You Don’t Say

May 10, 2011 — newcommunityschool

NEW WVU NURSERY SCHOOL LOCATED WITHIN A FEW YARDS OF A MAJOR INTERSECTION AND ARTERIAL HIGHWAYS

No wonder the West Virginia University administration refused to oppose selling their horrible intersection land for Eastwood Elementary, the new Mon Schools preK-5th grade school intended for the WV 705 / US 119 intersection site.

In fall of 2009 when WVU administrators were largely and stealthily steering Eastwood Elementary to its intended intersection site, some of these same administrators were congratulated or doing the congratulating at the September 2009 opening of the WVU “Nursery” School at the intersection of WV 705 / US 19 / US 7:

Evidently, WVU administrators are happy to place children in harm’s way on a daily basis: elevated levels of vehicle exhaust, which damage hearts and lungs, especially those of “sensitive receptors” young children. The science on this is not pretty. The health and education professionals at WVU should be ashamed, at the least.

See: Asthma Elementary and No Health and Safety and What Not to Do and Damaging Children for Life.

How appropriate that the children in the photo appear to be wearing hard hats. Or is it? Rather they should be wearing gas masks.

Any number of available locations on or near the WVU Evansdale campus are far more healthy for siting a nursery school. Who was the main administrator involved in siting the Nursery school and its two playgrounds within scant feet of arterial highways and their intersection? Was it the same WVU administrator or administrators centrally involved in directing the siting of Eastwood Elementary?

Let the administrator or administrators come forth proudly and self identify.

In the meantime, it seems that the School Building Authority of West Virginia (SBA) has recently created a new position, maybe been forced to by the West Virginia state Board of Education. It’s possible that our (and other) school movements have forced it into existence: an SBA job “vacancy” – or is it actually a new position? – “Technical Assistant, Senior“: note the job description; look at the first listed “knowledge” requirements:

Knowledge of the following is desirable:
School Building Authority Policies and Procedures
School Laws in WV State Code
Handbook on Planning School Facilities – WV State Board Policy 6200
In other words: Intensive Knowledge of the Eastwood School Siting Fiasco – The Central Statutes. (And any other pending siting fiascos.) The “Description of Duties Performed” can largely be interpreted as “Head-Off and Fend-Off Lawsuits and Community Movements.”
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Is it a new position as it looks and sounds? Did the new State Superintendent Jorea Marple (the Attorney General’s wife) force Mark Manchin, Director of the SBA, to create a position? Was a position created at the behest of the Attorney General lawyers, who represent both the SBA and the state Board of Education? Was it Director Manchin’s idea of self and agency defense? All of the preceding?
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WV state Board of Education Policy 6200 202.06 bans the “site” of a new school that is not:
“located away from hazards and undesirable environments, such as…arterial highways, heavily traveled streets, traffic and congestion…noise, toxic gas escapes from…odoriferous plants and industries…bulk storage plants for flammable liquid, and property zoned as industrial…[and/or] situations where a combination of factors such as those presented above could contribute to the possibility of human entrapment.”
What do the above banned school site conditions sound like? Oh that’s right: the intended Eastwood Mileground site.
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And it’s too bad for the WVU Nursery School children that it sounds a lot like their site as well. Read the rest of this entry »
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Green School In Court

May 10, 2011 — newcommunityschool

SUMMARY ARTICLE IN THE PAPERS

AP FEATURED NEWS / Tuesday May 10, 2011 / Green school back in court

by The Associated Press / MCT REGIONAL NEWS / By Jim Bissett / The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va. (MCT)

May 10–If Tony Christini has his way, every one of those bids the Monongalia County Schools Board of Education (BOE) opens today will be stamped, “Return to Sender.” At 2 p.m. in the school district’s central offices, BOE members will consider bids from contractors for site preparation work at the Mileground address that might be the future home of Eastwood Elementary School, which is set to open for classes in August 2012.

Eastwood is a planned, environmentally friendly “green” school that will consolidate the aging Woodburn and Easton elementary schools.

Around nine contractors have bid on the initial site preparation work, BOE construction manager Randy Graft said Monday.

That initial work includes all earth-moving and mine stabilization grouting at the site, he said.

Bids will then be sent to Charleston and the state School Building Authority for review, Graft said. After that, the BOE will hopes to award the low bid during its regular meeting May 24.

“Everything should be good to go after that,” he said.

But four days before that, May 20, another entity in Charleston will consider the project by looking at another set of parameters.

Judge James Stucky of Kanawha County Circuit Court will consider Christini’s request for a temporary restraining order against the project. The court date is 3 p.m. that day, Christini said.

If the request goes through, it will stop all the digging, drilling and other preparation work necessary at the site, which bumps the back of the National Guard Armory at the intersection of Mileground Road and W.Va. 705.

The BOE last November bought the 8.85-acre expanse from WVU for nearly $2.9 million, or $325,000 an acre. Read the rest of this entry »

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