Below is a spreadsheet showing the plan that the Board supposedly relied on in authorizing the $90 million. The right hand column reflects my personal views. Ask yourself as to each item whether it will do much to improve the education that students receive and whether the money would be better spent on items such as more teachers or better use of computers.
| Analysis of Cost Estimates Used to Justify $90 Million Bond | ||
| (based on official report to Board of Education dated 11/20/01) | ||
| Estimated | ||
| Description | Cost | Comments |
| 1. Current modernization | ||
| program. | ||
| 1.1 Completion of existing | $ 9,000,000 | Items 1.1 and 1.2 are troubling, |
| contracts from prior | but I would support a smaller | |
| modernization program. | bond that would cover these | |
| items. As explained in my | ||
| 1.2 Completion of Building | $ 9,000,000 | statement of November 27, |
| B at Beverly Vista | 2001, it appears that the | |
| District will end up | ||
| approximately $56 million | ||
| over budget for projects that | ||
| were budgeted in 1998 at | ||
| $77 million. This is deplorable, | ||
| but I do not believe that the | ||
| students should be deprived | ||
| of these legitimate projects | ||
| because of the mistakes and | ||
| incompetence of the adults | ||
| who bungled this. | ||
| 2. Life Safety & Security. | ||
| 2.1 Repair uneven patio | $ 112,176 | This item is legitimate, but |
| paving stones & railings | overpriced. The official estimate | |
| at main entrance at | shows "hard costs" (actual | |
| Horace Mann School. | construction costs) of $81,910 | |
| and "soft costs" (design and | ||
| administration costs) of $30,266. | ||
| This is a repair of existing | ||
| paving/railings, and $30,266 | ||
| seems outrageous for soft costs, | ||
| even assuming that this includes | ||
| a historical consultant. Also, | ||
| I am sceptical about the $81,910. | ||
| 2.2 Americans with | $ 500,000 | The official explanation states |
| Disabilities Act ("ADA") | that the "[b]udget amount is | |
| Upgrades. | for unforseen mandated | |
| upgrades, but not for systematic | ||
| implementation of the District | ||
| ADA Transition Plan." | ||
| The original $77 million was | ||
| supposed to address this, | ||
| but recent history has shown | ||
| that the District is capable of | ||
| bungling away millions of dollars | ||
| due to "unforseen" expenses. | ||
| By proceeding based on cost | ||
| estimates that were developed | ||
| on a rush basis to get on the | ||
| March ballot (and that were | ||
| adjusted based on the preferences | ||
| of particular Board members), | ||
| the District is heading for | ||
| millions of dollars of ADDITIONAL | ||
| "unforseen" costs. | ||
| 2.3 Upgrades to smoke | $ 922,653 | This item was SUPPOSED to |
| & fire alarm systems. | be included in the original | |
| $77 million of projects, but | ||
| now we are told that ADDITIONAL | ||
| upgrades are desirable. Such | ||
| upgrades include $248,938 of | ||
| "soft costs" and an INCREDIBLE | ||
| $126,037 for smoke detectors in | ||
| the attic of Building A at | ||
| Hawthorne School. I believe | ||
| that some of this may be | ||
| legitimate (at lower prices), but someone | ||
| would need to investigate why this was | ||
| not handled as part of the | ||
| first round of construction, when | ||
| we were told that all important | ||
| items were being taken care of. | ||
| 2.4 Hazardous materials | $ 500,000 | This was presented to the Board |
| abatement. | as a plug number to cover | |
| the asbestos abatement that | ||
| will result from some of the | ||
| other work described below, | ||
| such as adding more emergency | ||
| lighting than was added in | ||
| the initial round of construction. | ||
| Because I believe that virtually | ||
| all of such items are questionable, | ||
| I believe that this number is | ||
| far too high. | ||
| 2.5 Lighting -- Exit & | $ 1,207,723 | If this was not part of the original |
| Emergency. | $77 million project (which has | |
| "Corridor and exit-way | ballooned into $126 million | |
| lighting and lighted exit | according to the District's official | |
| signs that light the way | numbers), I might believe that | |
| to exits in the event of | this is legitimate. I would also | |
| an emergency or power | note that this includes $325,852 | |
| outage." | of soft costs, which seems like | |
| a lot to pay for supervising | ||
| the fixing of problems that we | ||
| already paid a lot of money to | ||
| fix. | ||
| 2.6 Lighting -- Security. | $ 1,874,817 | Virtually all of this would go to |
| the High School, including | ||
| $510,069 of hard costs to replace | ||
| the lighting for a 2 story parking | ||
| garage, and $807,047 of hard | ||
| costs for "exterior lighting | ||
| improvement." There is also | ||
| $505,838 to design and supervise | ||
| these ridiculously overpriced | ||
| hijinx. Also, there was ZERO | ||
| discussion of the future impact | ||
| on the District's electric bill, | ||
| or of the fact that for several | ||
| months the automatic lighting | ||
| systems at the high school were | ||
| coming on over 3 hours before | ||
| dusk. Every one of these new | ||
| fixtures will have a future energy | ||
| cost and maintenance cost. Also, | ||
| to verify how bogus this is, please | ||
| walk the high school when its | ||
| dark. There's nothing wrong | ||
| there that could not be fixed with | ||