New Woodburn Community School

DISTINCT PATTERN OF RECENT LOUSY NEW SCHOOL SITING AND BUILDING

Skyview Elementary opened in 2006 above Morgantown Industrial Park. Mylan Park Elementary opened in 2006 on a former strip mine of the sort on which toxic coal ash was commonly dumped. Both schools were built isolated from residential areas, and yet neither school has a ballfield: none of the playground areas were made big enough to contain one, no fields, and no walking tracks. Meanwhile the current Woodburn Elementary school set to be closed in two years has both a field and a walking track, and it was not built at a mine, nor above an industrial park. Evacuations due to industrial park smoke such as happened at Skyview and Westwood?: not possible. Air and soil complications from being built on a mine, such as at Mylan Park or at the proposed Mileground site?: not possible at Woodburn. Moreover, the proposed new school on Woodburn grounds does include a field, one that has room for a walking track.

And still the school board claims there is not enough space to rebuild on Woodburn schoolgrounds: “like a shoe that doesn’t quite fit.” But then these are the same school board members who oversaw the building of large remote Skyview Elementary above an industrial park, the building of large Mylan Park Elementary at a mine site, and the building of remote and isolated University High School which opened in 2008 on land that cost nearly $2 million to mine-fill and to this day bears and abuts the hazards of open mine portals, a “sludge pond,” tipples, and a slag pile. Lovely obstacles and dangers for cross-country practices, meets, and the occasional student explorer. Apparently the WV DEP has requested permission to survey these hazards and would likely use tax money in the future for the safety clean-up and fixes required. Once again, outside intervention required for the BOE. And apparently outside initiative. And more money. Quite a pattern. Read the rest of this entry »

WHAT’S THAT SMELL?

January 2010 Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan comment:

“The sewer smell at the [Mylan Park] school also remains problematic.”

In 2006, Mylan Park (Consolidated) Elementary opened at an old mine site where toxic coal ash was dumped, many tons. Read the rest of this entry »

The kids would pay. That has been established. And now who else?

PUBLIC NOT INVITED

Monongalia County Schools superintendent Devono has announced that he will hold a “green school kickoff” meeting/lunch at the Waterfront on Tuesday August 3rd at 10:00 with the principals of Easton and Woodburn schools, a few Mon Schools’ selected parents, a few Mon Schools’ selected teachers, a Centra bank official, a WVU architect, Morgantown Mayor Bill Byrne, possibly SBA Director Mark Manchin, and very few others.

This is very troublesome, as superintendent Devono has declared that this meeting is “technically not open to the public” even though he added, “however, we will not turn anyone away.”

That’s absurd, and essentially duplicitous.

Moreover, the superintendent repeatedly invited Mon school board members while noting that they were not required to attend, and yet the board did not discuss how many board members were considering attending…even as board president Parsons stated she thought the entire board should attend this type of meeting on the green school.

Of course, by law, the Board would be required to call a formal board meeting, which would not have been advertised, also legally required, if 3 or more board members attend.

So, the whole process in regard to this meeting is inexcusably sloppy, at best.

The planned green school meeting is disturbing on a number of additional accounts.

Who will be paying for this green school meeting at the Waterfront? The school district? Do they not have enough empty rooms and buildings of their own, free of charge, in which to hold a meeting at this time of year? Why is lunch being paid for and by whom? Read the rest of this entry »

DO THEY HAVE ANY IDEA?

Monongalia County Schools must insist that the SBA green school grant be divided in two. One part to build a green school on revitalized Woodburn school grounds. The other part to build another green school on sensible grounds where it is needed.

What we can expect of top quality green schools:

A green roof. Green roofs reduce sound pollution, air pollution, roof wear and tear, while controlling for temperature and water runoff:

Read the rest of this entry »

THE DANGEROUS AND DESTRUCTIVE INCOMPETENCE OF THE MONONGALIA COUNTY SCHOOLS BOARD OF EDUCATION

The New Woodburn Community School Initiative is opposed to Monongalia County Schools and the WV School Building Authority’s decision to build a new “green” elementary school (with state and federal stimulus funds) at the intersection of route 705 and 119 on the “Mileground” in Morgantown on expensive and undermined WVU farmland that WVU seems all too willing to sell. We are opposed to a school being built there for many reasons, especially including the myriad threats to our children’s health, safety, and well-being, which are spelled out in great detail at this website.

