Bowser cuts school renovation funds - Murch, others delayed or cancelled while Ellington tops $178 M

[Anonymous]

I have stopped by Ellington today and walked around it. I believe that we are at 25-40% of the way to a completed renovation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have stopped by Ellington today and walked around it. I believe that we are at 25-40% of the way to a completed renovation.

Oh please. Even construction experts can't always make that determination. Otherwise you'd never see the budget increase by 50% in the six months after breaking ground.

[Anonymous]

Ellington is just as much a political jewel in the making as an educational goal: few cities will be able to claim such a marvel as this one, once completed. That's what spending a couple of hundred million will get you. (omfg, that is George Bush in Iraq kind of money. Are the contractors playing football with bricks of hundreds?). Anyway, Bowser and Kaya will get a good bit of national screen time out of its spectacle once completed. All about political futures, baby.

Unfortunately, city contractors are never shy about asking for more money in order to complete projects. If you're upset about an extra $30 million added to the price tag, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

[Anonymous]

How much over budget was the modernization of Wilson or Janney?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much over budget was the modernization of Wilson or Janney?

Do you have any appreciation for how much money $200+ million dollars is? Do you really think Wilson or Janney came anywhere close?

[Anonymous]

At the very least I hope that the DC general services agency is managing the Ellington construction directly. While I don't have a lot of confidence in them on cost overruns, they would still be better than if the Ellington board is overseeing the project, given the board's obvious challenges with governance, transparency and insularity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much over budget was the modernization of Wilson or Janney?

Do you have any appreciation for how much money $200+ million dollars is? Do you really think Wilson or Janney came anywhere close?

According to this WAMU article, the Wilson renovation was completed in 2008 and cost $115M. http://wamu.org/news/11/08/18/woodrow_wilson_high_school_reopens_after_115_million_renovation.php

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much over budget was the modernization of Wilson or Janney?

Do you have any appreciation for how much money $200+ million dollars is? Do you really think Wilson or Janney came anywhere close?

According to this WAMU article, the Wilson renovation was completed in 2008 and cost $115M. http://wamu.org/news/11/08/18/woodrow_wilson_high_school_reopens_after_115_million_renovation.php

Yup, and that was for a school more than three times the size of Ellington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much over budget was the modernization of Wilson or Janney?

Do you have any appreciation for how much money $200+ million dollars is? Do you really think Wilson or Janney came anywhere close?

According to this WAMU article, the Wilson renovation was completed in 2008 and cost $115M. http://wamu.org/news/11/08/18/woodrow_wilson_high_school_reopens_after_115_million_renovation.php

Yup, and that was for a school more than three times the size of Ellington.

And yet still stuffed to the gills

[Anonymous]

Because Ellington is an application school it seems their numbers would always be expected to be low compared to a school like Wilson that is a "by-right" school for several neighborhoods. It's bizarre to me that such an enormous expense would be permitted for Ellington when the number of children it will serve will likely always be limited. Why doesn't it start in middle school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because Ellington is an application school it seems their numbers would always be expected to be low compared to a school like Wilson that is a "by-right" school for several neighborhoods. It's bizarre to me that such an enormous expense would be permitted for Ellington when the number of children it will serve will likely always be limited. Why doesn't it start in middle school?

Because most kids (and their parents) can't decide on an arts career track in 5th grade?

[Anonymous]

There is no way to justify the expense for so few students. So if Ellington is not changed to general hs, and kaya won't change feeder policy, or move OOB kids out of Wilson, what is solution? Nothing b/c she has no plan. Come on kaya.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because Ellington is an application school it seems their numbers would always be expected to be low compared to a school like Wilson that is a "by-right" school for several neighborhoods. It's bizarre to me that such an enormous expense would be permitted for Ellington when the number of children it will serve will likely always be limited. Why doesn't it start in middle school?

The enormous expense is especially bizarre in a time of DC budget tightening, when you consider that 15 to 20 % of Ellington students are not even DC residents.

[Anonymous]

Ellington bashers can hate on this amazing school all they want, but they misunderestimate the political power of Peggy Cooper Cafritz in DC.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:Matt Frumin dug through the budget and pulled together a lot of numbers which he has analyzed here:

http://www.matthewfrumin.com

This is the clearest explanation that I have seen of the impact of Bowser's budget. I support Duke Ellington and want it to have a world class facility. But Frumin makes clear that budget realities combined with Ellington's increasing cost are really negatively impacting other school modernization. It seems entirely reasonable to revisit the budget and reconsider whether Ellington really need all of those funds.

Agreed, and I'm an Ellington fan. My child was accepted there, although he chose to go elsewhere, and I wish the school every success.

For comparison purposes:

$178+ million to modernize Ellington according to the Frumin piece (http://www.matthewfrumin.com/)

vs.

$150 million for a fabulous project to transform the Commons at Yale into a world class performing arts space, with $20 million left over for programming and operations. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/arts/design/stephen-a-schwarzmangives-150-million-for-yale-cultural-hub.html

For those saying (absurdly) that the Ellington renovation is "almost complete," they haven't finished the first year of the initially projected 2+ project years, and by all published accounts, they are behind schedule for a variety of reasons.