Duluth board member advises state to deny board request
March 21, 2012 at 4:02 pm in Duluth News Tribune
The Duluth School Board approved a new review and comment plan for Congdon Park and Myers-Wilkins elementary schools, but board member Art Johnston wants the state to reject the plan and force the district to stick to its original budget for the schools. Continue Reading
He is doing exactly what he was elected to do, unlike some others
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How embarrassiing for the board of ‘spend, spend, spend’ folks to have their ‘feet held to the fire’ ! ! !
Personally I think both outdated schools in question should be ‘razed’, torn down and replaced. If they are kept, this will be another on-going saga every couple years more money will be requested to “update/upgrade” these old ‘money pit’ buildings! My goodness, the board is abandoning one of the newest schools, Woodland Middle School, saying it is outdated. I can’t believe the two 90 year old schools can’t be replaced as part of the red plan. Do it “right” this time, not another dime spent prolonging the inevidable!
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Art is dead on about these two schools! People in Duluth need to take a hard look at this. According to the district, they spent 20.5 million on Laura MacArthur, 18.7 at Piedmont and 19 million at Lester Park. Why in the world would you invest 20 million into Myers/Wilkins? Or for that matter 15 million into Congdon? They have both been added onto 2-3 times already. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in favor of spending more money. But wouldn’t it make more sense to build new even if it meant spending 2-3 million more at each site? The numbers don’t add up. Here is an interesting item that you can all look up on the Minnesota Department of Education website. They have a “Guide for Planning School Construction Projects”. On page 47 it states “when the estimated costs of renovating/improving a school facility approach 60% of the cost of replacing the facility, a school district needs to replace the facility”. Myers/Wilkins was built in 1918 and Congdon in 1928. Look at how tight the school grounds are at Congdon. They maybe have 5-6 acres of useable space. Don’t even think about converting Woodland (built in 1957) to an elementary school…it’s been sold off. Yes, we do need to finish the Red Plan… we do need to ask if the 35 million they are about to spend is the best option we have. Who knows….maybe the state will reject the districts plans??
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I listed the wrong page of the MDE guidelines for school construction. Its on page 59 of the PDF file. Or look for section 2.06. Also, MDE recommends 10-15 acres for an elementary school site. Congdon has maybe 5-6 acres? So lets pour 15 million into a site that has no possibility for future expansion.
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