It’s ironic, the current Monongalia County School Board President Barbara Parsons is the Director of Educational Services at Monongalia General Hospital, and has been so for nearly 20 years. She helps people learn about health issues. She helps people get health screenings, and yet seems oblivious to the health dangers and costs of siting an elementary school at a busy intersection, dangers that would threaten or harm our children on a daily basis, and that would open Monongalia County Schools to liability and negligence lawsuits regarding our children’s health and safety now and for years to come.

So it is, regrettably, that we are forced to appeal to state and other agencies for intervention. Read the rest of this entry »

DAMAGING CHILDREN FOR LIFE

Bill Davenhall, “Busy Roads, Air Pollution and Environmental Health Risks,” Huffington Post, July 24:

“A number of important studies over the last several years have linked children’s respiratory health problems with high densities of vehicular roadway traffic…. If the research carried out in California is relevant to other states and communities (and it probably is), the discovery that childcare facilities within 600 feet (two football fields in length) of a major highway (defined as having more than 50,000 vehicles per day) have more sick kids should be a wake-up call for every community. The research also suggests that about 7 percent of all the California daycare facilities and 5 percent of the schools that children under 12 attend are ‘too close’ to a busy highway. …taking better care of a child’s lungs is a far better investment than spending money on treating the lifelong damage that bad air will contribute. The window of opportunity is very small — their first 12 years of life!” Read the rest of this entry »

PLANNING FOR THE PUBLIC NEEDS TO BE MADE MORE PUBLIC

PUBLIC PUSHED OUT

For a quick look at some degrees of separation and who’s who, see a few connections. Plus, this recent comment at Facebook. Which takes us back to Let’s Play in Traffic, Kids! and The Tip of the Iceberg.

MON SCHOOLS OPERATING IN SECRECT & LYING ABOUT SITES CONSIDERED

Superintendent Frank Devono and the School Board made a big point, very belatedly, of showing 19 sites that they claim to have considered for the green school.  However Mon Schools apparently to this day has still never mentioned Devono’s original preferred site, “across from Damon’s.” Doing so would give the game away about which students Mon Schools administration has apparently intended for the green school. Read the rest of this entry »

PICTURES OF MONONGALIA SCHOOLS LUNACY

What The…?

Read the rest of this entry »

And so is the rest of the Monongalia County School Board.

MARK TWAIN TELLS IT LIKE IT IS

My name is Mark Twain. You might remember me. I wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and a little ditty called The War Prayer.

I died some time ago but am back for a moment to endorse today’s Dominion Post editorial, “School board’s stars in alignment,” which calls for the Monongalia County Board of Education to return ex-board member Mike Kelly to the School Board, filling by appointment the vacant seat.

This is truly a brilliant suggestion, because Mike Kelly is a rubber stamp, and so is everyone else on the school board. And we all know and love what school boards are for, don’t we? School boards are meant to rubber stamp the divine leadership of any superintendent of a school district in thrall to high dropout rates, large class sizes, large schools, remote schools, and an ever decreasing number of schools. Who would not want to rubber stamp that potent brew? Not Mike Kelly! Not the entire school board! Read the rest of this entry »

DANGER ALERT: OBLIVIOUS OFFICIALS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

Are the officials stealing the 705 Connector/Mileground road expansion project from the public in a manner similar to that of the green school dealings? What are the consequences for any new elementary school, and for the public at large?

The public gets shut out of too many important decisions until too late. Such operation-on-the-hush causes even the institutional actors problems. For example, Bill Austin, the Director of the Monongalia Morgantown Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), in a March 17 note to the West Virginia Department of Highways (DOH): Read the rest of this entry »

WHO DO YOU KNOW?

What do new US Senator from WV Carte Goodwin & WV Governor (and US  Senate candidate) Joe Manchin & the WV School Building Authority & the Green School have in common? Read the rest of this entry »

THE GROTESQUE FOLLY OF A COMMERCIAL STRIP INTERSECTION SCHOOL

Will Mileground (and related) business interests force the WV Department of Highways to build the less safe of road expansion options? Will the DoH allow itself to succumb to such pressure? What is the position of WVU on the road expansion options? What is the position of Monongalia County Schools? And the County itself? The City?

