Gramd Forks schools consider construction of downtown parking ramp
March 25, 2012 at 6:16 pm in Grand Forks Herald
The Grand Forks School Board is expected to discuss at its meeting tonight the construction of either a surface parking lot or a two-level parking ramp downtown near Central High School. Continue Reading
Build the parking ramp INSTEAD of the new school.
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The Grand Forks school system likes to think they have an endless supply of money.
Lets look at their resent projects.
New Theater at Red River.
Remodeled and addition to the Central Theater.
New Gym added to Central
And here is the best one, New track and ARTIFICIAL TURF on a High football field.
Now lets add another grade school.
Lets buy 2 buildings down town for parking.
NO WAIT lets make that a packing ramp and add 2.3 million or more to that cost.
All I have to say is.
New wellness center
New school projects
New part time job to pay taxes.
All I have to say is Thank you, I didn’t want to have any extra money anyways.
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Jobbo, you can add to your list the fact that enrollment has declined by 30% over the past 15 years and the district has excess capacity.
What puzzles me is why teachers are not up in arms about all of the spending. How many math and science teachers could have been added for the cost of the new facilities? How much could teacher salaries been increased? Can you image the quality of the physics lab, the extra number of reading tutors, and the industrial arts programs this could have funded? Instead, the district is spending approximately 20 million dollars on performing arts facilities. You’ll never convince me that students are getting a better educational experience because their productions are being staged in professional quality facilities as opposed to the stage at the end of the gym. In my opinion, you have a few influential and wealthy families that want their children to have the experience of a performing arts academy but funded by taxpayers. While a few students may turn their high school performing arts experience into a life-long vocation, the number is insignificant compared to those that would benefit from more science, English and industrial arts instruction.
Raise my taxes to increase teacher salaries and quality. Raise my taxes to increase the number of science, math and English teachers and industrial arts classes. Those are priorities. When you start spending money on more than the basic essentials for performing arts, excess capacity and parking I will make the assumption that the priorities have met; in other words, if you want to build 20 million dollars of performing arts facilities don’t turn around and tell me teachers are underpaid.
I understand that some decisions are driven by where the available funds are sourced. The funds to build the new addition come from federal sources that are to be used for infrastructure. However, those funds are required to be repaid and will be repaid by local and state revenue collections which could have in turn been used to fund additional compensation to teachers and other priorities.
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“Gramd Forks” Oh good, I was worried for a second they were talking about here.
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If you disagree, go voice your opinion at the meeting.
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“The Grand Forks School Board will not discuss a proposal concerning plans for a parking lot or facility near Central High School tonight.”
Now you know why. These people are DEEPLY out-of-touch with responsible spending, and they’ve already made the decision–they don’t want to know our opinions.
The whole community gathering at South about the new school was only because it was mandated by law, they didn’t actually want our involvement.
The School Board needs to be impeached.
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Can you say “measure 2″
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