Editor’s note: This is a guest posting from my friend and fellow commissioner on the Heart of Peoria Commission, Beth Akeson. Please note that the comments you leave on this post will be forwarded to Beth.
Tuesday, I attended a District 150 Building Committee meeting. They reviewed the schematic design of the new Harrison Birth through Eighth Grade Community Learning Center.
It was noticed as a “public” meeting since more than two school board members would be in attendance. The meeting was scheduled to last two hours starting at noon and was located in the Superintendent’s conference room at the administration building. I was the only member of the public in attendance except for a couple of people from a local news station and they left early.
Attending the meeting were members of the building committee; Rachael Parker, Jim Stowell and Debbie Wolfmeyer. Ken Hinton, Guy Cahill, Dave Ryon were there representing the administration. David Walvoord, District 150’s attorney, and Julie Cramer, the school board secretary sat in as well. I have no idea why they were there. David Walvord made no comments and was asked no questions. I did not see Julie Cramer taking notes.
Each person at the table was either a paid administrator, outside paid advisor (attorney and architects) or an elected official. What is the purpose of having a public meeting if the public is not in attendance in significant numbers, unable to watch from home and not able to offer suggestions?
The plan for the new Harrison school is definitely suburban in concept. After the meeting I talked with the local LZT architect, David Henebry, and I asked why the suburban design? He said the area is not urban and never will be. Funny, that is not how it appears if you base urban versus suburban on whether there is a grid pattern of streets. Did they ask the PHA what they are planning or have they read the Heart of Peoria Plan? We need to be building for the future with less dependence on automobiles.
The proposed Harrison Birth through Eight Grade Learning Center is a one story building, set back from the street with on-site parking [see artist’s rendering at the top of this post]. The price of gas is now over $4.00 per gallon and it will climb higher. Childhood obesity and limited auto ownership are prevalent in poor neighborhoods and yet there was no discussion about creating a walkable environment; the plans are totally auto centric. There was no mention of sustainability and LEED certification.
District 150 is planning an unremarkable, factory type school building and the only guiding principle given to the architects seems to be building as inexpensively as possible. The building is suburban and uninspiring. As the presentation went on Ken Hinton asked the architect about a tower depicted in the rendering and the architect responded:
…it represents a feature to give some importance to the entrance, since this is a single story and economical building…
Could it be he was trying to say in a diplomatic way that the building’s envelope is just run of the mill?
After the schematic renderings were presented there were few questions. Jim Stowell asked about “water reclamation” which stumped the architect since reclamation is the “reuse” of the building’s water. Eventually, the architect realized Stowell was asking about storm water runoff management. The architect assured him they would be meeting the city’s requirements
Jim’s question made me think: If he is really concerned about conservation maybe he could investigate how District 150 determined it to be more desirable to build new buildings and not restore and modernize the existing buildings? There are many examples in other cities of older buildings restored with well designed new additions. I have attached a PDF for examples [see below]. The problem with Peoria is we have not had good experience with either.
If the building committee had consulted an architect familiar with school restoration or renovation, as I have, they would have been told that as much as twenty-five percent of the cost of building a new building lies in preparing the site, laying the building’s foundation, and installing utilities. Another twenty-five percent goes toward the building structure—its framing, walls, and roof. With an historic building, you already have those components in place. Wouldn’t that translate into cost savings and conservation?
The citizenry needs to weigh in on this design and the building’s siting. Commenting during the obligatory public hearing will be too late. District 150 officials hand picked people to give programming suggestions and they have not given the public any opportunity to discuss how the building meets the street. If they are worried about too much community push-back then maybe the design deserves the scrutiny. However, if the designs are truly impressive why wouldn’t they want to show the public the renderings at every step? I think the answers are obvious.
Additionally, I do not believe they have anyone in house with design expertise to give necessary guidance.
Harrison’s Budget
Next, they presented the building’s confirmed budget, but the cost estimate will not be determined until it is let out for bid. The architects suggested that the board make a list of what they would be willing to give up in the event of cost overruns.
The architects suggested they could eliminate the health clinic, room partitions, adult education space, and outdoor basketball courts if the bid is over budget.
The group made no decisions and someone suggested the school board’s committee of the whole would have to be included in this decision. There was no mention of asking the public for their opinion and since it will be discussed during a committee of the whole meeting it will not be televised and it will most likely be during the middle of the day.
The real kicker came when the board was told the budget would not provide for interior furniture, technology, phone system, community garden, water playground, and outdoor amphitheater. The budget only covers the hard costs of construction and soft costs of design.
