Weekend To-Do List: Taj Ma-High School and CHUMS Ceremonies

Saturday, August 28, 2010
Re-dedication of Cardinal Heights Upper Middle School and Community Tours, 220 Kroncke Drive
10 a.m. ‐ 12 p.m. Community Tours of the Renovated Cardinal Heights Upper Middle School
12 ‐ 12:30 p.m. Re-dedication Ceremony for Cardinal Heights Upper Middle School

Community Parade from Cardinal Heights Upper Middle School to Sun Prairie High School
12:45 p.m. Parade will be led by Sun Prairie High School Musicians. (Parade route will begin
behind Cardinal Heights Upper Middle School and travel down Linnerud Drive
to Sun Prairie High School via Marshview Drive.)

Grand Opening Celebration and Community Tours of Sun Prairie High School, 888 Grove Street
1:30 p.m. Ribbon Cutting and Grand Opening Ceremony for Sun Prairie High School
2:30 ‐ 4:30 p.m. Community Tours of the New Sun Prairie High School following the ceremony


http://www.sunprairie.k12.wi.us/District/web_version_postcard_4.pdf

Uh Oh! Pool Problems?

We've heard a number of reports from community residents indicating the following concerns related to the new high school pool:

1. Not Certified. Although we've had "the keys" now for 5 months, the pool still lacks a Health Department certification. This means no one can swim in it. That means no revenues from community swim. It also means paying for pool use time for our swim teams until this gets resolved. How embarrassing is it for us to be buying pool time when we've shouted fromn the highest mountain top that we have a brand new pool?
2. The roof leaks! It was reported that a large gathering of "pool people" (not to be confused with "pod people") happened to be at the pool this past Thursday night during the rain event and witnessed water flowing in.
3. Vent grillwork is already rusting. Nice...if it's rusting the metal, care to guess what's going on in side lungs?
4. The wrong diving boards. The two diving boards, at a cost of $500 each, are "recreational" type, rather than "competition" grade. Word on the street is that it has been known since the day they were delivered and sitting around in the bottom of the pool during construction, that they were the wrong boards. People have expressed this to administrators Phil Frei and Tim Brooks, whose answer is that we have to eat the cost!
5. The wrong pool lane dividers. The pool lane dividers do not meet WIAA standards, which means that, without replacing them, we cannot hold WIAA sanctioned competitions. There goes all those revenues and spectators fees we banked on . Not to mention the cost of adding the hallways needed to handle these crowds.
6. Wasted chemicals? Everyone knows that a pool needs chemicals to maintain pH balance and chlorine levels. What some may not know is that these chemicals have a very finite shelf life because of their reactivity. We've now heard too many reports to think that there isn't something to a rumor that someone purchased far too large a quantity of chemicals and now a large quantity must be disposed. We've heard figures ranging up to $1,000 worth of chemicals having to be trashed..

A call placed to the district office to confirm these reports and to obtain comment was not returned. Seriously...does anyone think the district will ever come clean with their dirty laundry?

What community members are saying

"If you have a specification, shouldn't the work be done to specification? Shouldn't someone be following up on that? Especially for what we paid for the specifications."

"Someone screwed up, so tell them to fix it."

"I know [the diving boards cost] is only $1,000, but [sic] thats all the more reason someone else should be fixing it."

"Shouldn't [District hired Construction Manager] Hoffman be looking at this and getting it fixed, since he is paid to do this stuff?" SP-EYE: One would think that's why we pay them $7,300 per month.

"I am sure the pool roof leaks might be higher priority, but these guys need to stop looking at the construction dollars as a tub of free money to use."

We don't think we can say it any better than those who let us know. We spent $100M total for our new construction. Nearly $4M alone for the pool. We pay our administrators -- who are currently seeking a salary increase of up to 2.5% we hear--- $80,000-to $120,000 per year. We expect better form them. We'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they would NEVER suggest that the district --and taxpayers-- should simply "eat the cost" of mistakes made by contractors. But, at the same time, to people that make $100K, $1,000 is pocket change. They forget --or are oblivious to the fact -- that $1,000 could feed a small family for several weeks to a month.

Computers: $700,000 Grand Piano: $0

Number of PCs being purchased for the new high school: 1100

Number of pianos being purchased for the new "state of the art" Performing Arts Center: 0

Number of students per PC on opening day at the new high school: 1.25 (1400 to 1100).

But NO grand piano for the performing arts center.

Wait....that's not entirely correct. The Bernie Powers Band Foundation is raising the $135,000 necessary to purchase a top shelf Steinway D grand piano for the Performing Arts Center.

They shouldn't have to.

This wasn't even worthy of an official agenda item at the school board's FTT meeting--only an "Informational Item".

Yes, Virginia...technology (PCs) is important. But isn't music (and the arts) equally important??

N'est ce pas?

At $500 each....why not buy 270 fewer PCs and use the $135,000 savings to purchase a grand piano out of the referendum money??

That would still mean 830 NEW PCs at the new high school, for a projected 1400 students? Even taking out 100 of those PCs for staff, that leaves us with 730 PCs for students, or one for every 2 students. Even at capacity (2000) 730 PCs would translate to 1 PC for every 3 students.

And those are more than acceptable numbers.

Why should the public have to pony up more cash to buy a piano that should come included with a $100 M high school?

Ask your school board members. Instead of rationalizing things independently, they only rubber stamp what administration "suggests".

Points to Ponder: $1M in PC/Smartboard purchases

At tomorrow night's FTT meeting, bids for PCs and Smartboards for the new high school will be discussed.

Yes, opening a new high school costs a lot of money to equip. But we learned with the erection of Creekside that we bought expensive Smartboards for EVERY classroom, yet there are still classrooms that aren't being used! More to the point, we hear reports that not only are teachers not unilaterally enamored with the Smartboards, but we also hear frequent reports that the equipment doesn't always work well.

So the question our school board SHOULD (but won't) be asking is: Do we really need all of these? Or is this a place to reduce costs. No one's talking about degrading the state of technology such that the quality of education declines. It's a fair question. And a fiscally conscious school board would be asking the question, particularly in light of the state of the economy.

$3000/smartboard x 121 = $355K
$500/PC x 1375 PCs = $687K

That's over $1,000,000!


The "wreckers" out there will pick and nit and nit and pick, all the while suggesting that we are anti-technology, or even anti-education. Bah! Hamburg! Empty rhetoric, we say.

The questions we are asking are quite simply...do we need every single one of 1375 PCs to open the new high school? No teacher should be forced to use any particular technology. Subsequently, rather than fixed-mounting a Smartboard in every classroom, why don't we purchase a number of mobile platforms that teachers could use on a limited term basis as fits in with their curriculum?

We repeat...these should be questions posed by the school board of administration--not the community! Oh...and the board all reads this blog, and thus we even expect to hear some of these questions tomorrow night, But...in the end...the board will do what it does best...rubber stamp their approval with a 7-0 vote of approval.

Could this be one of those places where we save the taxpayers money at this juncture and purchase what we need? Then, down the road, we could purchase additional equipment as it becomes truly necessary. Having a wealth of technology is less of a value if it is not being used. In fact, warranties could expire before the equipment even gets broken in.

We also wonder why we wouldn't be migrating some PCs from PVMS and PMMS to the UMS and some PCs from the existing HS to the new HS???

One final point to consider is that the district operates off of a 5-yr PC replacement cycle. If we buy 1375 PCs today at a cost of nearly 3/4 of a MILLION dollars, then aren't we going to have that cost (plus others on the 5-yr cycle) 5 years from now?

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RECOMMENDATION: The Supervisor of Technology recommends the approval of the bid to purchase 121 SmartBoards, 121 projectors and wall mounts, and 129 Smart audio systems, for a total bid of $354,906, from Tierney Brothers, Inc, Minneapolis, MN.

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RECOMMENDATION: The Supervisor of Technology recommends the approval of the bid to purchase 1,375 Dell desktop computers with 4 GB RAM, 17 inch monitor, and 3 year warranty, for $497.34 each [Total Cost $683,842.50] , from Heartland Business Systems, Little Chute, Wisconsin.

An extended warranty option was considered for desktops and laptops. Current policy targets a useful life of five years; leaving two years uncovered by warranty. Due to the additional cost of the extra warranty, and the number of computers being purchase, we feel it is too expensive and unnecessary to purchase the additional warranty.The recommended systems are $91.66 less than we paid this year, for a savings of $126,032.50.