That's what some local folks are wondering as the new buildings go up in the Brownsville Independent School District.
They point to the new gym at Pace High School. There is no question that the gym was sorely needed by the Vikings and Vikingettes(?). The questions now center around the way the building was designed.
"In order for the students to get from the school to the gym they are goin
g to have to go out onto a public street to get in," said a teacher at Pace. "It's a mystery to me how this kind of design can be approved by the administration or its supervisors."The potential liability for the district in having students walk on a public street to enter the gym are obvious, she said. So why, she asked, was this design approved?
More and more, these types of questions have arisen as the district constructs building after building that in turn generate countless change orders to correct apparent oversights in design that incur more and more cost, and more and more profit for the architects and contractors favored by the board of trustees.
A case in point was the Keller-Manzano schools on Alton Gloor. The district built the athletic fields on the east side of the school before construction on the facilities was begun. They inadvertently closed off the public easement alongside an irrigation canal there. Then, after the Texas Department of Transportation told the district that it needed more entrances and exits for the bus- and parent-traffic that would be generated by two schools than the lone one they had off Alton Gloor, the district had to buy off some residences and will funnel the traffic into the adjacent neighborhood.
"Why didn't they think of that before?" asked longtime gadfly and former city commissioner Ernesto De Leon. "Now the district had to pay an additional "$120,000 to $150,000 to buy the home, demolish it, and build an exit for the traffic."
That's not the only school site with ingress-egress problems. At Hudson Elementary, there is but one entrance and exit to the school off FM 802.
"Should a fire or an emergency happen at school opening or closing time, good luck in getting through all that traffic to give aid to the school," said a parent.
Now the question looms before us: Were these design flaws placed there on purpose so that in turn they could generate more change orders (and income) for the contractors and architects?
In the case of the Veterans Memorial High School, problems with water pressure, ingress-egress (again), and land acquisition raised the costs from $40 million to almost $65 million, a boon for local contractors.
"The district has become a cash cow for local contractors," said the teacher. "Now you wonder whether this was done on purpose or whether it was just ineptness. Either way, we pay."
7 comments:
Do not worry !!!, All the Pace H.S. students belong to the following street gangs;...
" Las Prietas "," La Lomita ", " Los West - Side Locos " , and " La Galaxia".
This is precisely what Caty Presas-Garcia was harping about at a recent board meeting, but it seems that everytime she opens her mouth Zayas finds a way to shut her up with his know it all attitude. She was never given an answer to her question and the $5 majority board members agree that Caty's questions are administrative in nature. Sure, because Caty seems to be uncoveirng things that are being done inappropriately. The supt even answered a question that was asked by Pena regarding the new organizational chart with a false statement. A new position was created for Ayala and he said no new position had been created. We, the audience can spot this happning out front and the board pretends to be satisfied with his answers.
I've noticed the same things the #2 commenter said. And yet they go on without anything being done about them. Also, they should be reported in the newspaper. It adds up to a lot of tax dollars.
Maybe we need to get Ryan Wolf from Channel 4 and Farah Fazal from Channel 5 to do a documentary on the BISD school board. We need to stop thinking about spending money on a chess documentary and instead get one to cover Behind the Scene at BISD. I bet that would sell a lot of books and the money could go to the chess teams.
(Farah Fazal from Channel 5)
I wonder what my chances are of seeing her in an extremely skimpy bikini?
ralphy
Mr. Ralphy, Ms. Fazal is too refined to be anywhere around you. Do not belittle a lady who epitomizes what a journalist should be. I honestly thing she is above all other reporters in the valley and just wonder what brought her down here. She is too sophisticated and should serve as a role model to many -even Ryan Wolfe.
I wonder what he would look like in his trunks?
We knew two years ago that money was going to be tight.
How come is the gang of 4 or five
spending and
giving all BISD contracts to their compadres?
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