Thursday, April 10, 2008
Q & A
We have been receiving some questions about the bond issue, and multiple people probably have similar questions. I'll attempt to address them here, and add to this list as more queries come in. Feel free to add your question by clicking on "post a comment".
The answers reflect my own personal perspective, and are not endorsed by the Dell Rapids School District, its Board of Education or the KIDS Committee.
Q:
Why are the school board members such idiots?
A:
It's on the form you fill out to apply for the position. I checked "yes".
Q:
Why a new elementary school?
A:
Enrollment has surpassed the capacity for the current building.
If we make additions to the existing facility, upgrades and improvements would be necessary. The board investigated the cost of acquiring neighboring property to allow for a facility equivalent in size to the planned new facility. The cost was prohibitive. For a similar cost, we would have ended up with a school with portions 60 years old, even less playground space than now, zero parking, no controlled traffic access, and an undetermined additional cost for vacating a city street. At this point the board decided to opt for a new facility in a different location.
Also, keep in mind Dell Rapids has the oldest and worst elementary school facility in the Sioux Falls. As Sioux Falls expands, the surrounding communities also experience some of that growth. However, if Dell Rapids is perceived to have the oldest Elementary facility in the area, new families will choose other communities, causing growth and development to suffer. Adequate school facilities is a community issue, not just a school issue.
I personally did not want to spend money to go from the oldest and worst facility in the are to the newest and worst facility in the area. Please don't take this personally, Dave K. You and the other staff do a magnificent job taking care of the building. However, remember that it gets compared to all of the brand new, modern facilities in other area towns.
Q:
What is going to happen to the current elementary facility?
A:
The board received estimates for demolition of the structures that exceeded the estimates we received for selling the razed property as residential lots. Therefore, the board has decided to make enough updates and improvements to make the facility usable for community-wide constituents. No definite plans have been made, because we cannot move out of the school until the new facility is complete, and new clients cannot occupy any space until the renovations are complete. However, groups such as the Haven, Strive High, City of Dell Rapids, Saint Mary's, and Preschool and Day Care providers have all been approached as constituents that could make good use of the facility. In addition, some of them would be paying customers that could help defray the operational expenses.
The answers reflect my own personal perspective, and are not endorsed by the Dell Rapids School District, its Board of Education or the KIDS Committee.
Q:
Why are the school board members such idiots?
A:
It's on the form you fill out to apply for the position. I checked "yes".
Q:
Why a new elementary school?
A:
Enrollment has surpassed the capacity for the current building.
If we make additions to the existing facility, upgrades and improvements would be necessary. The board investigated the cost of acquiring neighboring property to allow for a facility equivalent in size to the planned new facility. The cost was prohibitive. For a similar cost, we would have ended up with a school with portions 60 years old, even less playground space than now, zero parking, no controlled traffic access, and an undetermined additional cost for vacating a city street. At this point the board decided to opt for a new facility in a different location.
Also, keep in mind Dell Rapids has the oldest and worst elementary school facility in the Sioux Falls. As Sioux Falls expands, the surrounding communities also experience some of that growth. However, if Dell Rapids is perceived to have the oldest Elementary facility in the area, new families will choose other communities, causing growth and development to suffer. Adequate school facilities is a community issue, not just a school issue.
I personally did not want to spend money to go from the oldest and worst facility in the are to the newest and worst facility in the area. Please don't take this personally, Dave K. You and the other staff do a magnificent job taking care of the building. However, remember that it gets compared to all of the brand new, modern facilities in other area towns.
Q:
What is going to happen to the current elementary facility?
A:
The board received estimates for demolition of the structures that exceeded the estimates we received for selling the razed property as residential lots. Therefore, the board has decided to make enough updates and improvements to make the facility usable for community-wide constituents. No definite plans have been made, because we cannot move out of the school until the new facility is complete, and new clients cannot occupy any space until the renovations are complete. However, groups such as the Haven, Strive High, City of Dell Rapids, Saint Mary's, and Preschool and Day Care providers have all been approached as constituents that could make good use of the facility. In addition, some of them would be paying customers that could help defray the operational expenses.
New Elementary Plan
The link to the Elementary Plan pdf has been updated with the latest floor plan from ArchInc.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
2nd Post
This is just to make to entries show up in the blog archive on the right, so you get an idea of the navigation capabilities.
Initial Posting
Actually, this is a blog. Not a web site, per se. It took me about 5 min. to set up, is free, and the space is at a google server. It allows anyone to post text/comments, but only I would be able to add links to documents. Not sure if this would address everyone's idea of what we may use it for. At a minimum, it could be a document repository.
Let me know what you think we may use it for, and I will try to make an assessment of whether or not this thing can satisfy the requirement(s).
The name of the url is kind of long, but is our theme/motto, so should be easy to remember. KIDS was already taken. I'm sure
KeepInvestinginDellsSchools.blogspot.com
is available, but thought that was even worse. We can call it whatever we want, as long as it is not already used. It doesn't really matter, though. After you get here once, just bookmark it.
To add a comment, just click on "0 comments" (the first time), and then subsequently "post a comment".
If you create an account and log in, your user name will be included with your post. You can post anonymously without signing in, but then you will be labeled as "anonymous", so include your name in your post.
The area on the right side of the page labeled "blog archive" will keep track of posting for us in a hierarchical manner, by week or some other order I can specify. Below that I can place links to files or other web sites, etc. I can a few other types of functions also. This is just a default template I'm using as a starter.
I can set it up so everyone is e-mailed when there is a new entry, but that may be overkill.
Let me know what you think by posting a comment.
Let me know what you think we may use it for, and I will try to make an assessment of whether or not this thing can satisfy the requirement(s).
The name of the url is kind of long, but is our theme/motto, so should be easy to remember. KIDS was already taken. I'm sure
KeepInvestinginDellsSchools.blogspot.com
is available, but thought that was even worse. We can call it whatever we want, as long as it is not already used. It doesn't really matter, though. After you get here once, just bookmark it.
To add a comment, just click on "0 comments" (the first time), and then subsequently "post a comment".
If you create an account and log in, your user name will be included with your post. You can post anonymously without signing in, but then you will be labeled as "anonymous", so include your name in your post.
The area on the right side of the page labeled "blog archive" will keep track of posting for us in a hierarchical manner, by week or some other order I can specify. Below that I can place links to files or other web sites, etc. I can a few other types of functions also. This is just a default template I'm using as a starter.
I can set it up so everyone is e-mailed when there is a new entry, but that may be overkill.
Let me know what you think by posting a comment.
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