Today’s news prompted the following email which was sent to Superintendent Dixon.
Now why can’t the Trib’s editorial board ask such a simple question? Surely one of them graduated from journalism school.
RE: west middle school
JK ********************Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 3:04 PM
To: keith m. dixon
Cc: jeffrey schiltz [jeffrey.g.schiltz@jci.com]; School BoardSuperintendent Dixon,
Today’s headlines read that there is a need to acquire residential property for the West Middle School, in fact it now appears that you will look to acquire more properties than first thought?
The School District is smiling from ear to ear because there are so many hungry contractors and the bids are coming in less than projected! How about spending less since the bids are lower?
No we won’t spend less we will add to the project list.
My real concern as you already know is that the location of the West Middle School is in the wrong spot. The School Board, Johnson Controls and everyone else involved should take a harder look at the Central High School sight for the West Middle School? Since you have all these hungry contractors with potential for low bids, why not price out the remodle cost just to compare one project to the other? Please tell the taxpayers the total cost to locate the West Middle School on the Wheeler Field site versus using the Central High School site. Do you really know the exact cost of the Wheeler Field Site considering all the potential unknowns?
As a Commercial Real Estate practitioner I have enough experience to know that I would do all I could to keep my best sites, since location is everything and thus sell off my lesser parcels first. The School District should live by that principle as well. The Central site should be the last parcel that you dispose of and only dispose of the site if you have no other options.
Thank you
