3-10-04 By Ron Bird Acton Resident
A Summary of the Current Facility Plans
Close the Acton Campus and move the students to Meadowlark, Agua Dulce and High Desert Middle School (6th grade).
Return nine Acton Campus leased portables for a $36,000 savings at an unknown cost of refurbishment.
Build a permanent new Vasquez High School
Move the 32 existing Vasquez portable buildings to the Vasquez football field before building the permanent Vasquez facilities
All of this assumes the voters will approve a bond based on the district’s performance and the three prior rejections.
And the Current Plan's cost
The leased facilities at Vasquez cost our district $253,000 yearly.
The earliest permanent Vasquez High can open is in two to three years (even assuming the a bond would pass in November). That’s $500,000 to $750,000 in additional lease payments at a minimum.
Moving the 32 existing Vasquez portables to the football field required by the construction if the permanent buildings will be expensive (32 portables times $35,000 [1] is $1,120,000t). That is paid from the bond and the State portion. But that is still over one million dollars that could have been spent better for the permanent High School facilities.
Housing our high school students at Vasquez during construction will add to the construction costs by requiring background checks be done on every worker that enters the site and increased security monitoring cost.
Move High Desert Middle School to the vacated Acton Campus site.
Move temporary Vasquez High School to High Desert. Move five district owned portables from Red Rover to High Desert including Home Economics, Arts/Drama and the labs.
Keep the Red Rover athletic fields and gym for school events and practices.
What One-Time Costs will be incurred this year which will be saved when we build a permanent High School
Moving five portables from Vasquez to High Desert will cost about $40,000. [2]
Cost of moving the classroom furniture and teachers will cost about $60,000 [3]
What Are the Yearly Ongoing Cost Savings of this Alternative
Return of the 14 Vasquez Scotsman portables will save at least $120,000 [4] annually. This contract expires in October of this year (04) and a new contract might add further costs.
There will be some additional utility and operational cost savings. [5]
How These Cost Savings Might Be Used
Improving academic programs (see "What $120,000 Could Buy")
What Are the Additional Benefits of This Alternative
Our high school students will immediately have a library (what a concept!).
Our high school students will immediately have a cafeteria and indoor eating area.
Most of the classrooms are permanent buildings with teacher prep areas.
All the administration will be in permanent buildings.
Our high school students will immediately have a quiet, adequately heated and cooled multipurpose room (Lunch, assembly gym).
The Acton site has a Cafeteria, a multipurpose room, and a small library. A number of classrooms, all the bathrooms and the administration rooms are permanent buildings
Both school have grass and trees.
Is this Alternative a Replacement for Building a Permanent Vasquez Campus
NO! The move to High Desert site is not a permanent place for Vasquez but it is a replacement of the trailer school .
What $120,000 Dollars Could Buy
Would you believe the hiring of six additional teachers? That must be impossible! We can retain class size reduction in all K to 3 grades at 20 students per class.
It can be done
By restoring the state sponsored class size reduction program for kindergarten and grade 3 we receive added income of $200.226 to pay for these teachers. Plus by implementing the state sponsored class size reduction program (Morgan-Hart Class Size Reduction Program) for grade 9 our district would qualify for and additional $54,000 dollars of state grade 9 CSR funds..
The Morgan-Hart CSR program provides $180 per student per class each year for 9th students for English and one other core course. Other grades can be included in the program as long as over half the enrollments in the program are from grade 9 and that the total class enrollments in the program does not exceed two times the number of grade 9 students in the district. With 300 enrollments (150 grade 9 students times two),
Hiring two new high school teachers (an English teacher and probably a math teacher) would enable our district to implement Grade 9 CSR with extra class section slots to add more core class sections in other grades (at district expense). This year one of our geometry sections was listed as having 41 students in it. No wonder our geometry STAR scores last year fell below the statewide average when we are allowing this large class!
Restoring kindergarten and grade three CSR next year would cost the district about $40,000 (4 teachers). Adding grade 9 CSR would require about $66,000 ($120,000 for two new teachers minus $54,000 in state funding). The grand total adds up to $106,000.
But the One-Time Costs of Moving Portables is Not Included
The closing of Vasquez the Red Rover site will free up 5 district owned portables (8 total, but 3 are already needed under this plan at High Desert). To restore kindergarten and grade 3 CSR requires 4 of these portables. Adding two high school teachers probably can be accomplished within the existing confines by better classroom utilization.
It is estimated that the relocation of 4 additional portables to Meadowlark/Agua Dulce to fully restore K-3 CSR would entail a one-time expense of $140,000 ($35,000 times 4). This alternative plan would save at least $120,000 per year, but only $14,000 when the six teachers are added. The governor’s budget takes into account that schools are fiscally strapped for cash, so for next year only the reserve is being allowed to drop from 3% to 1.5%. This will cover those one-time expenses and can be repaid out of the second year savings of Plan C. The governor’s budget also increases in per pupil state ADA. Are there any areas in our own budget (maybe athletics) that can be cut so that academic programs can be restored and enhanced?
An what could the added $120,000 saving buy each and every year for the students and teachers?
How Could this Help Our District in their Quest to Pass a High School Bond?
Reducing class sizes core academic courses at the high school will improve academics. Improved academics will not only make for a better school, but also attract more students. Knowing that 9th grade class sizes will be smaller might entice most of our 8th grade students to stay in our high school next year rather than leaving our district. A growing high school enrollment base would be beneficial to support the argument to increase our developer fees and for voters to pass a tax to partially pay for a New permanent High School .
The cost to move portables to football field during high school construction is substantial. This money is state money and your tax money. Every dollar spent on temporary relocation out of bond money is a dollar that cannot be used for actual construction. There are a lot of boarder line voters on this issue in our community. This issue alone could cause voters to vote no and harden some no voters from ever voting yes. Measure S lost by about 400 votes. Every vote will be needed for our next Measure V (for victory or Vasquez).
And what happens if we do not improve the educational process and keep classroom size reduction in a K-3?
Continuing decline enrollment
No need to ever pass a bond for an unneeded permanent High School
There is an old saying, "If you are given lemons, make lemonade".
We need to give our students the best education we can possibly give them with the limited resources that we have. Unfortunately, our lemon basket does not currently contain any permanent high school dollars. Maybe if we make the best of the lemons that we have, we may one day open that basket and find those high school construction dollars there.
Footnotes
1 This $35,000 per portable moved is same number the district just used in formulating consolidation plans A thru C. It assumes moving a portable to a virgin site that does not have existing utility hook-ups (like a football field).
2 This $40,000 cost is based on the same number the district just used in formulating consolidation plans A thru C. It assumes moving a portable to a site that already has a pad with existing utility hook-ups. The cost per portable moved in those plans was estimated at $8,000.
3 This is also based on plans A thru C one-time costs. It is a rough estimate assuming $10,000 of additional custodial costs, $20,000 for professional movers and $30,000 for the contractual teacher rate for moves for a total of $60,000.
4 The five-year lease on these Scotsman portables expires October 2004.
5 Dr. Banderas listed a $280,000 saving estimate in utilities and operational costs if Vasquez were to close. Plan C (closing Acton) also takes these cost savings into account. The net savings would be much less than $280,000 and most likely less than $50,000.
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