The fields project at El Cerrito High School is overdue and over budget. The fields were scheduled to be available to students before school opened in August, then postponed to September, then November, then December; at this point the engineers are unwilling to give any date for completion.
Questions about delays and cost overruns receive muddled answers—18 days of rain (causing at least four months of delay!), special dirt, tennis bounce wall, paths and lights, access to the stadium for students during construction. The plan was approved by WCCUSD (West Contra Costa Unified School District) in spring 2010, but no work was done until 2011. The penalty for lateness was given as $1,000/day, minuscule in a $12,000,000-$13,000,000 budget (at last count before the new delays were announced).
Outdoor basketball courts, which were heavily used by students and community members at the old site, have been repeatedly promised but are now eliminated from the plans for the new fields. Coaches (for competitive teams), soccer moms, tennis players, and neighbors seem indifferent to constituencies outside their own. Young people are not generally represented at meetings, and certainly not kids who would use the courts for recreation. We say “exercise” and “just say no,” but WCCUSD won’t provide this very inexpensive minimal resource. How about the kid who wants to shoot a few hoops? Or play in a pickup game? Sorry, designers, contractors, administration, and Board can’t put up a few baskets and draw a few lines on level ground for the community.
Work on the new football stadium? Expect “special dirt” there too, rain will no doubt occur, and changes will routinely be needed. The WCCUSD design and construction team will be surprised by everything! Geotech has already given wrong projections for the high-school building site, for the temporary campus, and for the baseball/soccer fields. Around the world, there are athletic fields even in places where it often rains. But here, our professionals are full of excuses and delays.
Despite the expensive new Taj El Cerrito, the high school received the lowest academic ranking. It is now obvious that paying architects does not yield better students. The initial cost of construction for ECHS is going to exceed a quarter of a BILLION dollars, not counting years of interest on the bonds. Our heirs will still be paying, while property values in El Cerrito reflect despair about our public schools along with high taxes for those schools. WCCUSD administration chose to request funds for bonds (construction) and practically guaranteed denial of the subsequent parcel tax vote (money for operations).
There is no realistic completion date for El Cerrito High School; construction will eventually cover at least a decade of disruption for students, staff, and citizens. In any private setting, we would not be hearing, “Don’t worry, there will always be money,” and a project of this size would be completed at least close to on time and on budget, or penalties would be paid. The center fields are going to take DOUBLE the time projected. ECHS is the project with which I am most familiar, but with its enormous budget and presumed oversight, it is probably an indicator of how the BILLION-dollar (base cost, estimated at least three BILLION before finally paid) construction program is going. Citizens should be more concerned—and let the Board members know of their concern.
Geline Covey is a long-time El Cerrito resident and tax-payer. She has volunteered at Harding, Portola, and El Cerrito High Schools. She has attended many site, fields, facilities, and school board meetings, and continues to take an active interest in ongoing construction at ECHS.
I think a very large percentage of the WCCUSD students that are going to school in Albany are from El Cerrito and even more WCCUSD students go to school in Berkeley. The numbers I cited were only the official new transfers. Many more use fake addresses or are returning transfers. So my guess is that El Cerrito has an unusually large percentage of its children NOT going to a public school in El Cerrito. This hurts the students and it hurts property values. How do El Cerrito children and their families benefit from being part of a deeply in debt, poorly and underperforming school district? What percentage of Madera and Kensington students continue to Portola and ECHS? API scores Kensington Elem 949 Madera 949 Fairmont 799 Harding 798 Portola 706 ECHS 658
My guess is that most parents, if given a choice between a mediocre education in a shiny new building, versus an excellent education in a safe but not-so-shiny building would pick...well, you tell me which one you'd choose.
You have clearly misinterpreted what I wrote. I'm seeing many fingers pointed at the District, but when stakeholders are absent from the process, what basis do they have for being critical of the outcomes? @Local Mom: I reached out and reach out. We sent emails to everyone. Fliers. Web site. Word of mouth. This wasn't simply the District's fault. More people need to take involvement in these matters seriously. Fortunately, the architects are great and have tried very hard to absorb and integrate parent, community and especially Fairmont staff input, even sometimes seeming to hold District interests at bay. (There's a lot to be said for professional integrity.) I don't think parents in the future school will have much to complain about, but if they do, I will most certainly remind them that they were absent from the planning meetings. BTW, if there are Fairmont parents reading this, it's not too late to get involved. The floor plans are done, but some important aspects of the school visual appearance are still in progress. Please talk with me or Mrs. Lambie if you want to learn more.
