Q & A

I asked some questions during a recent meeting at Hunt, but not all of these questions; that's alright, I appreciate this response from the office of superintendent Nick Gledich... 

By the way:  I filmed a whole lot of the movement of equipment into the Adams building; we're talking several crews of movers, and three or four of the large, tractor-trailer-sized moving vans - and this was over the course of several days and weeks.  I'll post some of that video soon, to help you conceptualize what I'm talking about...

In conclusion - unless they are emptying the building at night or via underground tunnels, I've not noticed any similar type of activity to move equipment out of Adams.  So, my hunch is the building is not empty yet - not by a long shot...

-----------------------

For Public Response

1.  The transformer was making a loud humming sound yesterday and utility trucks were at the school.  What was wrong? We were not notified of any issues. There are City electrical transformers that are located next to each building that provide electrical service to each building. It is not uncommon for them to make humming noises. The City crews could have been working on them without notifying us as these transformers belong to them.

2.  Did we or will we ever allow the Public to purchase extra furniture/equipment stored at Adams?  The disposal plan for excess furniture that was developed between Procurement and the Warehouse, and approved by Glenn, was to offer the furniture to D-11 schools, then Charter schools, then other local districts, then other governmental agencies and finally, non-profits.  Most everything is gone, but there are some tables and chairs left.  We have, in the past, used an auction service, but the value of the remaining items wouldn’t justify the expense.

3.  Are we (District 11) selling pianos?  The radio ran an announcement.  I believe that Tom Fleecs, the D-11 Fine Arts Facilitator, sells some pianos occasionally to help fund the repair of others.  I called to confirm, but couldn’t reach him.  Tom told me that we did use the Adam’s pianos for a trade with service district wide.

4.  Why are the Dumpsters still at the school?  Do we throw away furniture, etc. in the dumpsters? I assume you’re asking about Adams ES. We currently have a metal recycling dumpster and a trash dumpster at Adams ES as we are going thru the last bit of furniture that was not claimed. This furniture that is not useable is disassembled, with metal components getting recycled and the wood or particle board components are disposed of as trash. We do get some money for the recycled metal items (based on weight).

5.  What is housed at Adams at this time? A little bit of furniture that was not claimed by the list of invited agencies listed above, some audio visual equipment to include old TVs, and some copiers.  Dan Boltjes in IT is working on disposition of the A/V equipment, and Murray Basinger in Procurement is working on disposition of the copiers.

6.  Is there an issue with the exterior water facuet? Not that we are aware of. There is an exterior drinking fountain at the school, but it is “winterized” (or turned off) so it would not be working at this time. We typically turn these back on in late April or early May. This could be what the question was referring to.

7.  Does the district have a plan to address the facility needs at Hunt specifically the size of the lunchroom and the heat? The plan to address the size of the lunchroom (gym) and to replace the steam boilers involves a major capital project which I briefed you on before Christmas.  We do have an architectural concept that we have developed.  We would need approximately $5 million, and the project would be very difficult to safely do while the school is being used (project duration would be 8-10 months).  These improvements are in our Capital Plan for future funding, but without a specific funding source identified. 

8.  Is it true that our maintenance workers installed a thermostat backwards which created the condition of no heat last week at Hunt? No, our maintenance staff did *not* install a thermostat backwards. There was an electrical disconnect that provides power to a circulating pump for boiler #1 that was manually turned off. Not sure who or why this occurred. Without water circulating thru the piping, there will not be any heat throughout the building. There were also some unit ventilators that were manually turned off and one that the freezestat was tripped. When either of the two above mentioned items with the unit ventilators occurs, the heating valve goes full open so water circulates thru the coil but the fan motor will not operate to distribute heat across the room.

Table talk - U P D A T E D

U P D A T E D

I don’t know about you, but I have, at one time or another, experienced a yearning for a very long table. Perhaps it was whilst getting ready for a yard sale, or a Save Our Schools ice cream social, or to allow people to fill out surveys on what’s ailing District 11 or to sign petitions to recall fingerless-glove wearing board members.

