Please feel free to call me Doug.
One point in rebuttal of your taking exception- the last communication from the school system in fact looks to limit the "choices" put in front of the community. While the "choices" are expanded to 4 from 2 they are still extremely narrow in focus, thus going counter to your point entirely.
I fully acknowledge this community and everyone involved have been through some horrendous events - not just this last year but the entire decade. Rather than list these, let me just say this is exactly why you are being inundated by cries from parents who are so against our children being moved out of our community- to being farther from home for when they have simple colds or have some student bring two guns to school. After meeting with a group of both BMS and BHS parents last night, that was the single most unifying point. We are unanimous in insisting that our children not be moved out of Blacksburg- middle or high schoolers.
Now, to points that may actually make this possible, I am wanting to know in what capacity the board and superintendent have looked into non-traditional spaces to house BHS students within Blacksburg. Even if they do not conform, my group would like a list of possibilities discovered by your group and reasons they were ruled out. We would like to know of searches which places might marginally be made available. We would like to know what laws require in these spaces, and what might simply be school board rules (e.g., is a cafeteria required of a school space for a year). Specifically, I have confirmed from two sources that Virginia Tech has offered space for BHS students and I would like to know why this is not acceptable. My group is of one mind that Virginia Tech is absolutely the best atmosphere and place available. I cannot imagine Virginia Tech as a University that wants to attract world class talent can be at all happy that they now have to explain we have no high school and that students may be sent to another town in near condemned facilities.
As to timing, the board and other leadership absolutely should have been planning this coming school year in March if not April. I have now had insight from several people who have walked the inside of BHS to know that any person confronted with sloping floors and wall damage would know this school is going to be condemned, or at the very least not ready for 2010. Dr. Blackburn was kind enough to call me yesterday and discuss the situation, and she confirmed that there is visible sloping and mis-matched slabs on the floor of the main BHS building.
So why the wait? It is not the OWPR report- not with such visible damage. The perception the wait must leave in anyone's mind, and it certainly does in mine, is that you waited to hold public working sessions until vacation had begun because so many parents have left the area. The second perception is that the time-line is thus compacted and the community is forced to make a quicker decision than it would normally. That is a common negotiation tactic in business, and I am very hopeful this was not your intention. Whether intentional or not is really beside the point in many ways, however, the wait should not have happened given the internal makeup of BHS. The result is quite justified anger and anguish.
I have no insight to budgetary matters, but please give me any information on that side you care to write up and I will work on it. I think you would be surprised at how many residents would be willing to support a special tax assessment to get the new BHS started ASAP. Also, I think you would be surprised about the incredible ground swell of support this body would get if you simply stated "our second priority we will pursue until we have a comprehensive plan, after housing students for 2010, is to build a new BHS. We will get the students housing for 2010, then we will work solely on the construction of the new BHS, period."
Most Sincerely,
Doug Garnett-Deakin
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Doug Garnett-Deakin
Phn. 540-443-9245
Cell 540-818-3098
Fax 703-997-1478
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From:
To:
Cc:
Date: 06/18/2010 05:46 PM
Subject: RE: An open letter to the Montgomery County School Board
Mr. Deakin,
Thank you for your recent email, concerns and efforts. First, as parent of a rising 6th grader at BMS and a rising Junior at BHS, I fully understand the concerns cited by parents and the Blacksburg community. Additionally, my daughter graduated from BHS this year - so my family dealt first hand with the revised school schedule and the impact it had on the Blacksburg School Community. Also worth mentioning, on February 12th, 2010 - my entire family was inside the BHS gymnasium prior to its collapse on February 13th. After observing the destruction of the collapse first hand, I feel very fortunate that my family is safe (as well as other’s in attendance that evening) and we were able to complete the school year and no one was injured as a result of the collapse.