One result of a large diverse school district? I have a kid playing in the most diverse and successful U16 El Cerrito recreational soccer team ever. What an amazing group of respectful, responsible kids playing as a team TOGETHER. What spirit! Half of them are from Richmond and this wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for WCCUSD. Now these kids will play for ECHS – watch out!
I'm glad folks are watching the bond and school re-building with a critical eye, but I want to see more energy go into improved learning. My children had the good fortune of experiencing many gifted, caring professionals in every school they attended, but we need to reshape the ways our schools function. Too much emphasis is placed on those doggone test scores as a proxy for true learning. The content standards have a perverse effect on retention and critical thinking, neither of which is measured in the CST's. We need to reclaim a genuine interest in learning for all students. The demands placed on schools like Portola and ECHS cannot be overstated. Few schools serve the range of kids that we have in EC. Our schools are a demographic microcosm of California as a whole. If we can get it right here, the State may have a chance. Balancing the needs is a Solomonic task, mostly because we have scant discretionary resources. Why is the commitment from our most affluent families so fragile? You can make a difference in a variety of ways. Send your kid to public school, save a fortune and invest a fraction of the saved tuition. It will pay dividends for your kids and others.
You have to start somewhere when you're rebuilding a community and it might as well be with the buildings. It gives a tangible and instantly visible sign of improvement. I guess I should give some kind of disclaimer: I am no one's stooge or representative.
We were allowed to walk around the buildings but we weren't allowed inside--it was deemed too unsafe for persons who were not required to be there (like students and staff). We were allowed to peek through the windows but we weren't allowed inside to see for ourselves whether the 75 year old building was worth keeping or needed replacing.
As many times as I read the article, I couldn't find anywhere any mention that the delays were caused because the temporary classrooms could not be removed. And why couldn't they be removed? Because the District was awaiting a ruling by the small group of citizens who were against the building of the new Portola campus. Until a court decision was issued, no one knew where they could house the Portola students when they took them out of the unsafe structure they were in before. And then the plans that were approved by the Board had to be approved the Division of Architectural Standards--the very same oversight group that had been decimated by the state budget shortfalls. Approvals that normally would have taken 3-6 months are now taking 12-16 months. Without that approval the District can't do anything. Perhaps Ms. Covey knows a way around state law? Perhaps some short cuts that won't be detected by governing bodies? Inquiring minds need to know.
Of course, if you want to suggest further that I've been told secrets by someone in the DIstrict that couldn't keep their mouth shut or if you want to suggest that maybe I broke in and stole confidential information, then keep writing. It's just as believable as some of the other statements posted here.
The rumor that I heard is that two students were fooling around and got caught. It was reported as an assault and then the media descended and created a story out of nothing.
In any case, this has gone so far off tangent that it's not worth my time and effort to continue with any back and forth. Comments like these are non-productive. No one is reading them and no one's opinions are being changed. I have things on my plate right now where I can make a positive difference in people's lives so I'm going to walk away from this and let you and your associates crown yourselves the kings and queens of this blog.
Since you've made the allegation that Mr. Ramsey dominates the meetings and controls the members, perhaps you'd care to tell us exactly who those stooges and puppets are. I'm testing my memory here but I think that Mr. Ramsey has attended perhaps 8-10 of the last 40 meetings. Is his power and influence so strong that he can control us even when he's not at our meetings? That's a scary thought. Most of the CBOC members know Mr. Ramsey only peripherally. Are those the ones he's dominating or are you referring to people like myself who has known Mr. Ramsey for a great many years? Of course, I'm betting that I've threatened him with bodily harm, as only a friend can, considerably more times than you have as someone who openly despises him. Am I one of those that he's dominating or just controlling?