What I want the SB to know.

[friend]

I have heard that SB members might be reading these posts. So if they are, then this is what I want them to know.

Since the SD has so many current lawsuits, and the community is splintered in so many directions, I do not think that it is too late to let the community air their views. Host a public comment night at WVHS and NVHS. Just listen.

I have talked to many people who live all over this SD. My consensus is that everybody blames a "small group of people." "Small Group" being defined as, a certain subdivision, NSFOC, the SB, anti-3rd HS folks, and the "Silent Majority." The reoccurring theme from these groups is that they are not being heard.

The community will never heal if it feels that it has not been heard. We are all in this together.

[Arch]

What I emailed the board and administration not too long ago:




Ladies and Gentlemen,

I just got through reading through the Brodie Trust lawsuit filed 4/7/08. As a resident with a vested interest in this district with my four kids I want to share my honest opinion of where we sit in District 204 at the current moment and how we can move ahead from here.

I believe this district is out gunned and multiple entities have proverbial guns that are pointed at our head ready to fire in a turkey shoot if we do not go back and buy the Brach Brodie land like we fought so hard to obtain the right to purchase for multiple years.

If we do anything else with a purchase of land elsewhere I believe we will be financially SUNK and the 3rd HS will be dead in the water along with everyone's kid's educational future.

From my understanding, both Brach and Brodie were going to be filing separately against us. Based on our last encounter with them, I hold the District's chances at 0 for coming through this with any financial life left.

Please, just buy the BB land, get this all behind us and move forward. It is the responsible thing to do to ensure the district's financial safety as well as our children's educational opportunities moving forward.

If you recall, I emailed you in mid-January 2008 regarding the AME/MWGEN land and the lawsuit liabilities I felt it would subject us to. I later followed up with information regarding the Peaker power plant operations, data surrounding its history as well as the multiple high pressure natural gas pipelines that bisect the properties. Two of these three lines are older than a line that blew without warning (due to corrosion) in Carlsbad, NM in 2000 in which 12 campers (adults and children) were literally cooked. They were over 650 feet away from this smaller 30" line when it exploded. Our site plans for AME/MWGEN have the building of the school only approximately 220 feet away from these old high pressure gas pipelines (2 of which are 36" pipes).

Please do not subject our district to this financial liability by purchasing any land from AME to make up the difference of the land that luckily MWGEN decided not to sell us for a school site.

Please do the financially responsible thing and purchase the BB land, get all of the pending lawsuits behind us so we can get a 3rd HS built and move on with the future of this district on a good note.

If there is a 'funding problem' we, the voters, will make up the difference. We have gotten out the vote before and we can and will do it again to ensure we have a properly funded and equitably constructed 3rd HS as was voted on back in March 2006.

Please consider this bright light in the dark forest our district currently is sitting.

[sleeplessinnpvl]

Apr 12, 2008 22:26:18 GMT -6 Arch said:

What I emailed the board and administration not too long ago:




Ladies and Gentlemen,

I just got through reading through the Brodie Trust lawsuit filed 4/7/08. As a resident with a vested interest in this district with my four kids I want to share my honest opinion of where we sit in District 204 at the current moment and how we can move ahead from here.

I believe this district is out gunned and multiple entities have proverbial guns that are pointed at our head ready to fire in a turkey shoot if we do not go back and buy the Brach Brodie land like we fought so hard to obtain the right to purchase for multiple years.

If we do anything else with a purchase of land elsewhere I believe we will be financially SUNK and the 3rd HS will be dead in the water along with everyone's kid's educational future.

From my understanding, both Brach and Brodie were going to be filing separately against us. Based on our last encounter with them, I hold the District's chances at 0 for coming through this with any financial life left.

Please, just buy the BB land, get this all behind us and move forward. It is the responsible thing to do to ensure the district's financial safety as well as our children's educational opportunities moving forward.