I do take exception to defining our process of generating options as resulting in poor ideas when they haven’t been given the appropriate amount of the time to be discussed. The only “bad” idea is the one that is not discussed and dismissed without careful thought. Plus, I don’t believe taking the appropriate amount of time required to insure our school buildings are safe for daily use should be termed as wasteful. This is very complex and difficult problem to resolve and it has required the involvement of multiple entities to insure proper procedures and policies are followed.
While the educational setting for both BHS and BMS students will be potentially impacted for the short-term and the proposed options, ideas and resulting decisions will not be palatable to everyone (including myself), we must recognize that other school communities within Montgomery County deal with overcrowded conditions, aging buildings and the increasing use of mobile units.
Plus, as we move forward, let’s be mindful and keep in perspective the BHS / BMS building and facilities decisions we are making have a short term impact, but the greater long term impact on the educational quality of all students in Montgomery County was the nearly eight million dollar reduction in the division operational budget. The rebuilding of a building is simple when compare to the budgetary challenges we face in rebuilding the quality of education for all students in Montgomery County.
I look forward to developing a solution that is able to provide a quality and safe educational experience for both BMS and BHS students.
Again, thank you for your email and your efforts to support the students and staff of the Blacksburg Community.
Best Regards,
B. Wendell Jones
MCPS - Chair
392-2750
From: doug.garnett-deakin@jpidev.com [mailto:doug.garnett-deakin@jpidev.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 10:18 PM
To: Jones, Wendell; Christine.McCann@jpidev.com; Doug_Garnett-Deakin@jpidev.com; drfoster@mcps.org; jbond@mcps.org; jtivers1@comcast.net; michael.stowe@roanoke.com; palbritton@mail.mcps.org; pfranklin@mcps.org; pgarnett@vt.edu; whopkins@vt.edu; anna.mallory@roanoke.com; Kelly Linkenhoker; district21@senate.virginia.gov; district22@senate.virginia.gov; DelJShuler@house.virginia.gov; deldnutter@house.virginia.gov
Cc: Doug_Garnett-Deakin@jpidev.com
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Montgomery County School Board
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to submit some excellent ideas from Kelly Linkenhoker that have already been sent to you. They are listed below after some more comments to follow my email from yesterday and further research on my part.
Something very important you need to understand is that your current poor ideas are throwing up two huge, terrifying warning signs to BMS parents- 1) you are proposing moving our children into intrinsically more dangerous environments (either an over crowded new school or into a substandard facility) and at the same time 2) you are moving them much farther away from us so that when situations from simple colds to say a kid bringing guns to school or the Westboro Baptist Church setting up a protest occur, it is that much more of a hardship for us to get to our children and remove them from those situations.
I will also say, it is most clear to me now that the BHS building will be condemned. I spoke to Phyllis Albritton today and understand that the construction company that ripped Blacksburg off with this horrible building is no longer in business and the county cannot sue them. I also discovered from the reporting in the Roanoke Times and other sources, that the structural flaws below the floors and in the extremely dangerous strut work (reason for gym collapse) are most definitely going to lead to a report of condemnation and if not there is no way any sane, safety minded person would allow students back into that facility. Therefore I have contacted Senator Edwards, Del Nutter and Del Shumer to pursue state or federal emergency funds and would encourage the community to support Kelly's last point that without delay the MCPS begin bid and selection for construction of a new high school. And for you to NOT fritter away another 6 months coming to that absolutely necessary understanding.
I apologize to Kelly for lifting her work as supplied to me by a friend, but her ideas were so much better than mine and certainly yours, that I could not help but forward them on and will read them on Monday in your public session.
I will be hosting a BMS parent planning session at my house tomorrow night to further collect ideas. I would also add that I would very much be in favor of a special assessment tax for funding the high school and other creative funding ideas. I would be willing personally to donate money to a fund for construction of a proper high school and/or investment in the ideas below. My company would be as well. I would personally organize and lead fund raisers to do the same. I will contact government representatives and lobby for any funds available to make this happen. But I will do absolutely none of this to pay one dollar to poor ideas that put my children and others in danger, as I believe your ideas will.
