Reply to Gray Proposes Reallocation of $100MM of DCPS Capital Modernization Funds

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Reply to "Gray Proposes Reallocation of $100MM of DCPS Capital Modernization Funds"

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[quote=GarrisonPTA]It's me, Ann McLeod, Garrison PTA President.  If I may, I am going to respond to a few items here:

1.  Emma Brown, the Post report, was doing her job - reporting breaking NEWS.  We would not have found out about this if it were not for her.  Personally I am quite grateful. There is a link to the letter that the Mayor sent to the council asking for the reallocation of funds, but for ease, here is a link to the letter.  Is it her job to find out why the Mayor made these choices?  Certainly we hope that that can be found out but surely getting that answer is near impossible. http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1026524/mayor-vincent-c-grays-capital-funds.pdf

2.  TO the poster who said "Why do people believe they should get something from reprogramming - redirecting funds from unspent categories - during the next 6 months rather than as part of the regular budget process and capital improvement plan?  I don't get the perspective that anyone was "robbed" here."

We specifically ARE being robbed. Garrison's Phase I modernization is scheduled for this summer - this is the way all phased modernizations work.  This has been scheduled for years; same as other schools who are on the "loser" list.  We have had many meetings about this, architects have already worked on plans, etc.  So, yes, the Mayor is asking that the funds that are "unspent" but the funds have already been set-aside for Garrison via AN APPROVED BUDGET, are now requested to be moved to cover the shortfall for other projects.

3.  No where in the document does it say when the modernization will now take place.  It just says that it will be in a future fiscal year.

4.  One poster said "A bummer for the Garrison parents but some schools have been waiting for 2 decades." So, you think we don't deserve to be modernized now??  Our school has not been renovated since it was built in 1964!!  We've been waiting 5 decades, not 2 decades.  To say one school is more deserving than another is absurd.  The crappy thing about all of this is that the Mayor is pitting one school against another, one neighborhood against another, etc.

Clearly we are not the only school affected and not the only community that is reeling from this news.  In a city where we had a budget surplus of over $400 million, there is no reason that these choices have to be made.

Personally, what angers me so much about all of this is that there is no explanation as to WHY the choices were made - no strategic reasons, no "OK folks, we need to do this but we guarantee you'll be in the next fiscal year and you'll get a full modernization so you are guaranteed that future renovations will not be rescheduled like this one has."  (Of course, it has been proven over and over again that we cannot trust what is said anyway, so why would we believe that?)  There is NO plan.

As always, we thank everyone out there who has been supporting Garrison for their continued support and ask you to write to your Council Member and Mayor Gray expressing your opinion on all of this.

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