These and various other public entities (see the MPO) would do well to take very public and very appropriate positions on this question, or risk opening themselves wide to public condemnation and legal action, not to mention the future increased potential for road danger and disaster. Read the rest of this entry »

TIMELY FACTS MATTER

Does Monongalia County Schools ever plan to announce an open election for a school board seat during the November general election?

Why can’t the officials and the media quickly and reliably inform the public about the law and proper procedure in this case? Read the rest of this entry »

SECRETS AND LIES OF SITING THE SCHOOL

And so it is that the BOE, both the board and superintendent Devono, are fully intent upon siting the school district’s forthcoming green school at one of Morgantown’s most congested and high traffic and pricey intersections (land acquisition cost $2.275 million for 7 acres). Also undermined! (requiring $650,000 for mine-fill; or more!) Such is the current direction of Mon Schools. And they are aided and abetted in this by WVU.

It gets worse.

In an email obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request, we learn in a 10/14/2009 email from WVU Director of Real Estate Services, Shannon Mundell, to WVU Vice President of Administration and Finance, Narvel Weese, that Mundell:

Had a brief discussion with Mr. Devono regarding WVU’s property near and around the Mileground. He [Devono] is needing approximately 8-10 acres (10 preferred for bus turnaround).

He was originally looking at the area across from Damon’s [down route 705], but as that is our sacred American Chestnut area, he is open to suggestions. Also, with school starting prior to 8:30, the Mileground area is another viable option (maybe behind Armory?).

Confidentially, the overflow from North [elementary] and [the entire student body of] Woodburn elementary will be placed in this school. …

Now isn’t that interesting. You see, the green school has all along been said in public by Mon Schools to be a consolidation of Easton elementary and Woodburn elementary, not a consolidation of Woodburn elementary and North elementary overflow. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s like bad farce, only worse. More damaging.

HALF WILLFULLY CLUELESS, HALF PRETENDING

At last evening’s BOE meeting, July 13, New School Board President Barbara Parsons opened discussion of the absent and reportedly resigned ex-board-member-elect Rebecca Myers, by referring to the “vacancy” Myers had left on the board.

BUT by the end of some minutes of conversation, Superintendent Devono had re-educated President Parsons so that Parsons eventually stated that there was no vacancy because Myers had not officially resigned, despite Devono’s telling the media a week earlier that Myers had resigned. Read the rest of this entry »

CIRCLING THE WAGONS AGAINST THE PUBLIC

At the school board meeting yesterday evening: board-member-elect Rebecca Myers resigns before being sworn in.  Nancy Walker out as President. Barbara Parsons elected President. Charlene Brown to be the new Principal at Woodburn Elementary, transitioning from Assistant Principal at University High School. Apparently to discuss FOIA matters with attorney the board went into (a second) executive session, one which was not on the agenda. To which, let this be said: No comment. No comment. No comment. Read the rest of this entry »

THE NEED TO LAWYER UP

Via A.F.T.: “The Monongalia County Board of Education recently paid $3,893.89 in a settlement with the American Federation of Teachers. The two groups settled after the A.F.T. said the board violated open meetings laws by failing to inform the public back in October. … [A.F.T.] claims the board also violates the laws by issuing different agendas to its members than to the public.”

Speaking of violations, has the BOE posted an announcement for this evening’s July 6th meeting in the newspaper?

THE RIDICULOUS GLIB IGNORANCE OF THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER

One always welcomes wise words from the DP. Let’s see what they have to say today. Title of the DP editorial, July 5, 2010:

“A tough lesson in government” – subtitle: “Foes of Mon County BOE’s decision on closing school should get on with it”

Wise words? One wonders: “get on with” what? The DP notes: Read the rest of this entry »

ONE WITH A BAD IDEA – THE OTHER MAKING IT WORSE

According to the Dominion Post today, Brookhaven Elementary needs an addition. Apparently it’s overcrowded. That overcrowding could be relieved by sending nearby Sabraton area children to a new elementary in Woodburn.

What elementary school is not already overcrowded or bursting at the seams? The Mon School District is on track to recklessly slash the number of elementary schools from 15 to 10 in seven years, 2005-2012. Read the rest of this entry »