-----------------------
1) Keeping 6th grades in their respective elementary schools and putting mobile units on the BMS site to house 7th and 8th grade students, with BHS occupying the BMS building with 9th through 12th grades. This would keep all Blacksburg students in the communities that they are comfortable with and depend on. This way high school students have the
technology and equipment necessary to keep from compromising their education and the middle school students (7th and 8th) are not displaced from the security of their community school. 6th grade students would remain in nurturing environments during the transition to more demanding curriculum. I would be very disappointed to see any Blacksburg students removed from the community they call home. This interferes with supports for students before and after school hours.
2) Make a campus at the BMS ??? Take the money you would spend to get the OLD CMS ready and put the money into building a campus that could service our students for the next 1-2 years while a new high school is built on the land we have ready for a new school.
3) Start building a new High School ASAP. Blacksburg needs a high school and to wait makes no sense to our children or our community.
I understand that all solutions will be complicated but I hope to see our community work through this without the added stress of an alternate location.
Thanks and take care,
Kelly Linkenhoker
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Doug Garnett-Deakin
Phn. 540-443-9245
Cell 540-818-3098
Fax 703-997-1478
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From: Doug Garnett-Deakin/JPI
To: palbritton@mail.mcps.org, pfranklin@mcps.org, drfoster@mcps.org, jbond@mcps.org, BJones@moog.com, jtivers1@comcast.net, whopkins@vt.edu
Cc: michael.stowe@roanoke.com, pgarnett@vt.edu, Christine McCann/JPI@JPI, Doug Garnett-Deakin@jpidev.com
Date: 06/16/2010 04:11 PM
Subject: An open letter to the Montgomery County School Board
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
Like so many parents in Blacksburg, I have been following the debate of what to do with Blacksburg High School students in the upcoming year. I am the parent of an upcoming 7th grader and 4th grader, but do not have a child enrolled in BHS. First of all, I would like to express my displeasure with the progress of the safety report to date and the lack of planning that, in my view, should have been done in March and April of this year. I have little doubt in my mind that the safety report could have been done well before now and, more importantly, that the board and superintendent could have been planning with public involvement in the Spring regardless of the report completion.
That aside, I am appalled that you consider the movement and disruption of two groups of children a correct decision as opposed to disrupting a single group- the high school is affected in this situation, not the middle school, so the high school student body should be the only group disrupted. I worked on Pentagon relocation after 9/11 and know that the primary rule to follow in relocation due to disaster is to effect as few groups or individuals as possible. I see no reason you could put forward as a group as to why this rule should not be applied here. The principal of BHS is even on record stating that the lab facilities at BMS are not adequate for the high school students.
I agree with Joe Ivers' quote in today's Roanoke Times:
"Nowhere in here do I see anything but them being put in situations where they're going to be vulnerable," board member Joe Ivers said. "It just seems to beat the middle school students."
Middle school is an incredibly hard transition time and they are the wrong group to disrupt in this manner, much less bus them into either 1) a dilapidated old structure that is barely able to hold up to Upward basketball games or 2) a complete over crowding in the new Christiansburg MS.
I will also say that there is little likelihood that the report will come back to you with a suggestion that BHS can be used. I know few professionals that would sign off on that. The only real option you have is to move immediately to constructing the new high school in the new site as planned, just simply moved up in priority. As for the high schoolers for this year, I see little palatable option than moving them to trailers or splitting them up to various high schools in the county.
If the school board does move forward with the idea of busing middle schoolers, I will remove my daughter from the school system and I will explore my legal options for having the county compensate me for said move. As superintendent Blackburn was quoted "Time is our enemy at this point". To this I would add, time has been our enemy since day 1 following the collapse of the gym and you should have acted then for planning for the coming school year. For anyone to use time as a pressure point on parents at this moment for your own lack of action is unconscionable.
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Doug Garnett-Deakin
doug.garnett-deakin@jpidev.com
Cell 540-818-3098
Fax 703-997-1478
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