If you recall, I emailed you in mid-January 2008 regarding the AME/MWGEN land and the lawsuit liabilities I felt it would subject us to. I later followed up with information regarding the Peaker power plant operations, data surrounding its history as well as the multiple high pressure natural gas pipelines that bisect the properties. Two of these three lines are older than a line that blew without warning (due to corrosion) in Carlsbad, NM in 2000 in which 12 campers (adults and children) were literally cooked. They were over 650 feet away from this smaller 30" line when it exploded. Our site plans for AME/MWGEN have the building of the school only approximately 220 feet away from these old high pressure gas pipelines (2 of which are 36" pipes).

Please do not subject our district to this financial liability by purchasing any land from AME to make up the difference of the land that luckily MWGEN decided not to sell us for a school site.

Please do the financially responsible thing and purchase the BB land, get all of the pending lawsuits behind us so we can get a 3rd HS built and move on with the future of this district on a good note.

If there is a 'funding problem' we, the voters, will make up the difference. We have gotten out the vote before and we can and will do it again to ensure we have a properly funded and equitably constructed 3rd HS as was voted on back in March 2006.

Please consider this bright light in the dark forest our district currently is sitting.

Nicely written, arch.

I hope someone actually reads it and it doesn't end up in their delete box. I bet they are getting a boatload of emails. They did a nice presentation comparing all the land options not too long ago. Because things have changed, they should do another one with the AME land only in comparison. We do have the right to know the numbers.

[friend]

After last nights SB meeting..........this is what I want you to know.


NOT everybody asking you to slow down belongs to the NSFOC. However, based on the way those "slow down" people were received at the meeting, I could see the NSFOC becoming larger.


What about the lawsuits from BB? Your peers want answers on how you are going to manage that. I read in the paper awhile back that MM said that BB can't sue us if we did not like the price and walked away from the deal. Well BB has and it is for alot of money.


NOT one SB member or DR. D took the opportunity to acknowledge the public ugliness and divide that has gone on in the community.

Peers want to be heard AND feel that they have been heard. I find it insulting that so many people asked you to slow down and you took those comments and threw them out the window! You did not even say we will think about what everybody has said and decide next week. Your immediate push to buy the AME land last night suggests that this meeting outcome was predetermined.


I have lived here a long time. I have been personally been affected by the growth in this SD. My area had changed ES several times and MS once. Now my HS is changed too. I will now literally drive by WVHS to get to MVHS. For your information that area is Chicory, Villages of Meadowlakes & Stonehaven in case you did not know. The past effects of your decisions are still very raw for some of us in this community.

[rew]

What I want them to know is how obvious their lies are.

It is very apparent that this deal has been in the works for probably a month. Dash even thanked the engineering firm, the architectural firm etc. They are posting a site plan today, they said. This represents work, which represents time.

I truly suspect that AME approached the SB and offered to sell at their asking price and the SD asked MWGen to pull out and "please be sure to blame it on this nasty small group of parents for us"

MMs quote that all options were on the table and he had not seen any offers from AME was carefully crafted BS. He had verbally heard all about what they were going to do on Monday, he just hadn't physically seen the papers.

How could the church have contracts approved, they have to have trustee meetings etc, attorneys invovled the SB has to have their attorneys involved.

These lies will haunt the district for a long time.

ETA: And it just didn't have to be. It has been six months since the jury verdict and that's plenty of time to vet decisions, have community imput and build consensus, but you didn't trust the community. You felt the need to go around us.

[cb]

After sitting through the board meeting last night, it became apparent to me that it doesn't matter who is the majority or who is the minority or what anyone says regardless of it's merits or lack thereof. You might as well delete this thread because it is obvious they are not listening. Hopefully the Brodie attorneys will file an injunction. That will be the only way to stop this Board.

[concerned2]

Do you really think they will file in injunction? I don't think they care if we purchase other land, they just want us to purcahse their's. They really don't care that we are p*$ssing our money away.

[specailneedsmom]

I agree with CB. Wasted energy. If you believe that stopping AME is saving the district from more costly mistakes, then that's where you should be focusing your efforts. At this point, I would say that the best united effort would be NSFOC who already has a foundation laid. No need to reinvent the wheel.

[kimmie]

I though the SB had a hidden agenda, I now know they do as well as being stupid. I wish they could see from the outside how bad it is. They are so rapped up in their ---- they don’t have a clue. People with the way you are going we won't have any money to educate the kids of 204! That's why you are here, not to spend wildly!

