MCPS has numerous schools off the CIP list because of no money, but MCPS is building a pool at Piney Branch ES

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would he do that? It makes no sense. The county runs pools.

Yes, pools are built and operated by the county's recreation department. There is this old pool at Piney Branch, built way back when, before the building was a school. But no way should the school district be rebuilding that pool, with all the schools that are being left off the CIP budget. But there it was, in Taylor's CIP presentation this morning: "Piney Branch ES, to be replaced, with a community pool."

What is the story on that? How does MCPS have money for a community pool at Piney Branch Elementary School?

A rec center/community pool? One that happens to be located where later PBES opened? So they are replacing the old pool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would he do that? It makes no sense. The county runs pools.

Yes, pools are built and operated by the county's recreation department. There is this old pool at Piney Branch, built way back when, before the building was a school. But no way should the school district be rebuilding that pool, with all the schools that are being left off the CIP budget. But there it was, in Taylor's CIP presentation this morning: "Piney Branch ES, to be replaced, with a community pool."

What is the story on that? How does MCPS have money for a community pool at Piney Branch Elementary School?

A rec center/community pool? One that happens to be located where later PBES opened? So they are replacing the old pool

It's coming out of school dollars. And if your DC was in a moldy, sick school building, maybe you would get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would he do that? It makes no sense. The county runs pools.

Yes, pools are built and operated by the county's recreation department. There is this old pool at Piney Branch, built way back when, before the building was a school. But no way should the school district be rebuilding that pool, with all the schools that are being left off the CIP budget. But there it was, in Taylor's CIP presentation this morning: "Piney Branch ES, to be replaced, with a community pool."

What is the story on that? How does MCPS have money for a community pool at Piney Branch Elementary School?

A rec center/community pool? One that happens to be located where later PBES opened? So they are replacing the old pool

It's coming out of school dollars. And if your DC was in a moldy, sick school building, maybe you would get it.

If the infrastructure is there it may not be that much more to keep it.

[Anonymous]

[google]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would he do that? It makes no sense. The county runs pools.

Yes, pools are built and operated by the county's recreation department. There is this old pool at Piney Branch, built way back when, before the building was a school. But no way should the school district be rebuilding that pool, with all the schools that are being left off the CIP budget. But there it was, in Taylor's CIP presentation this morning: "Piney Branch ES, to be replaced, with a community pool."

What is the story on that? How does MCPS have money for a community pool at Piney Branch Elementary School?

A rec center/community pool? One that happens to be located where later PBES opened? So they are replacing the old pool

It's coming out of school dollars. And if your DC was in a moldy, sick school building, maybe you would get it.

If the infrastructure is there it may not be that much more to keep it.

$3-$5 million.

[Anonymous]

Surprised there is not a 'some kids don't have swim suit' issue

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And why are they spending money on building early childhood centers? Pre-K can be operated by high quality child care providers at lower cost and is much more convenient for working families. And the more Pre-K classes there are in schools, the more it destabilizes the child care market and leads to higher prices for families and child care program closures. It's one thing to go ahead with it despite that if you actually have the classroom space available. But it's just stupid to spend tens of millions of dollars on facilities cost for something that's not necessary and is arguably harmful to the county.

Blueprint requires and lack of high quality Pre-K. Go listen to the updated they’ve provided specifically on this area

The Blueprint requires that between 50-100% of each county's Pre-K slots be located at private child care providers. Montgomery County is at 5%, with only a couple hundred slots through private providers so far. Their focus absolutely should be on growing the private side, not wasting our tax dollars on unnecessary physical facilities for public early childhood centers.

Most Pre-K classes are in the elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The P.E. teacher does swim units throughout the year where students do use the pool. The parent community was very passionate about keeping the pool.

The sensible thing to do would be to get rid of the pool because that building is already got a really bizarre layout that doesn't actually function very well and they could renovate the pool area into more functional space. But emotionally people are very attached to the pool

That is a lower income area so its nice to give families access to the pool but its open very limited hours so is it financially worth it?

The lower-income community nearby doesn't seem to utilize the current pool. And few, if any of them, showed up for the community meetings about the school/pool, despite extra effort to engage these families.

I live near long branch and that pool is well utilized by the community. But that pool is open on weekends in the summer and weeknights until 7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Surprised there is not a 'some kids don't have swim suit' issue

Community donations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would he do that? It makes no sense. The county runs pools.

Yes, pools are built and operated by the county's recreation department. There is this old pool at Piney Branch, built way back when, before the building was a school. But no way should the school district be rebuilding that pool, with all the schools that are being left off the CIP budget. But there it was, in Taylor's CIP presentation this morning: "Piney Branch ES, to be replaced, with a community pool."

What is the story on that? How does MCPS have money for a community pool at Piney Branch Elementary School?

A rec center/community pool? One that happens to be located where later PBES opened? So they are replacing the old pool

It's coming out of school dollars. And if your DC was in a moldy, sick school building, maybe you would get it.

Right- and if this had been brought up at a differnt time, I probably wouldn't have thought too much about it. But coming on the heels of the announcement to close SSIMS because it's too expensive/hard to fix is just wild..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tear down SSIMS and give piney branch a new pool when they already have one… make it make sense. Perhaps a Cake video…

They're not tearing down SSIMS.

I think they're going to have to completely renovate Sims in order to make it into a holding school for Middle School students.

I doubt that.

Taylor did not imply that the building would get major renovations. He said the building's life is coming to an end soon and they are going to try and use it as a holding school before it does.

[Anonymous]

How much does the pool cost and how much do the other "planned" renovations cost?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much does the pool cost and how much do the other "planned" renovations cost?

An elementary school costs ~$50 million these days in Montgomery County. This is a pool with lanes, probably $5 million, maybe a little less.

That $5 million could be better spent elsewhere in our schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The P.E. teacher does swim units throughout the year where students do use the pool. The parent community was very passionate about keeping the pool.

The PE teachers are not swim instructors. The students at Piney Branch do a "unit" in the pool, but they are not taught to swim. They splash around in the water.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The P.E. teacher does swim units throughout the year where students do use the pool. The parent community was very passionate about keeping the pool.

Actually, the parents were agnostic about the pool. I went to the community meetings. The parents were outraged about having their children transported to a holding school they thought was too far away.

+1 Parents were between agnostic and opposed. The proponents were disproportionally white UMC retirees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much does the pool cost and how much do the other "planned" renovations cost?

An elementary school costs ~$50 million these days in Montgomery County. This is a pool with lanes, probably $5 million, maybe a little less.

That $5 million could be better spent elsewhere in our schools.

Ding ding ding.