Are you being served?

I wrote a follow up comment about the Alameda Architectural Preservation Society’s case against the City of Alameda, School District and Housing Authority yesterday, but wanted to make sure that everyone saw it.   So I did ask both the City of Alameda and School District for a copy of the complaint, but no one had it.  Weird right given that the agenda item was clearly there on the School District’s closed session agenda.

Turns out as of Tuesday night the case had been filed with the court, but not yet served to the parties.

But here it is on the (now crappy pay site) Domain Web:

With friends like these…

Tuesday night’s School Board meeting was a doozy — as it generally is — there was a parade of PE teachers that essentially said students need PE or else they will all get fat and lazy (paraphrasing).  There was the craziness with the Newark Unified School District which voted to not pass through to an Alameda County consortium of other school districts (Alameda included) money to help credential teachers.   From what I understand Newark Unified is the fiscal agent for the consortium Alameda belongs to and they have decided that they’re going to keep the money to themselves.   Shame!

But the icing on top of the Alameda School Board cake was at the end for two consent agenda items which should have been straightforward for the school board given that they know and we all know that this school facilities bond measure is moving forward and you sort of need to hire professional consultants to help you draft the language for the measure and advise you on financially stuff.

I hope you all see where I’m going with this…

Let’s get it started

Since the School Board meeting from Tuesday is not yet up, but former School Board member Ron Mooney did an amazing job capturing the meeting in tweets.   So for those interested, School Board meeting in tweets about the very important topic of the Master Facilities Plan:

Sounds like the architect is saying that AUSD has basic reports that need to be updated and next phases worked on to create Fac. Master Plan

— Ron Mooney (@ronmooneyca) September 18, 2013

Architect suggest meetings at school sites and community to discuss needs … Each site

— Ron Mooney (@ronmooneyca) September 18, 2013

Timing … School by school meetings should take about 3 – 4 months, depending on staff ability

— Ron Mooney (@ronmooneyca) September 18, 2013

Master plans, not just for evil villains

Tonight the School Board is going to have a very special meeting to talk about what to do about the Master Facilities Plan. Because you all know that seven plus months just isn’t enough time to make decision on the Master Facilities Plan, we need more discussion! Yea!

Because the explanation of seven months ago wasn’t enough to sufficiently describe what a Master Facilities Plan is, essentially tonight’s meeting will be held (6:30 p.m. people at the Alameda High Cafeteria because there is a City Council meeting happening tonight)

Yesterday Mike McMahon sent out a link to his massive email list with this example of what Master Facilities Plan looks like (psst…AUSD doesn’t have something like this, pass it on)  That one is from Oakland, yes that Oakland. It looks like they have a School Board of like a million people yet they managed to get their act together to decide to commission a Master Facilities Plan.   Essentially what this Plan does is lay out all the assets of the school district, gives all the information and provides an amazing tool for the community, not the consultants, to decide the next steps for the School District when it comes to the facilities.

Abandon hope all ye who enter here

Yesterday afternoon I tweeted this:

#Alameda USD Chief Financial Dude Robert Shemwell has resigned, this makes 3 senior staff jumping ship in just a few months

— Lauren Do (@laurendo) August 29, 2013

That’s right, Alameda Unified School District’s Chief Financial Officer (Chief Business Officer?  whatevs…) is now the latest senior staff member to jump ship off the S.S. AUSD.   While I know that some folks were hoping to take out Superintendent Kirsten Vital via a heavily pro-AEA slate last election, the causalities in the conflict between the District and AEA have instead decimated the senior staff ranks of the District office.

Speak for yourself

I’ve been slowly catching up with the School Board meetings, mainly because sometimes they are so damn hard to find and sometimes because I’m lazy and it’s exhausting to listen to sometimes. I did want to address one overarching theme though that I’ve been thinking about a bit. I think the last School Board meeting, not last Tuesday’s but the one before that, where it really crystalized for me.

So, presently, Board Member Trish Spencer has been sort of the de facto voice of Alameda Education Associates (AEA aka Teachers’ Union) on the Board.  For almost every issue, almost, she tends to vote against whatever the issue is and say that AEA should be consulted on the issue, irrespective of what the issue is.  For example, there was the agenda item about the School Facilities Bond and after talking and talking about it Trish Spencer essentially said that she couldn’t make a decision on the School Bond without first consulting with AEA.

Fixing a hole: Earhart Elementary

Back to the Fixing a hole series, this time alphabetically, Earhart Elementary on Bay Farm Island is next up, here are the details:

• Year Built: 1979
• Total Site Area: 8.0 acres
• Building Area: 36,270 sf
• 10 Portables: 10,015 sf
• Classrooms: 32
• Identified repair cost: $4,543,607

And site plan:

Fixing a hole: Bay Farm Elementary

Next up in alphabetical order — I’m skipping Alameda High School for now — is Bay Farm Elementary School on Bay Farm. Here’s the basics

• Year Built: 1991
• Total Site Area: 8.0 acres
• Building Area: 30,800 sf
• 10 Portables: 9,600 sf
• Classrooms: 31
• Identified repair cost: $2,594,313

And the site map

:

Fixing a hole: Academy of Alameda

First up, in alphabetical order the Academy of Alameda (Chipman site) which also houses some Nea classrooms. Here’s the basics

• Year Built: 1965
• Total Site Area: 4.0 acres
• Building Area: 44,230 sf
• 1 Portable: 960 sf
• Classrooms: 31
• Identified repair cost: $4,827,963

And the site map:

Fixing a hole: the numbers

So here are the numbers of what it will cost to fix all the facilities — with the exception of the Historic Alameda High School — if we were just to repair all of the identified problems in existing campuses.

The summary:

And the breakdown by type of repair: