http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070617/NEWS04/70...
The new schools are too small. Isn't that just freaking brilliant?
Oh.. by 2012 they should be ok but until then they may have to keep the old buildings operating because there isn't enough room in the new ones.
I suppose TPS will hit us with a levy to help fund the running of both the old and the new buildings.
The new Byrnedale is designed to hold 551 students in grades six through eight, but it had 639 students in just grades seven and eight during 2006-07.
I'm just amazed at the surreal stupidity of the whole thing.
Remember the idea was to build buildings. There was no criteria they function as centers of learning. One would have thought if each year there were less students than the year before someone would have concluded they would need less schools not more. But without accountability you will continue to get what you can't use and what doesn't work.
The article does not mention much about the high schools. For those who do not know, the rebuilt high schools (Rogers, Start, and Bowsher) are all built for enrollments lower that what they currently have. This could mean overcrowding at those schools, difficulty in receiving out of district students, and possibly reconfiguration of district lines. This won't sit well with some parents. But this may also mean high schools like Libbey and Woodward will remain open longer than people suspect.
Also, if the middle schools are suffering from a space crunch why not reopen the old Jones JHS, East Toledo JHS, and turn Old West End Academy back into a middle school.
This shows what the city
The State changed the size of the buldings that were in the planning phase when they did a report that projected loss of students to other educational options. The only way to change the size of future buildings is to show growth in student population. I do not remember the time TPS has to show the growth, but I remember hearing about it at a BOE meeting. The State said there was no need to build a school for 800 students when projections showed that only 400 would be attending the building by the time it was built. Am I the only person that remembers this? I am concerned that the State did not take into account that maybe students would return.
The State politicos promised us all new schools with the FREE TOBACCO MONEY, except...
We have to go into hock for a 28-year additional levy for the matching funds.
We demolish sound and sturdy schools for new schools, which by some estimates will last between 7 and 10 years max.
They are too small to begin with.
There is little/no storage room.
The square footage per child is ridiculously small to begin with.
The offices are small and poorly laid out and originally didn't even have counters to conduct business at.
The offices and God only knows where else, are bugged, allegedly for the staff's protection.
The schools which are/were designed to reverse the flight to charter and parochial schools are already too small to accommodate the current number of students, never the ones already lost to alternative schools, so some of the old schools will have to remain.
Oh yes, and we will be still paying for these fine schools decades after they are no longer suitable/serviceable for use as schools.
And, there is an extremely good chance that the money will run out before the project is even finished, leaving the local school board to find (as in tax) more money to complete this well thought out project as originally promised.
Is that about right?
Please, feel free to add anything that I might have missed. . .
The State's projections are quite off. They did not realize that the new schools would attract students back, and they overestimated the progress of depopulation of the school system. The Board in a cost cutting move closed schools and heightened the overcrowding and error of the State's projection.
It may be too late to change the size of schools that are finished and are in the progress of being built. What may happen is that the remaining schools on the building list will have their plans changed. Also schools that were slated to close may not close. In my opinion this a good thing since this gives parents greater choices in schools and more neighborhood involvement.
I think you pretty much covered all the problems.
Am I the only one that finds it ironic that the State has come up with these projections? They still can't find a way to fix the school funding problem.