Reply to It's Skyview High.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Skyview cost the School System $150 million and the renovations (inside and outside) will easily cost $60 million at the very least! The interior will need work (upgrades/modifications to the Elementary side of the building, band/orchestra add on or build out, add a wrestling room and the build out of the 2 side buildings with 8-10 classrooms in each building) and outside additions (Football/Soccer/Lacrosse/Field Hockey Stadium, Baseball field (most likely turf), Softball field (most likely turf) and tennis courts).

AND BY THE WAY THE NEW HS IN PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY that was ready to be constructed and is now not going to be built was going to cost Prince William County $358 million which DOES NOT include the cost of the land, which was purchased a few years ago for $16 million (obviously it is worth more now!).

So regardless of your views Skyview is still a BARGAIN for FCPS and Fairfax County![/quote]

It’s not a bargain unless there was a clear need, which was asserted but never demonstrated. How much another school that WASN’T built might have cost in another county is largely irrelevant. [/quote]
Don't tell me about there not being a need until your child spends half their school day in a trailer like mine does.[/quote]

They could have changed the boundaries like they did elsewhere. Herndon has 600 vacant seats.[/quote]

Herndon is too far away to relieve Chantilly HS. I know you don't mind sending your kids halfway across the county, but that's idiotic and I hope it gets addressed in the next review, rather than wasting money expanding where they go now.  It will be fun to watch your tune change about filling empty seats first then.[/quote]

Chantilly kids could have moved to Westfield (some still might) and part of Westfield could have moved to Herndon.  It would have saved a lot of money.

But you’re right - if they instead plow all this money into Skyview you can be quite sure people elsewhere aren’t going to put up with their kids getting moved to fill empty spaces in Herndon.  They will quite properly insist on spending whatever it takes to avoid that, so get ready to get out your checkbooks. [/quote]
There will be zero support from the school board to spend money so kids can continue to be bussed halfway across the county when empty seats are right there. Zero.[/quote]

Just wait and see.  The empty seats were right there when Chantilly was overcrowded, and look at what they did instead.  And Chantilly wasn’t even the goose laying the golden eggs. [/quote]
Well maybe you'll get lucky and someone will build an expansion right next to your golden goose, then abandon it and sell it to FCPS for half price so you get your wish.  I wouldn't hold my breath.[/quote]

That’s not what happened here, and we are seeing that KAA wasn’t anywhere near the bargain they claimed at first.  [/quote]
Only you are seeing that.  The board and the rest of us all understood there were more costs than the $150 million sale price. They talked about the renovation costs during the board meetings and gave estimates.  You are trying to frame it as a bad investment, but it was a bargain.  You refuse to acknowledge it because you wanted the money spent somewhere else first.  Too bad for you, but good for FCPS.  I'm sure someone just like you has complained about every single renovation or expansion that has ever happened, including past ones to whichever school your kids attend.  Fortunately those people lost too.[/quote]

Wrong, and at best you’re saying some people knew FCPS was lying from the get-go about the purported savings associated with the KAA purchase and just went along with a nod and a wink because they liked what they were getting out of it.  Not a good look. [/quote]
I watched the meetings. I saw the facilities guy give the estimates.  The real question is why are you so laser focused on this school and not Dunn Loring? The obvious answer of course has to do with your zip code. Why aren't you and your neighbors hammering so hard on that complete waste of money?  Oh yeah, that school won't be filled with kids you were hoping to be the "empty seat" fillers you desperately wanted before the next review.[/quote]

Let’s make this easier for you.  They had put out numbers about the purported savings as soon as they approved the purchase of KAA.

The number was always made-up because the estimate of how much a new western HS would cost had never been audited.  It was always intended to be a huge number to underscore the impracticality of building a new HS and justify all the additions that other schools like Oakton and Herndon were getting in the interim.

Only after they’d put out their statement about how much money the KAA purchase would “save” did Erik Gordon start talking about how much additional money they’d need to invest in order for the KAA to handle 2000 kids.  He initially said $30-50 million.

As it turns out, the CIP that was just approved estimates additional expenditures closer to $50 million than $30 million, and there’s no guarantee that number won’t go up.  Past history with FCPS projects suggests it will.

Even so, FCPS is still touting “savings” on its web page that do not take into account these additional expenditures.

You can argue it will still be cheaper than a new school built from scratch, and that may be right, but that by itself certainly doesn’t establish a need for the school, nor does it mean they have been honest about the purported “savings.”

Maybe they’ll true it up at some point, but it’s another example of their general sloppiness and lack of transparency when dealing with the public. [/quote]

The need is defined by the membership relief to the overcrowded schools.  Not the dollars.

The school is needed--very much.  Somehow, that gets ignored in your post.  It is egregious that this opportunity has been twisted because of Reid's boundary mess.  Boundaries should have--and could have--been set last Fall. But, instead Chantilly is likely to be more crowded this year than last.  Her plan is extremely misguided, but the school is very much needed.  [/quote]

Want and need are two different things. It’s very hard to say there was a need when, prior to KAA announcing it was closing down, there was zero urgency to building a new HS. They were doing nothing to locate a suitable a site and constantly pushing out the date to begin construction so that it was always a decade away.  When there is a real need, they know how to act more quickly, as the acquisition and construction of Bailey’s Upper demonstrated. [/quote]
It seems like you are outnumbered both by the general public and the school board on whether this need/want is more urgent than those other schools 3+ years out in the CIP list that have been pushed back a year or two in funding.  The school board determined those items were more "want" vs "need" than the new high school, and more people agree with them than not.
Regardless, it's done now.  Why don't you leave this thread for the people who are excited for their new school and make your own grumble thread about what could have been.  Everyone else is tired of your off-topic ranting.[/quote]

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