pull back the $9M and put it towards the cost of the Primary school remodel?

Thanks, GAW, for allowing a thread like this to be posted. Freedom of speech is necessary...........so is freedom of answers to a $9M dollar question. God Bless.