The school board isn't the only group in the mood to reconsider things.
County Commissioner Lindy Brown said today she's reconsidering her vote against buying an 80-acre parcel off Forestville Road north of Raleigh for a new high school. She said she'll ask commissioners to now support the deal after getting new information at today's joint meeting.
School board members and administrators made a pitch for the commissioners to reconsider last month's 4-3 vote. School leaders cited a new lower price for the land, the unsuitability of alternative sites and the impact on student assignment.
Click here for the online story.
The site, called H-6, is located near Heritage High School in Wake Forest. Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for growth and planning, said that approving the H-6 site would allow the school to open on schedule in 2011 and play a big part in the new multi-year assignment plan.
Heritage High is scheduled to open in 2009 as swing space for Wake Forest-Rolseville High students while their campus is renovated.
In 2010, ninth- and 10th-graders will be assigned to Heritage.
Dulaney said they have a rare opportunity in 2010 in having two schools close to each other opening just a year apart.
Dulaney envisions early starting H-6. He'd assign the school's ninth- and 10th-graders to Heritage High in 2010. Heritage would basically be two separate schools.
The H-6 students would leave to their permanent building in 2011.
Dulaney stressed how this will help ease overcrowding in the northeastern part of the county sooner. The alternative if H-6 isn't ready would be to only have Heritage High half full with one group of ninth- and 10th-graders.
Comments
Seriously Lindy? were you sleeping at that last meeting 8/5?
Thu, 09/18/2008 - 16:45 — bigwinnieBut Wake school board members made a pitch today to save the deal, and Brown said she will ask her fellow commissioners to reconsider the purchase.
"That entire part of the county is rocky and we're not going to be able do anything about it," Brown said today. "I didn't have that information
==============================================
08/05/2008
As noted in today's article by Michael Biesecker, commissioners voted 4-3 on Monday to turn down a $5.1 million high school and elementary school site north of Raleigh. A majority of the commissioners were unhappy about the estimated $2 million added cost for clearing the rocky land.
"Other than the Hope Diamond, I don't know many people who are going to pay that much for a rock," said Commissioner Paul Coble in the article.
Over the past year, commissioners have refused to back several sites brought by the school board. It's one of the reasons why it's been suggested that commissioners take over purchase of school sites.
As for the latest site, commissioners didn't buy the argument from Betty Parker, the school district's real estate director, that other nearby sites would have a similar risk of having rocky land.
""With those other sites, rock is a risk," Commissioner Tony Gurley said in the article. "Here, it is an absolute certainty."
But what was the difference was that Democratic Commissioner Lindy Brown proved to the swing vote against the deal. She cited e-mails from residents urging the commissioners to be more accountable with taxpayer money
In this real estate market, the price could go lower
Thu, 09/18/2008 - 18:42 — CarolineinApexThat's why Gurly is saying he wants to go lower. And you know what, he's a smart guy and probably knows that in this real estate market, it will! If that turns out to be the case, everyone will be glad the CCs waited.
I guess you think this financial crisis is Bush's fault too-OT
Thu, 09/18/2008 - 08:51 — Voice_of_Reason_Sorry, it smell's Clinton and the Democrats
Why did B.O. and Chris Dodd (+many left wing orgs) get so much money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ? Why when the alarm bells were sounding on this by McCain and others a few years back, did it get held up in committee (a la Barney Frank) in the Democratically controlled congress. Even Mr Reich, President Clinton's Treasury Sec. said it was wrong to open the floodgates for mortgages in the Clinton Admin. that many couldn't afford. See what you get when you drink the Kool-Aid Shank - Truth hurts sometimes doesn't it.
touchy aren't you? I think
Thu, 09/18/2008 - 09:03 — shank56touchy aren't you? I think it's FUN b/c I support McCain
I don't think of politics
Thu, 09/18/2008 - 09:56 — Voice_of_Reason_I don't think of politics as fun. It's a blood sport in which the playing field stinks on both sides -- but on one side I want to puke when I get a whiff of it, the other side has enough people that put on deodorant that I can tolerate it most of the time. Call me a bigot, but I do hate hypocrisy, true intolerance without cause, and "legal" stealing my money to buy votes on the opposing side - no matter what side you are on.
I not a big fan of McCain's policies, but at least he is an honorable man and has principles he sticks to.
Gee
Thu, 09/18/2008 - 05:44 — Voice_of_Reason_Someone from the left has the country's best interest in mind. Amazing.
OT- Gardner
Wed, 09/17/2008 - 19:54 — shank56http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/story/3549952/
"TAC President Michael Curran said Gardner was one of several founding members who was supposed to be volunteering their time on the project."
'"We're angry. We're upset," Curran said. "There was never a time, either in writing or verbally, (where) we expected Mr. Gardner to be paid. We were very surprised when we saw the lawsuit."'
_________________________________________
So a CC PROFESSIONAL, who expects all public dealings to be ON PAPER, ON CONTRACTS , and some to be bid- sues and has not produced a written, dated , and signed contract for his billings?
Or if he has these things, he will not produce them because he has told his CC colleagues, the press and the public , that he has no interest or conflict ???
And he sits in judgement of WAKE County government and business , including WCPSS???
PS: Why is the reporting for WAKEPOL blog so dormant and static? I just read in the last few days that Raleigh is one of the most political cities in the country- but WakePol is pretty lame- only one posting per month in the last few months.
Okay, there is a contract
Thu, 09/18/2008 - 07:36 — shank56Okay, there is a contract according to Gardner in the N&O today.
"Gardner said Tuesday that he was not familiar with the requirements of the county's ethics policy."
Ha ha ha!
It really is sad, considering he was the Chair of the CC a few years ago.
OT - Isn't this FUN
Wed, 09/17/2008 - 20:28 — shank56http://www.wral.com/news/political/story/3558950/
Top Clinton fundraiser backs McCain over Obama
A price reduction?
Wed, 09/17/2008 - 12:34 — Bob_SconceBut, I thought that the landowners wouldn't budge on the price, that the previous deal was the best deal that the school district could negotiate.
How many times is this scenario going to play out:
School district: Please say yes. This is the best deal we can get.
Commissioners: No. You're wasting money.
(sometime later)
School district: Well, ok, now THIS is the best deal we can get.
It may be that the Commissioners make a great "bad cop" that the district can use to push prices down. But, it'd be nice if they were more aggressive on pricing initially. With the real-estate market in a free-fall, now's a great time to buy up land on the cheap.