My nimble-minded husband pointed out several possibilities I’d not considered. He mentioned, for instance, that a long table could be used as a wall, to protect you during snowball fights; it could be used to help line people up to receive the H1N1 vaccine; he also said it could be used as a “sex table.”

I can picture your quizzical expressions; indeed, for what could you use a long table? Whether it be for a family reunion, or selling Girl Scout cookies, a long table has practically limitless utility.

My husband also pointed out that, when used in conjunction with army tarps, several long tables could serve as durable, hard-top shelters for the homeless - er, I mean, "illegal campers” – low-cost, quasi-residential, modular tract housing, in a sense; it certainly wouldn’t be much more unsightly than this randomly-selected neighborhood near Security Service Stadium -- when did they stop calling it the Sky Sox Stadium, by the way?  And I could be wrong, but is that a school smack-dab in the middle of that neighborhood??

Now, my mother always taught us that wasting food was a sin, and it is -- especially when you consider all of the starving children out there who might just love to have a bite of the food you’re thinking of discarding.  Actually, there are all kinds of hungry folks out there...



But is it just the wasting of food that’s sinful – or is it waste itself that’s so wrong? My mother also happened to raise me Catholic, so at any given moment, I can be feeling guilty about a gazillion different things –- I’ve previously mentioned how when I was a tyke I'd felt badly for excluding my left hand so much, since I’m a righty.  Wisdom is scarcely found in anything extreme; it’s up to us to discern the difference between “waste not” and “want not.”  So, I’ll leave it up to you.

Disclaimer: I apologize, once again, for my shaky camera hand...though I am improving; by the way, did ya happen to notice all of those obstacles in place up there, impeding my line of sight? They must have taken a survey of the playground and the surrounding area, specifically to determine the positioning of their dumpsters! As for the people in the video:  I could be wrong, but the sense I get from the big guy in the video is he’s a long-time D11 employee, a family man, and just doing what his boss told him to do - judging from his pace, however, he seems a bit reluctant to do it. The guy with the white hair, I don’t know – this is the first time I remember seeing him. And the guy in the black jacket…well, he lives up the street from me; I’m not sure how he managed to cozy up to the right people at the Adams building, but shortly after being sent out on spider patrol around the campus, he and another neighbor loaded up at least five or six of those long tables into the back of their truck and drove off.

What am I, chopped liver? After all, in order to effectively hunt the spider, one must be able to *think* like the spider...to *become* the spider - something I'm damn good at, and the District isn't so much - and maybe if the District started giving me what I want for a change (like allowing STAR Academy to utilize the Adams building for their elementary school program), I’d not be spending my time videotaping and making a public spectacle of them.  I want to know: HOW MUCH MONEY HAS BEEN ALLOCATED IN THE BUDGET FOR SPYDRA ABATEMENT??

With my own eyes, I saw the District take a sledgehammer and destroy what looked to be a perfectly good, solid wood hutch/cabinet combo...and toss out at least 20 long tables - and that was just while I was watching. There are simply all kinds of file cabinets, desks, shelves, etc., that they're scrapping for money - and not all that much of it (money, that is).  Newsflash to District 11: there’s something called Freecycle.com; all you’d have to do is post a free, bare-bones ad saying there’s umpteen long tables up for grabs, and those puppies would be gone by daybreak.

When the District closed Adams, there was like a weeklong period of time when the public was invited to come in and browse through the stuff they were otherwise throwing out; thanks to them, I was able to obtain an entire curriculum - English, math and science - for kindergarten through third grade; two of every item, so that each of my kids could have their own books and not need to share.  I'm talking text books, work books, as well as the teacher's manuals; grade books, number lines, that paper they use to teach kids handwriting, and all kinds of educational doo-dads and gizmos.  That's not including all of the office supplies I scored...three-ring binders, paper trays, paper clips, crayons, glue, rulers, protractors, chalk, chalkboard, etc....

