McKinley construction - why the delay?
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Anonymous
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I understand the delays in construction. I'm still not clear, and wasn't able to attend the PTA meeting for the answer, why exactly they are only just now telling us? The more I think about it, the more ticked off I am that all winter long we got messages that construction was on schedule, when it appeared to everyone watching the project that it wasn't moving. Any explanation for why the sudden announcement when the problems appear to have cropped up earlier in the year? I love McKinley, but don't like that as a community we don't make as many waves and am wondering why and if anyone pushed back at what feels a bit like dishonesty.
I'm frustrated because it means that the school is going to be even more crowded in the fall and my child will have yet another whole school year without a real playground, crammed with 700 other kids into a space meant for less than 600. |
Anonymous
| So pushing back will help speed up the construction? |
Anonymous
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Staff can't win. They get beat up if they spend money to hire more project managers ("central office positions" "non-classroom positions") but they get beat up if the planners and construction supervisors they have are spread too thin to oversee the amount of construction and renovation going on across the county. Senior staff have to show up at PTA meetings, work sessions, CIP input sessions, advisory group meetings, BPLC meetings, and god knows what else four nights a week but still put in a full days work every single day. It's ridiculous what we ask them to do but people feel free to just continue to unload on them at every opportunity.
Yes, it sucks. Yes, they should have planned better. Yes, they should have communicated better. But at some point, we have to accept that maybe they really are doing their best, and remember the big picture -- APS has had to find seats for an additional thousand kids EVERY SINGLE YEAR FOR THE LAST 8 YEARS. They can't do that and simultaneously keep everyone happy. |
Anonymous
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I do not work for APS, but have worked in government before where these types of huge construction projects happen.
My guess is they didn't have all the information earlier in the year, meaning what was the final fix and the new projected timeline for completion. It's really not productive to go out to the public with partial information. It just creates more chaos as people make up information to fill the void. It's really not easy handling these huge projects and the expectations of the public. I certainly don't think APS or Colin Brown or perfect, but I also think they're probably doing the best they can. |
Anonymous
Not pushing back on the delay. Pushing back on the fact that, despite updates in weekly newsletters and at monthly PTA meetings that the construction timetable was on schedule, they had at least some inkling that it wasn't. Focus was always on progress that has been made. Someone can correct me, but I don't recall a single mention of potential problems and that they don't yet know the impact but will keep us advised. No doubt everyone is doing the best they can, but I really resent being kept in the dark. Integrity is integrity, and if I know that I can't trust the system to tell me the truth on one thing, it will make me more leery to trust the party line on other things. |
Anonymous
| APS planning/construction only told McKinley staff of the delays on the same day they told the public. They held the staff, community and PTA meetings all on one day. That's why you didn't see anything from the school. |
Anonymous
Because if they told people this, they would go ape shit and demand more information (possibly not you...but many people), which is a massive waste of everyone's time. I do not think they are obligated to give you and hundreds of other parents real-time updates of every development and I don't think this means they lack integrity. |
Anonymous
This makes sense to me. Why put the school administration in a position where they know info they can't share. |
Anonymous
Not obligated to give us updates, but I don't think it's unreasonable that if they do decide to give updates, that they are honest and accurate. |
Anonymous
So the choices from your perspective are: 1) Say nothing for weeks/months. 2) Alert the entire community that they've run into problems and they have no idea what the fix is or how long it will take. But stay tuned, and please don't think the worst or spread misinformation or call us regularly demanding updates. I'm sorry but both of those options suck. Until they know what they are dealing with, they're going to stick with the original plan publicly. |
Anonymous
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They may have been hopeful that they could turn it around, and known that there is no sense getting people worked up if there's a chance you can fix it. Of course, you're taking the chance that if you can't fix it and you let all that time pass, people will be even more pissed when they find out.
I guess, to reiterate PP's question--what difference does it really make, in the end? It is what it is. Does when you found out really change anything? Is there anything you, personally, could or would have done differently? |
Anonymous
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OP - I think you are being a little unreasonable here, or at least pointing your fingers at too many people. The updates you received were from the PTA. The PTA or McKinley staff didn't withhold information from you. Everybody is in the same boat.
APS construction & planning staff did withhold information. They do it all the time. |
Anonymous
| Sorry hun, you're not on the need to know list. |
Anonymous
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There is an earlier thread on here that happened right after the McKinley PTA meeting. It goes on for 19 pages or so with discussion about this issue-- although the South Arlington parents kind of hijacked it at the end to make fun of North Arlington parents for being whiney. I think the thread title is something like "Never Believe APS Construction Timelines"
From what I heard from someone involved, McKinley staff and the McKinley building planning committee (BPC) heard about the delay the same night as the parents at the PTA meeting. The County briefed the McKinley staff and BPC at 6:30PM and the PTA meeting started at 7PM. It was a totally shitty position to put Colin Brown in, especially less than a week after his wife died. I was at the PTA meeting, and the guy from APS planning came off as an arrogant jerk who I thought was extremely dismissive of parent questions. My theory is that they didn't want to face opposition about moving the planning units from Glebe and Tuckahoe, and so by putting off the announcement about the construction delay until mid-April, they have effectively killed any time for a real conversation about whether it makes more sense to hold off moving the additional 100 kids into the school next year (as opposed to waiting one more year until construction is finished, which is what those planning units seem to want). Note: I am not in one of those planning units, just conveying my observation from attending the meeting and hearing the discussion. In any event, I agree that the entire situation has been handled poorly by APS. I don't think the McKinley PTA and staff had any control over the situation though. It is really our job as parents to attend all these APS construction meetings and ask the hard questions so that the APS teaching staff can focus on educating our kids. I think more parents need to become active in these conversations because we are facing huge challenges with high school capacity for these same kids in a few years. |
Anonymous
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Here's the link to the prior thread:
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/547393.page |