Facilities Plans Move Forward for Escambia County.....No Independent Study Will Occur

After a two hour meeting on the subject of student growth in Beulah and how to best meet facilities challenges district-wide going forward, the plan remains the same despite my objections.

I brought a PowerPoint presentation where I delineated some of the rationale for the need of an independent, unbiased study to provide the board sound recommendations based upon science, facts, and trends.  Such a study would have been good as it would have either validated the current plan or perhaps it would have illustrated a better plan.

I've previously stated my legitimate objections to this plan here, here,  here.  here, here,  and here.

In a nutshell, I strongly feel that current capacity should be examined and school attendance zones re-balanced before new large scale construction is funded.  We have too many schools that are way, way under capacity, to include Molino Park that sits half empty and Warrington Middle School that is less than 60% occupied.

The next school in Beulah should be either an Elementary or a K-8---that is what is desperately needed there; Re-locating the Woodham Middle School population out to a brand new school in Beulah is not the answer when currently, as a district, we dramatically under-occupy our existing middle school capacity already---we only utilize 76% on average----and our student population is declining.  This is occurring even as big housing  projects emerge Beulah--which is another problem all together:  Why are parents choosing Pace, Gulf Breeze, Baldwin County or even Okaloosa over Escambia when they come here for jobs?

Brown Barge Middle School and PATS center sites should not be shuttered and moved, that building, despite its age, is in decent shape.

Bottom Line:

We have made BIG facilities mistakes in the past and we're about to do so again in my opinion, with the taxpayers footing the bill and too many students in portables for too long even after this plan is implemented..

With an independent, unbiased planning firm conducting a study--- it would have more than likely been free of political influence and the board could have chosen a better path.  Only two board members felt this was a good idea ( a study ) so instead we go forth with the plan which puts a new middle school next to an existing middle school, does not remove students from the Beulah portable farm, and does NOTHING to help Jim Bailey Middle School's massive overcrowding issues.

Yes I'm disappointed, but at least I'm on the record with an alternate plan that would have revealed the optimal plan.  But I  realize this is politics and decisions will not always go the way I want them to go.  Doesn't mean I will ever go along with a plan that is badly flawed....

The PNJ covered the meeting, you can read their piece here.

or, you can watch my presentation to the board beginning at minute 42 of  the meeting here.

Why We Should Site Adapt our New Construction Projects

Rendering of recently completed Ernest Ward Middle School, designed by Sam Marshall Architects, built by Greenhut Construction Company.  Sam Marshall Architects were not/will not be utilized for designing Escambia County's newest proposed middle school to be built in Beulah.  The four short-listed firms are Bullock-Tice, DAG, Quina Grundhoefer, and STOA.

While I am in disagreement with parts of the plan that has been put forth to address over-crowding in  Beulah near the Navy Federal Credit Union expansion, and I have made my significant  disagreements known both online , directly to district facilities staff, and at recent meetings, there is one facet to construction that we should all universally want and upon which we all should agree---keeping costs as low as possible must be a priority!

We're about to spend as much as $75Million dollars on construction--and we have to get this right!

One way to do this is to re-think the way we build.  

Why do we need a brand new design for every new school we build?  

What is the purpose?-- because designing every new school we contemplate building adds 6-9% to the overall project's costs.

It is for this reason we should Site-Adapt an existing design for our soon to be built schools.  

Take a school we have already paid to design and build, and use the same design and site adapt the exact design for the plot of land upon which such a school will be built, taking into account the physical characteristics of the land--slope, terrain, wetlands, existing underground utilities, road frontages, etc, etc.

It does not even need to be a design we have paid for or built.  We can find a school in a 100 or so mile radius that is exceptionally well built, tour the constructed facility, speak to the users, then contact the architect of the one we like best.  Next, we hire them to reproduce their design for us, site adapted, for our parcel.

--Doing this allows for a better, time tested facility  ( after being built the first time, all kinks will be known, can be ironed-out and addressed/corrected for new location)

--Design costs can easily be reduced by as much as 70%---leaving more money for other facilities