My point is that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure; what purpose is served by destroying perfectly good furniture? Wasn't all of that stuff purchased using our tax dollars in the first place? Why doesn’t everyone - all taxpayers, really, but particularly those who live in the neighborhoods where their schools were wrongfully shut down...and especially the residents of the Adams area, since we have had to suffer seeing the school that was the center of our community heartlessly ravaged and then turned into a great big gigantic shed - why doesn't everyone have an opportunity to help take out some of that trash??

Maybe I just need to cozy up to the right person and mention the sex table…

The snowy day

I always loved that book by Ezra Jack Keats - so much; that and "John Henry", by the same author.

But while this is no sweet picture of innocents making snow angels...you could call me "Mrs. Henry."  Mrs. Spydra Jane Doe-Henry.  Kinda has a nice ring to it, actually, if you're the hyphenated-likin' sort.

It's (blessedly) short, friends...and again, I apologize for the "Blair Witch Project" quality of my product.  But though I found that film wanting, it was still strangely powerful, no?

Eureka!

I thought this footage lost…then found it again. Oh, the happiness!

But because of a flawed DVD, all I could do was replay it again and again for myself on the camera; I was unable to download or upload or anything else with the footage. Oh, the sorrow!

I was vexed for several days; then, Eureka!

The only way I could share this with you was to play it on the camera while recording it from my laptop – something unwieldy to do, at best. I was terrified I’d break an LCD screen in one place or the other…or both. At times, I lay as though kissing the Blarney Stone; at others, I was in such a state that indeed, I doubted my own countenance to survive it all.

Truly, I laboured, but in the end, how sweet the fruit!  And I prayed a prayer of thanks that it was over at last.

I’ll be the first to admit that a goodly portion of this footage is reminiscent of Bigfoot or the Monster of Loch Ness; please, excuse everything that’s wrong with it, the novice camera work foremost.

Evenso, I hope you will deem it acceptable, and certainly do trust that you’ll find a thing or two of value to glean from its viewing.

Whadda Co-inkydink!

Readers,

Whadda co-inkydink:  right after my "Through the Looking Glass" post two days ago,  WOW, is there a WHOLE LOTTA activity at the Adams building today!

Medium-sized moving vans, filling up to capacity - this, after several months of relatively benign activity and private vehicles filling up with this and that.

And in case you're wondering, I've seen several SUV's pulling trailers filled with - oh, you guessed it already - AUDIO/VISUAL CARTS!

I will provide footage of today's sudden flurry of activity across the street - along with videos of the movers earlier this summer - later today.

Through the Looking Glass

(Updated Links)

Hello readers, and here’s hoping you had a very wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I meant to post something about being thankful, but could neither find nor make the time to actually sit down and do it. I will do so, however, some time before the end of the year…but since it’s already late now, my spider spirit has been guided to post something completely different.

Why do we sometimes wait so long before picking up the phone and catching up with old friends and family?

I pondered that question during a Happy-Belated-Thanksgiving call with a loved one who regularly volunteers for the District. It had been a while since I’d discussed the District in any depth with this individual (who was also unaware of my blog) – rendering our conversation spontaneous, and untainted by my own bias. I certainly gained some fresh perspectives from our chat.

In explaining the decision to close Buena Vista Elementary to its neighboring community, the District maintained that the necessary improvements to that century-old facility were cost prohibitive.

(Oh – maybe that’s why the District gave away the Buena Vista school building to the city for free. Hmm…but…then why did the District see fit to cram so many kids into the equally-aged Haunt Elementary – er, I meant to say Hunt Elementary School building – which along with its spooky sibling Ivywild Elementary, required far more extensive and expensive work than the Adams buildings to update?

And speaking of updating, is everyone aware of the one-way traffic inside Sabin, or the type of work that’s going on in connection with the West K-through-8 school consolidation? Hold on to your hats, friends, lest they be blown away by my upcoming post on the District’s capital improvement spending.)

This individual had an opportunity to help pack up what seemed to be a gazillion Buena Vista library books. Sadness permeated the atmosphere; evenso, at a certain point, curiosity moved this person to ask: “Where are all of these books going?”

“To the Warehouse,” came the answer.

