Tonight is the School Board meeting which really I haven’t been able to focus on as much as I would like. The big thing on that agenda will be the five options being presented to the School Board tonight on how to go about scheduling the repairs for the schools around town. Clearly not everything can be done all at once so now it is time to prioritize and make the tough decisions. There are some timelines on the power point which will be too complicated to duplicate here so I’ll just extract out the key points from each option. All of the options pushes the critical projects like roofing and security to the beginning of the schedule. The major differences are when the high schools are planned and construction begins. The only option that delays the elementary/middle and charter school work is option 2 which I think is probably not really an option for most folks.
Option 1
- Focuses on critical projects early in bond program.
- K-8 Schools and Charters remain in originally planned sequence.
- The two high schools will begin the planning and design and construction phases at the end of the bond program.
Option 2
- Focuses on critical projects early in bond program.
- Both high schools are advanced in the bond program to begin planning and design in 2015.
- The bulk of K-8 Schools and Charters projects are delayed past the high schools completion for funding purposes.
Option 3
- Focuses on critical projects early in the bond program.
- The K-8 Schools and Charters projects are condensed in the beginning of the overall bond program.
- Both high schools are advanced in the program with planning and designing at the same time, but construction is staggered by one year.
Option 4
- Focuses on critical projects early in the bond program.
- The K-8 Schools and Charters projects are condensed in the beginning of the bond program.
- Both high schools are advanced in the program with planning and designing at AHS starting in 2015 and EHS planning and designing delayed one year starting in 2016.
- Construction at AHS would start in 2017 and EHS would start in 2018.
Option 5
- Focuses on critical projects early in the bond program with the K-8 Schools and Charters projects returned to the original schedule of January 27th schedule.
- Both high schools are advanced in the program with planning and designing at AHS starting in 2015 and EHS planning and designing delayed one year starting in 2016.
- Construction at AHS would start in 2017 and EHS would start in 2018.
Here’s how the money would break down by year based on the option selected:
In the last three options Encinal High would always be one year behind in the construction process from Alameda High.
Blogging Bayport Alameda 
Several questions come to mind when I look at these options–particularly 3, 4, and 5:
1. How sustainable it will be to try and compress the design and planning stages from a process perspective?
2. Does AUSD have the staff resources to keep up with simultaneous or nearly-simultaneous design and planning phases?
3. Does the school board have the time, skills, and resources to keep up with simultaneous or nearly-simultaneous design and planning phases?
4. Will enough members of the community be able to participate in an informed and thoughtful way in a compressed planning process?
Compressing the design process(es) too much or trying to plan too many projects at once seems to reduce the likelihood of having the engaged, thoughtful community participation that AUSD and our community need in undertakings like this. If too much information on too many planning efforts overloads citizens’ capacity to participate or if the process moves too fast for people to keep up, we may lose some of very creative contributions.
Comment by Jon Spangler — March 24, 2015 @ 7:21 am
Jon you made a very good point ,
they neither have the time nor the capacity to process all that information at once ,
yes it will alienate them with the peoples funding the project , the tax payers ,
his is why this tax payer will let them do what ever they want then fight them in court with qualified professional and win , meaning the school will loose both times .
The education is as good as their planning .
Charles
Comment by Joel Rambaud — March 24, 2015 @ 9:20 am
The board approved the hiring of a project manager responsible for overseeing Measure I projects a few board meetings ago. Also on the agenda this evening is approving QKA as the architectural firm for the plan (costs were included in the implementation plan.) As they were the organization that prepared the plan and engaged the community in some 40 odd meetings last year. They are well prepared to move forward and will add to the efficiency of the planning.
Moving the planning forward for the high schools makes sense to me as the work on HAHS will require state approval and could take 12-18 months to procure. This creates a gap between planning and beginning the work which can be filled with the scheduled k-8 work approved by the voters.
Comment by Anne DeBardeleben — March 24, 2015 @ 9:38 am
As a follow-up, the Board of Education expressed a preference for Option 5 last night, as it both allows enough time to plan K-8 and charter school projects thoughtfully and gets the high school work started earlier. They will vote on this option at the April 14 meeting.
Comment by Susan Davis (Community Affairs, AUSD) — March 25, 2015 @ 8:23 am
I really liked the discussion about the options last night. Most civil and thoughtful.
Comment by Kate Quick — March 25, 2015 @ 10:46 am