For me, witnessing this meeting was frustrating. I ran for the school board, and since I lost, I do not want to appear as if I am being hypercritical of District 150. I do not want to give heartburn to our volunteer school board. Yet, after today’s meeting someone needs to start asking some questions and raise the level of expectation.
Our school board has to be informed in order to make the best decisions. When the architects opened the floor for discussion only a few basic questions were asked and no comments were made, except for the usual thank you. Guy Cahill ran the meeting and Ken Hinton continued to say over and over again something to the effect of “I will keep quiet,” “I will not talk.” I was puzzled why the superintendent would make such a comment and say it more than once.
No one questioned the design, the layout, or asked for comparables. Unfortunately, the public’s window of opportunity to weigh in is shrinking and decisions are being made by individuals with limited appreciation of the urban planning task at hand. They are missing a major opportunity and the city will suffer the consequences.
Yesterday, I attended the building committee meeting where the plans for Glen Oak School were presented. I am working on a post to summarize that meeting too. Let’s say for now I was equally unimpressed.
Resources for further reading:
Great Schools By Design (Akron Report)
Historic Neighborhood Schools Deliver 21st Century Education
New Schools for Older Neighborhoods
Planning Schools to Fight Obesity
The Case for Renovation
School Design Guidelines
School Siting Handbook
We get the government we deserve. It all seems clear to me, Peorians want failing schools and failing neighborhoods.
Not to get off subject…., but I always thought that the proposed museum would have been better off in a renovated building, historic or otherwise. Makes sense to do it with schools as well.
But what do those of us from Peoria know [ref mahkno], we are probably going to send Aaron Shock to Washington.
Beth – There are numerous errors in your report that I won’t have time to address tonight. Anyone wishing to contact me regarding the process, funding sources, architectural firm selection criteria,past public programming meetings, etc., I can be reached at 453-4616 and will return calls as soon as I am able.
Looking forward to your Glen Oak report.
#150 is keeping the neighborhoods in the dark as to what is planned as to the final design.
From the looks of the architect’s rendering of the new school, why didn’t they just put up a metal building and call it a school. It doesn’t have any furnishings either.
Jim- please enlighten all of us to the “errors”
I will be more than happy to correct anything I have stated that is inaccurate. Just do us a favor and say in public.
Beth
I just want to say that I appreciate Mr. Stowells willingness to make himself so available to the public. He is one of the few board members that I have found to be forthright and accessible. Although you may disagree with him, he is at least willing to have a conversation with you, a quality that seems to be sadly lacking in the District. If there was more of a spirit of community, cooperation and openess, many of these public relations gaffes would be avoided.
I agree Diane! Jim, I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say regarding this matter. And thank you for visiting the board and signing your real name!! And posting your phone number! And voting NO to the 45 minute education cut.
Thank goodness for caring citizens like Beth Akeson.Thank you for bringing this meeting to our attention.
I think Beth pointed out some very important points in her concise rendering of the meeting. It’s also very disappointing to have a two hour meeting during the day, when most people work. The obesity, non-biking, non walking issues are very up to date and should be addressed. Renovating buildings is expensive, but we have some beautiful old school buildings and at least Peoria can be proud of them. The Great Schools By Design (Akron Report)that Beth refers to is an excellent article. Thanks Beth, for your concern and pointing this out.
“He said the area is not urban and never will be.” It surely never will – if you build such suburban 1960’s style buildings in it. As a public building, this suggests that the public aspirations are negative. (Is this the best we can do?)
Pardon my ignorance, by I am confused by the urban/suburban terminology. If the Harrison School neighborhood is not urban, is it an inner city neighborhood? Why is it considered suburban?
A quick check of the dictionary gave the definition of urban as “living in a city” and suburb as “a town or district, usually residential, adjacent to a larger town or city.”
Just curious, but how do a water playground and outdoor amphitheater support student achievement and help improve AYP?
Peorians don’t like to use old buildings. They would rather pay more money and get less, by building an ugly new one. And the archetect doesn’t have to do much work. He just repackages his last county jail or stip mall drawing (no difference between any of them). This is why CJ’s suggestion that they build a new library instead of using a vacant supermarket sounds nice but won’t work. The new building would look the same as the supermarket, it would just cost more.
Peorians seems to like these kind of houses:
http://www.tlcglass.com/gallery/Card%20House.jpg
Strong, stable, ‘affordable’.
Too bad we can’t embed images. Need BBS Code!!!
You just have to know how to code it, Mahkno. 🙂
Perhaps the most telling aspect of this proposed new school is that the rendering provides no physical context–as if it isn’t part of the surrounding community at all–it could be sitting in the middle of a cornfield, or have landed from outer space! It looks like the architect would have designed the same building regardless of its location…very telling indeed.
