Super-Size Me. Ashley Field Plan Now Projected at $5. to $57 MILLION

Sorry folks.  We WISH this were an April Fool's joke, seeing as this is on the agenda for tomorrow's Planning Committee meeting.

Who knows....Maybe it IS just a [Athletics Director]  Jim McClowry joke.
We're afraid it's no such thing.

http://schoolboard.spasd.k12.wi.us/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=95YJA84C332C

Stackhouse is tossed underneath the bus, ran over and then the bus put in reverse and run over him again.  Granted, the "Stackhouse plan" was a tad swiss cheesy, but we dont think he deserves to be hung with all this.  This plan has gone from $1.6 M to $5.7M.  Even the STAR's Chris Mertes has got to come off of the fence and rip this one to shreds.

It' our understanding that the entire cost of ALL the fields at the new high school came to about $6M.
But that's a number that Jim McClowry didn't provide.  We get it though.  His numbers haven't been...shall we say...overly impressive.

$5.7MILLION?

Are you fricking kidding us?

Screw Ashley Field!

Oregon Referendum Prompts More Ashley Field Questions

Discrepancies are one thing, but HUGE discrepancies are a horse of an entirely different color.
Let's talk about discrepancies first.

Not that many people other than the truly astute noticed, but a year ago, SPASD administration brought forth a comparison plan showing the costs to turf Ashley Field vs. moving football to the new high school athletic complex, which also called for turfing the field.

But did you really LOOK at the numbers?
The Ashley Field proposal called for 90,000 square feet (SF) at a cost of $823,000
Yet the high school proposal called for MORE turf ($92,000 SF) at LESS cost! ($780,000)
How can that be?
No explanation was ever provided.
Is this yet another of a nauseatingly long list of bad data coming out of the Sun Prairie Administration office?

And to make matters worse...and again...one has to be on board and paying attention... now we see that Oregon's proposal is to turf 81,000 SF at a cost that is HALF that of Sun Prairie.  Why do we even NEED more than 81,000 SF?

The average turfed area for a football field is about 80,000 SF.
The cost of field turf is generally about $4.50/SF.  Even factoring excavation and prep costs of $2/SF, something doesn't add up.

This information further underscores the need to stop screwing around with the Ashley Field proposal.  The numbers stink.  And the further one digs into them, the bigger the stink.  This smells funny and we advise against eating it.

Seeing is Believing
Don't take our word for it...peruse the documents themselves:
March 14, 2011 FTT Agenda including Ashley Field proposal

Detailed Ashley Field Costing

Q. How much will a field cost to install?

A. There are many factors that go into the final cost of a particular project. Generally, the final cost of a project is around $5.00 per square foot for a full size football or soccer field.

---http://www.academysportsturf.com/faqs.php

STILL More Questionable Information Coming From the School District!

When is the school board going to address the cost of poor quality information coming out of the district office?

This past Monday, at the school board's FTT meeting, we heard the district's recommendation that school board meetings be moved from the Municipal Building, which seems to be good enough to stream and televise live City Council meetings...  but perhaps not good enough for the district.

As is too often the case, we quickly learned that the District has not done its due diligence in determining whether such a move is truly feasible, or what the true cost of making such a move would be. Luckily, Sun Prairie Media Center (SPMC, formerly Sun Prairie Cable Access TV) Executive Director Cameron Thompson pointed out several things the District does not appear to have considered:

 1. The live feed is located in the gymnasium at CHUMS — requiring cable to be run from the gymnasium to the auditorium.
 2. The purchase microphones and a camera to broadcast meetings at CHUMS would be required; costs not considered.
3. When Sun Prairie Media Center broadcast from CHUMS previously, the cable end experienced at least one problem during the broadcast each year.

  What about Seniors and Those that Are not Internet Savvy? 
The plans to move school board and committee meetings from the municipal building also mean that meetings would no longer be available to watch live via Charter cable as the meeting is held. SPMC would broadcast the tapes later on, but live viewing would no longer be possible by TV. Many district residents are not savvy enough o lack the internet bandwidth to watch streaming video. Many have gotten used to watching the meetings live on Charter cable. Why would the district now consider turning its back on the very citizens that financed this district for many, many years.
   Read the STAR's coverage

Burning Questions
When will the district stop bringing forward information which has not been properly vetted? 


How can the school board vote to approve any decision based on bad data? 

 The school board's vision statement includes using data to drive decision-making. How can that work when the quality of information is poor? Poor quality data leads to poor decisions.

Bad Data Leading to Bad Decisions?

At this past Monday's Facilities, Technology, and Transportation (FTT) meeting, the district was presenting their case to support a Buildings & Grounds budget that has come under a great deal of scrutiny of late. And for good reason.

Just when the spotlight is shining at its brightest, one would reasonably assume that the district's best foot would be positioned forward. In reality, the district shot itself in that particular foot in what turned out to be a culmination of a growing trend of providing bad (or at the very least, questionable) data.

The district marched out a survey they conducted regarding buildings & grounds budget costs of various school districts. The data seemed to suggest that Sun Prairie was providing its community with savings of over $1.25M over "average" districts. Unfortunately, the whole shebang came down like a house of cards when it was exposed that:

• the "savings were based on an error where data for Verona was credited to Sun Prairie
• the data were "censored": the district had a survey of 42 districts, but "cherry-picked" 10 from that list. We never got to see what was culled. Would they have made SPASD look bad? What the public saw gave no mention of the difference.
• Some columns were totaled; others not. It is speculated that columns not totaled were avoided because the data did not reflect what the District wanted us to believe.
• The survey indicated that SPASD has 75.5 FTE grounds workers---50% more than the nearest district. Then we're told the number of staff is only 65.5. No explanation...no data to substantiate the "correction". RUFKM?
• It was yet another apples-to-pineapples comparison. Some district data was based on last year; others this year.
• An over-inflated Capital Projects budget (more on this to come)

To Err is Human...BUT...
To err may be human, but to err as frequently and as egregiously as this school district administration has is simply unacceptable. We've encountered so many errors, we've lost track. Frankly, it's become the expectation...and that's just plain wrong. Just off the top of our head, we had the 4K transportation cost errors (the number changed 3 times), the busing cost errors for the Wyndham Hills subdivision last summer, the failure to include the most critical attachment as part of a signed $10M transportation contract. And countless others. Tim Culver says he is accountable for the district...but when is he going to man up, take ownership of the problem, and FIX IT??! Oh...that's right...he's been busy negotiating sweet little tax shelters into his contract. Even Phil Frei was completely non-plussed when the errors were pointed out to him by board and committee members. He just simply said, "Oh, yeah, that's an error."

Now nobody on the board is going to declare "Bad Data!" publicly...you know...with decorum and all....but you KNOW they have to see this and privately be fuming. We suspect, however, that there have been a lot of back room discussions of late regarding the lack of quality, reliable, accurate data coming out of the district.

Beware the Ides of October!

The sad part of all of this is that this district wants us to sign of on what will be at least $72M budget. We have John Whalen suggesting that a 4.5% mill rate increase is plenty good enough. And they base all their fancy projections on poor quality data such as what they have presented to date? Really? REALLY! How quickly the board seems to have forgotten the day the taxp-ayers had had enough of their spendaholic ways and voted to reduce the tax levy by $2M.