[cb]

Apr 15, 2008 7:32:12 GMT -6 concerned2 said:

Do you really think they will file in injunction? I don't think they care if we purchase other land, they just want us to purcahse their's. They really don't care that we are p*$ssing our money away.

I have no idea if they will or not. I wonder, as you do, if they would prefer that we continue to pursue Eola. Maybe from their perspective, they can collect damages and then sell the property to someone else. However, it may not be good public relations to go after the school district (and taxpayers) after the school construction has started. But then, maybe they give a rats a$$ about PR. Perhaps, we could send some emails to the BB attorneys requesting that if they truly believe their case has merit and they insist on sueing the taxpayers, to file an injunction to stop this board from financially ruining our district.
The children in our district should not have to pay for the incompetence of the school board that their parents mistakenly elected.

[Arch]

Apr 15, 2008 8:47:34 GMT -6 cb said:

Apr 15, 2008 7:32:12 GMT -6 concerned2 said:

Do you really think they will file in injunction? I don't think they care if we purchase other land, they just want us to purcahse their's. They really don't care that we are p*$ssing our money away.

I have no idea if they will or not. I wonder, as you do, if they would prefer that we continue to pursue Eola. Maybe from their perspective, they can collect damages and then sell the property to someone else. However, it may not be good public relations to go after the school district (and taxpayers) after the school construction has started. But then, maybe they give a rats a$$ about PR. Perhaps, we could send some emails to the BB attorneys requesting that if they truly believe their case has merit and they insist on sueing the taxpayers, to file an injunction to stop this board from financially ruining our district.
The children in our district should not have to pay for the incompetence of the school board that their parents mistakenly elected.

Pickle juice in the wound says they let us proceed and commit money, then nail us hard so we are wedged and the resulting damage to the district is amplified.

[slp]

I would like the board to know that I just simply don't understand what changed between the time of quick-take and a few months later when the jury verdict was awarded?

I don't understand why they walked from BB other than the fact that they "lost". I don't understand why we stated we could and would afford worst case scenario on BB and yet when that opportunity presented itself we walked.

I don't understand why you would not honor the will of the voters and build on BB when BB is still available AND have filed lawsuits against the district and WANT the district to purchase their land.

I know some will say, "We cannot afford BB", but I do not believe that since in the past they indicated we could afford BB and we clearly see that we are now exposing our district to paying out millions more than we would have paid for BB in the future.

I hold no personal grudges against the school board but I do think they have acted recklessly with taxpayer monies.

A third high school is NEEDED SOON; Brach Brody could have yielded this result without the threat of looming lawsuits holding over this district for years.

[3woodgal]

I would like the SB to know that I already knew that the AME deal was done BEFORE they did the vote last night (dumb to think that would be a secret). So when CV spoke out about the lack of appraisal and AT stated there was no time....of course there is no time since deal was done. No time for an appraisal on land that only D204 was pursuing from AME...or no time because we must open our door in 2009.....how long does an appraisal take? They were locked into voting to mass the motion since it was just for "show".

[sleeplessinnpvl]

What I don't understand is didn't they get an appraisal when they were looking at the AME land along with the MWG land? They had plenty of time to do that before they approved that sale. If they did, then maybe they can at least extrapolate what the better AME land would be worth for the new offer. But it sounds like they didn't even do that months ago. I guess as long as it is less than $560K/acre, who cares.

ETA: I meant I would have hoped that they looked at comparables before negotiating. You do not have to have an appraisal to make an offer. When you buy a home, the appraisal comes after the offer. What comparable was AT talking about at the meeting and had that sold and when?

[gman413]

Apr 15, 2008 8:27:57 GMT -6 kimmie said:

I though the SB had a hidden agenda, I now know they do as well as being stupid. I wish they could see from the outside how bad it is. They are so rapped up in their ---- they don’t have a clue. People with the way you are going we won't have any money to educate the kids of 204! That's why you are here, not to spend wildly!

And the "hidden agenda" is...??