I’d bet the architect DID design the same building, at several other locations, Mary.
I realize this is old news and probably ho hum to most of you, but “birth to eighth”????
Have we realized that without parent input to a child’s early development their is no development???
What happened to: it is the parent’s responsibility to prepare the child for school?
Ask any teacher in elementary school. The number one problem is children not prepared… no reading, no number, no language, no discipline, no social skills….
Those children should not be in public schools. They will and do fail. (both the students and the schools)
Beth – Sorry I didn’t get back to this yesterday like I had hoped. There are many tangents to points you raised, but I’ll try to follow your path. The Board secretary takes minutes of every meeting. She is proficient in shorthand. Don’t blink. The attorney was there for other aspects of the meeting(contract’s, MOU’s, and the executive session)and to answer questions, if asked. Walkability was most certainly discussed. The center third of the plan was comprised primarily of a walking path. Also, previous open discussions involved the walkability of the broader “Impact Zones” we are working on collaboratively with the City. As costs escalate, these projects are being challanged to come in under budget. The budget is not, in my mind, a parameter, but a cap. Structural steel costs have skyrocketed, there are several other large capital projects competing for resources, and the “wrapping” of the building is in the refinement stage as composition, materials, insulation, and other attributes were shared. Interstingly, there were differing viewpoints from the architects on which would be functional, cost-effective, and visually appealling. In a perfect world of greater funding, having grandiose plans of Architectural Digest significance wood be nice. with limited budgets for multiple projects, we all the the most outstanding facilities possble. To imply otherwise is wrong. I also brought up the reporting instruments the Admin. will provide to the Board. The more that’s spent on soft costs, the less we have for facilities. Before my arrival on the Board, the application process to the State was submitted for funding. The results dictate replacement, not refurbish.It’s been asked and answered that we could jeopardize funding if we deviate from our current path. Interest rates are beginning to rise and any further delays could significantly add to our costs. Besides, both facilities are over 100 years old, are large, inefficient and expensive to maintain. Do poorer children not deserve the very best we can provide? I’d like to see someof the structure, particuraly Glen Oak, used as an entranceway or something, to coonect to the neighborhood and it’s history. Also, no where do you mention the Board directive to integrate geothermal energy. It is more costly, but has tremendous savings over time. Almost impossible to do in older buildings cost-effectively. Hopefully soon we will begin posting the renderings on-line so others can see. I’ve shared the floor plans with others, and they have been favorably impressed. They also understood them to be renderings, not plans. Some ammenities might get cut based on bids. A fellow board member has shared creative ways to possibly have others done through collaboration. Good idea that I’ll let her share. But while it might be deemed an ammenity by some, the creativity and social development skills that arise out of using a mini-amphitheater are limitless. Our architects were selected through an exhaustive process – and while I had a difference of opinion over the hierarchial preference -they have been involved in numerous public meetings to draw input. They are in the process of taking that knowledge to integrate into the most outstanding facility we can afford. Again, the budget isn’t a range, it’s a cap. (Breath..) Committees of the whole are almost always in the evening, as the next one will be. I asked to have most building cmte. meetings over the noon hour to fit into my schedule. A standing meeting on Mon. and Weds. opposite each Board meeting was hoped to allow people to plan ahead to attend. There have also been scores of other meetings you didn’t attend where information has been presented, discussions held and insight gleened. Just yesterday I attended a meeting with the Mayor, City Council reps, PHA, Park Board, city planners and engineers about the Southern Gateway of which Harrison will be apart. All those people and not once did I here two words uttered….”New Urbanism”. That might dissappoint you, but it’s the truth. Running for Scool Board on that platform and finishing dead last just doesn’t suggest a public mandate. I appreciate your involvement and read your links (3 still to do). Hopefully soon we can post the other drawings so everyone can see what is developing. I’m sorry it doesn’t seem to meet your expectations. We have a budget.
“Do poorer children not deserve the very best we can provide?”
Who do you think you are, The Wizard of Oz?
What the children (rich or poor) deserve is families that prepare them for life whether it be in school or anywhere else. They ALSO deserve an environment where their needs and interests are not dragged down by unprepared, incapable and undisciplined children in their classrooms.
Since it is the family’s responsibility to prepare their children , when they fail to do so, they should not be eligible for public school education… give them their vouchers and let them prepare their children with private tutors.
