Some of you guys may have had a chuckle over Saturday's Triangle Politics item about Wake County school board member Chris Malone lobbying for an extra exit in the new school board room in Cary.
Malone and board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman had lobbied the board last week to reconsider the Jan. 25 decision to stick with the staff-recommended design. They were lobbying for changes that could have added anywhere from $1,200 to $60,000 more in costs.
The end result last Tuesday was a one-hour discussion on the shape of the table, members' sightlines, security, audience access and places for the superintendent and board attorney to sit.
Malone had wanted a relatively cheap $1,200 change to place a second door that board members could use to exit in the event of an emergency. The current plan calls for only one door being directly behind board members.
Malone brought up the December incident when a man fired at county school board members in Florida, without hitting any, then killed himself.
"If you have a situation like you had down in Florida ...," Malone said, members would be able to get out twice as quickly if another door were set into the back wall.
Goldman wasn't happy that the room design will result in some audience members facing the backs of board members. She told board members to consider that the $60,000 would be used for a room that should serve the board for 20 or more years.
Click here for the design that the school board agreed to use.
Click here for an alternative design that staff said could have cost $60,000 more to move the location of the board table away from the center of the room. It would have also allowed for more seats for the public.
Comments
Southeast Raleigh
Wed, 02/23/2011 - 13:39 — HereWeGoSo, if someone from Southeast - a poor person without a car - needs to go to WCPSS central office regarding their child's education how are they supposed to get to Cary? Currently, there is no bus service from Southeast Raleigh to Cary.
I thought one of the goals of a community based assignment plan was so that ED students families could be more involved in their children's educations then the school board moves central office to a location that is not accessible by public transportation.
?
Wed, 02/23/2011 - 14:09 — Bob_SconceThat's more of a theoretical problem than a real one. How many times have you had to go to the central office to deal with something? Just about everything can be handled at your kid's school or over the phone.
What will people from Southeast Raleigh do? Probably about the same that people from Wendell currently do -- have a friend drive them or take a cab. In any case, TTA Route 301 goes pretty close by the new location, as does CAT route 11c.
Budget
Wed, 02/23/2011 - 11:00 — HereWeGoWhen on they going to start working on something important like the budget for next year.
Staff will present the
Wed, 02/23/2011 - 15:03 — KeungHui (author)Staff will present the superintendent's budget on March 15. They normally do it on the first meeting in March but Tata wanted more time since he's new on the job.
Thanks
Wed, 02/23/2011 - 15:23 — HereWeGoThanks
So...
Wed, 02/23/2011 - 11:11 — Bob_SconceI know that they've had Netter working on it, but nobody knows what the state is going to do yet, so the board can't really adopt anything.
Budget
Wed, 02/23/2011 - 11:26 — HereWeGoI understand they cannot adopt a budget yet, but they know they are going to have to make significant cuts. Other school districts have all ready unveiled some of the major cuts planned. Why are they not giving the public a chance to review the planned cuts?
So which is it?
Wed, 02/23/2011 - 15:05 — FSandYOUThe Governor just said no state funded teaching positions will be lost. So which is it, are we going to cut teachers or not? What say you Stan Norwalk??
No doubt about it...
Wed, 02/23/2011 - 10:16 — Bob_SconceThe alternate design is better. For one, it doesn't have rows of seats which face the sides of other rows of seats. I don't know if it's worth $60K, but Goldman has a point.