“The Warehouse!” I sneered. “Maybe that’s the reason why Adams is crammed full to the brim with all of those T.V. sets!”

Let me explain. I mentioned in my “Travesty at Adams” post that I’d often peer through the looking glass of the school’s doors…and described all that I saw languishing there. The District’s response to my concerns was to cover up the rectangular panes of glass with long strips of construction paper to block my view.

So, when the surprise opportunity for an escorted tour of the building’s interior presented itself, I did eight handsprings of anticipatory delight in rapid succession.

We entered the building’s main hallway – which was strewn with assorted trash from the movers – turned the corner and stepped in to the gymnasium. I was astonished to see the rows and rows and rows of audio-visual carts standing there, each equipped with large televisions, VCRs and slide projectors; stretching from wall to wall, and packed so tightly that one could only sidle, I estimate there were at least 20 carts contained in each column and row – so, 400 in the gym alone.

I didn’t know what to say, so I kept quiet and we continued on.

The main hallways were clogged with a jumble of desks, bookshelves and chairs…and off to the side were classrooms packed full of Dell personal computers – at least 10 of which were equipped with wide-screen, flat-panel monitors. Making our way to the library, I was again rendered speechless, and simply did not know what to make of the wall-to-wall electronic equipment there – all of which appeared to be fully functional and up to date.

I was a little dizzy when we exited to the rear of the building and stood together in the sunlight. My escort and I began pelting each other with questions that began with “Did you happen to notice all of the …?” It wasn’t until later that I realized we’d forgotten to walk through the remaining wing of the building; I continue to kick myself for that oversight to this day.


Adams is in a purportedly “bad” neighborhood – even worse now, with a great big abandoned school building in its dead center; so why’s the District storing all of that expensive equipment there? Wouldn’t the Warehouse facility offer a more secure and appropriate housing for such an inventory? Or am I to presume the Warehouse is crammed too full with library books?

Of course, making sure the Adams building is filled to the brim with this, that and the other effectively prevents STAR Academy from utilizing even a portion of it.

It’s my understanding that the District plans to use the Adams building as an ad-hoc storage facility and “bargain mart” through the end of November. Employees come to Adams from across the District to “shop” its stockpiles of desks, chairs, audio/visual equipment, etc., and then take their selections back with them to whence they came – a lot like Christmas Unlimited, for my literate-but-po’ brethren out there. Some time before 2010, the District will donate any remaining surplus to charity.

Hopefully, this one-stop-shopping opportunity has been extended to everyone in the District, and not just the friends and family of Glenn Gustafson and his inner sanctum. And I’m just musing out loud here, but…what an awesome way to ensure that a “new” school like Swigert Space Academy had everything it needed.

There’s a link on the District’s website for the public to view and bid upon surplus equipment…but a visit to that link shows absolutely nothing. In what’s probably just a strange coincidence: while researching the recent sale transaction of the Bijou Alternative School, the name “Eddie Bishop” popped up in connection with a surplus school supply website that’s hawking – I’m not making this up – audio/visual carts.

I know I’m mathematically-challenged…but for me, these things simply do not add up; actually, they DO add up...and I just keep on adding and adding to the oddities and inconsistencies and coincidences I happen to stumble across.

Public schools provide so much to their surrounding communities besides educating children. In times of emergency, for instance, school buildings serve as emergency shelters for their neighboring communities. Parents lacking computers of their own can use their school’s public computer, and are often permitted reasonable use of fax machines and photocopiers. This – and much more – has been taken from the communities that saw their neighborhood schools close, and is evidence of the Administration’s total disregard for equity and parity.

Before being given away to charity, the equipment that remains after the District “shopping mart” has closed should be made available for sale to the general public; and at least some of what’s left over from that public sale should be donated to the communities hardest hit by the school closures. Given the right spin, such a gesture of good will and appreciation in return for years of community support could spiff up the District’s sullied image.

Come on, District Administrators; we are not sheeple. Are we not men? Are we not just?? Don’t you owe the taxpaying citizenry of the city of Colorado Springs better than this for the hard-earned dollars we’re forced to blindly surrender to you?