Jim,
I do not have enough time today to comment on your response. My dad had open heart surgery and I am in St. Louis visiting with him; however, based on your comments I still stand by my post. I think Julie Cramer is exceptional; I am not surprised she can take notes discretely. I said “I didn’t see her taking notes”- (as her back was to me as was yours).
Thanks for the clarification about the need for an attorney at your meetings. It was just my observation that perhaps his attendance during Tuesday’s meeting was unnecessary, since there was no executive session. As you point out the district is strapped for cash- reminding me of the expression “penny wise and pound foolish” which if time allowed would be a segue to discuss what we risk when a limited budget takes precedence in decision making…
I gave CJ all of the drawings for both Harrison and Glen Oak that were distributed during the Tuesday and Wednesday meetings. He may be willing to scan and post them. I will make time to write in greater detail why walking paths do not equate to walk-ability.
Your comments about the city and their involvement to date concern me, especially since the public is told by city staff and some members of the city council they are working towards the principals of new urbanism. I appreciate you filling us in. Additionally, several council members and city staff and have said the process will be inclusive and transparent.
The fact that private meetings, without any mention of these ideas as you say, is in direct opposition to what many of us have been told. Thank you for letting us know you have been included in these special meetings and the conversations are void of any mention of the Heart of Peoria plan.
For now, I will conclude with a response to your jab – yes I finished dead last in the last school board race- but I stepped up and I ran. My platform was not about new urbanism, but it would benefit everyone to really learn what it means. Please go to my website to view my platform: http://www.bethakeson.com and read my answers to the PJ Star and Chamber of Commerce questions. I believe District 150 has tremendous potential. People say they want change, only time will tell if we truly have the policy and capacity to make it happen.
Nineteen years ago, Mike Bailey was the education reporter for the Peoria Journal Star. He wrote an article about Harrison and their disappointing academic performance. Coincidently, beneath his article is a story about the high cost of gasoline- not much has changed.
Beth, I have those scanned, but the files are too large to post as they are now; I’ll get them down to a more reasonable size for web viewing and post them later today.
Something tells me that if Beth Akeson ran again for school board the results would be very different next time around. The events of the past year are a perfect example of what happens when you combine an apathetic public with a propped up administration that hand-picks its own school board members. Checks and balances go right out the window along with the District. Consider this a public wake-up call with multiple snooze cycles. This should never happen again.
Beth – I didn’t mean it as a jab, but as analogy to the “mandates” that were implied due to the library vote. I sincerely appreciate your input – but more importantly – my thoughts and prayers are with you and your dad. Jim
Jim Stowell writes:
Before my arrival on the Board, the application process to the State was submitted for funding. The results dictate replacement, not refurbish. It’s been asked and answered that we could jeopardize funding if we deviate from our current path.
Just wondering what type and quality of information was on that report? What qualified ‘expert’ supplied the information and date and estimates? Let’s hope it is more complete than the District’s annual reports which leave blank spaces in place of the mandated disclosure of teacher salaries.
Anyone can make any report read what the pre-determined outcome is to be — juice the numbers and package the report content to prop up your house of cards.
Inappropriate and bad decisions still remain bad decisions. As Mitch Mitchell once said at a meeting with Ken Hinton, school sitings and buildings can be hundred year events — importance to the site selection as well the physical construction must be done correctly because we will live with that success or mistake for decades/generations to come.
Old buildings do not equate for poor performance, as Ernestine Jackson once stated a school board meeting, if that was the case than Lincoln should have improved test scores and such is not the case (after all the building is new.)
***************
kcdad: B-8 will allow parents to attend school to learn about being parents on the public dime — so, if we cannot afford the current D150 system, how will we be able to afford the added services? Well, probably another government grant funded by taxpayers.
Perhaps you will recall that Peoria had the highest teen pregnancy rate — babies having babies who are not prepared to be parents and so the story continues — for several more generations.
Peoria Parent — Amen.
Beth — Prayers for complete recovery for your dad! 🙂
Beth,
Have you heard about the US Green Building Council’s LEED certification for Green Schools? They state that fully one-third of school facility costs are in heating/cooling buildings, providing water, electricity, and other energy/utility functions. Ohio has taken the lead in school design standards and calculated it could save taxpayers over a billion dollars over the next 40 years by reducing energy consumption of school buildings. For full details visit http://thegroundfloor.typepad.com/the_ground_floor/sustainable_development/index.html and scroll down to Higher Learning. There is now a Green Schools Caucus in the US House of Reps. This fits in with the Mayor’s Sustainability Task Force, the HOP Plan, et al. It seems that everyone operates in a vacuum in this city. We all want many of the same things, but no one connects all the dots.