What’s happening White Plains High

“ The original plan works”

Afternoon everyone, it’s been awhile… The school board and its members have been very helpful in sharing information and meeting with me over the past few months regarding the tentative capital project plan for our area, they have all been very pleasant to speak to regarding any subject related to our schools. From what I understand no contracts have been awarded or plans finalized and for that I am thankful to the board for such careful consideration. The current plans show modifications to both existing schools which would basically condense all students into those two facilities and abandon the idea of our students having an actual dedicated High School. I do not agree with this proposal as it will definitely affect our long term growth as a community. It would limit future expansion on multiple levels and the costs to correct it would be out of reach for another fifty years. The long term solution it seems would be to build a high school with classrooms for 10-12 and gymnasium with AG center included as those two are already being proposed. Leave room to add pods onto new school in future when student count increases. Move 9th grade to the middle school. Leave the elementary and middle schools as they are without any alterations or structural changes, as long as no modifications are made the ICC 500 compliant storm shelter isn’t necessary at those two facilities. Build the new shelter into the new classrooms at the high school. There will also be no need to modify the leachfield at elementary/middle. No need to pay engineers to redesign or retrofit that system to accommodate the additional occupancy load. Also if the elementary is modified and storm shelter added, the storm shelter will require its own water and sewer system separate from existing per IBC. We need a long term solution, 50-60 years.

Court records from 2010 US District Court, So far nothing in this consent agreement suggest any new construction be halted directly by order. The agreement has to deal primarily with finding/training and retaining a more diverse faculty/staff. However the last paragraph of the Procedural history does indicate that the board would have to request project specific approval before beginning any new construction projects. We need to find out which members on the board at that time put in the request to complete the White Plains Educational Park and also which members did not and why they did not follow through with the requests. Anyone that has factual information regarding this history please let me know.

This is why we INVEST in our youth in White Plains!

and the Volleyball teams will be there very soon.
Athletics is an extremely valuable part of the education experience. The mindset is “We expect to win”, Love it!

CARES ACT funding has been and may still be available until Sept. of this year, not sure how much is available currently. We should at least be able to get partial funding for construction of an actual stand alone High School for White Plains. Adding on pods is a perfect way to cap any potential growth for our schools as this will demonstrate how much our current system is invested in the total education experience, basically any potential new community members will move somewhere else because we’ll lack opportunities that other larger schools have to offer. In 2018 Holt High School in Tuscaloosa was built at a cost of just over $18million and it seats up to 500 students. With inflation that should be around $23.5 million today for a school that could seat 400. The money has been available for 3 years. It seems that the funds can also be used for New construction. All of the details are in ESSER 3 of the CARES ACT. Research it, LETS GO!!

Calhoun county Board of Education:

If nothing changes, nothing changes. With board member elections coming up we have an opportunity to actually make change that will impact the next several years of our childrens education. I truly hope that decisions are not made and votes are not cast solely based on popularity.

Let’s cast votes based on qualifications, serving as a board member for fifteen or twenty years doesnt necessarily qualify any particular candidate for being able to bring about change at the pace our area will require going forward. If nothing changes, nothing changes. I encourage everyone to search out the history of our districts past educational performance, progress and most importantly the rate at which any progress has occured.

Think of it as a corporation electing a new CEO. We the share holders want to see a profit right. How long do you think a company would keep a CEO around if they were not generating profit? What is the rate of return? What is our forecast for growth? Search out how long current members have been on the board. Seek out the impact and changes they have and have not supported. It is all in the minutes. Find out where Alabama ranks nationally in education and how long we have been ranked as such. Sure we have made strides but we can make leaps, we can be the standard with the right people on BOARD. So when you vote please remember that If nothing changes, nothing changes.

White Plains High School graduating class of 1929!
I imagine the school was nice back then.

Let’s build a new High School by 2029. Let’s focus on doing it right instead of focusing on doing it cheap. Please

Afternoon everyone, a new White Plains High School is in the conversation according to the minutes!! As long as our metrics are relative to Alexandrias we can justify the construction of a new High School. Are our numbers similar? A new school is the right thing to do. This isn’t about emotions or finance, it’s about what’s right and what’s wrong. Attempting to renovate/modify the middle school by building pods and adding an additional 400 individuals onto a sewer system that was designed for half that is not the solution, that is a hack job. High School faculty, staff and students have many more educational needs than the earlier grades in order to better prepare them for their next step. Even more so at the current growth rate of technology and the changes within our society. We must adapt to these changes as well. It isn’t change that hurts, it’s the resistance to change. I have heard some say that they are concerned with charter schools overtaking the public system, if we do not invest in our public system you can rest assured that someone will invest in a private system. And the legislature will send our tax dollars to use in private systems. I have no issue with charters as long as professional teachers are the ones educating the students and are compensated appropriately for the task. If the public system doesn’t support the schools growth someone in the private sector will. And by then it will be way too late.

Good afternoon everyone, hope you had a great Spring Break! Sorry for delays in gathering information regarding WPHS. Mrs. Lisa and Mrs. Kristy at CCBOE have been extremy helpful in locating these documents, so a HUGE thanks to them for their time and assistance. 2005-2008 The WPMS and Alexandria Middle School were in the capital budget plans, I’m not sure as to when Alexandria completed theirs. The budget totals however varied greatly due to the economics at the time and all things associated with construction costs I’m sure. For the 5 year Capital plan 2011-2016 White Plains High School is included in the draft with Alexandria Middle School along with stipulations. I’ll update tomorrow once I complete the review of minutes.

"ROI"

Return on investment!, the most precious commodity any of us possess is time, time to invest in one another. Time is something neither Walmart nor Amazon can stock or sell. The decision to construct a new High School facility for the White Plains community should not be based in emotion or finance. It should be based on an ROI mindset. Invest in developing great human beings and the return will take care of itself. The construction of a new facility is an investment in the development of thousands of individuals who have the potential to change this world. We can't view this as a debt. We can easily expect a forty to fifty year lifespan out of a new facility. Over the life of the facility the costs would be minimal on an annual basis. It will serve four to five generations. Get out of the box, go BIG or go Home!

Afternoon everyone, I contacted the CCBOE again today regarding the minutes for 2005-2010, Mrs. Christy said they would have them Monday or Tuesday of next week, so I should be able to review the following week. I’ll keep everyone posted with my findings, Thank you for your patience as we work through this.

Afternoon everyone, we are still waiting on the Capital Outlay plans for the years 2005-2010, I requested those records on 3/6/23 so hopefully we'll have some results soon. Hang in there!

Afternoon everyone, here is 2002-2003 Capital outlay, I am still waiting for the complete board meeting minutes for 2005-2010, I received some partial minutes for 2006 and 2007 but nothing of any real substance.