Now What? Dist. 204 officials talk about Metea Val

[proschool]

rew said:

I didn't vote for "good enough".

Agreed. I am getting tired of this.

BB was 17 million dollars more than we expected. It will cost up to six million in legal fees to get out and six million more in to delay the start. We probably paid a million in design and architectural fees.

If we can find a site for $260,000/acre (the original offer form BB that the voters rejected) we can save maybe 4 million dollars and maybe nothing.

It might even cost more. We won't even know until we are finished. Any savings that we do have may be lost in the long run to increased gasoline an transportation costs. If Portables are added they will cost money to rent and even more money to set up.Are we still paying BB interest for the price of the land: that costs money too.

Railroad tracks and electrical wires may increase insurance costs. Crossing railroad tracks creates safety concerns that cost nothing unless your kid is involved in an accident: then it costs you everything.

Maybe we should set our sites on getting BB to take a little less. They know they will never get that much money for their land. They didn't get that much for the land on Route 59. Taking off the five percent that they would have to pay a real estate agent might just be enough to close the deal. Plus they don't have to sue the district for their attorney fees.

Perhaps we can all help out by approaching the BB foundation ourselves. Maybe they would as interested in listening to the citizens as they are to the lawyers who have an interest in racking up as much in legal fees as they can get.

To any extent it's time to get this behind us. I say if a land owner does not come forward with an offer to sell us a property that will definitely save us money, then we should proceed with the purchase of BB.

[doctorwho]

wvhsparent said:

doctorwho said:

or 1000 of those 2000 kids to show up with suitcases and passports to visually represent the travel distance they may get to cover to their new high school. Maybe with the lesser cost the school can include dormitories

Sorry doc.... I do respect your point of view; But enough with the travel bit already. I get you do not like a north site as you feel you would have to travel enormous distances to go to school. At this point I think that is also very premature, as no site has been chosen, and IF a Northern site IS the chosen one, there is no certainty that your area would be sent there.
Gatordog's previous figuring is a good example of that, which has your area still going to WVHS...Is that not good enough for you now?
If it ends up being north, and you want to cut your commute down, I may have a house for you.....mine.......as at the rate everything is going I may not be able to afford it any longer....I'll make you a good deal on it.......

sorry, I respect your opinion also - but I will not stop with that --
the boundaries that were drawn up included splitting Steck and McCarty - from walkers - non walkers ( what are the odds there ) - and it was still 400 students short - go back and look.

And I am not interested in your home or your neighborhood - no disrespect meant - but I have been in mine for almost 20 years and that is home. Also if the school is put there you assume I could sell someone on a area that would have their MS at the other end of the district and their HS even further - in this market ? Sure.

And please do not spin anything I say about other schools ( as you did above) - I do not do that to you.

WVHS is my FIRST choice and I have said that many many times - so please do not try and paint some other kind of picture - that is beneath how you usually post.I am as much a Warrior family as anyone - don't try and portray me as something else !

I would go to WVHS or NVHS under ANY boundaries - and I have said that numerous times also - and would go to MVHS is it was similaly equidistant to the other 2 schools - so why would you ask if WVHS was not good enough for me now? Where on earth did you get that comment - other than to try and discredit the fact that the northern site simply does not work student wise ? It likely is going there anyway the way I see it, so why try and discredit the fact that some are going to have a horrendous commute - if they keep their kids in 204 ?

[wvhsparent]

OK dr., if you are so certain that it is going to be north site (I am not there yet), I do feel BB is out for good, barring some change of heart by the trust (I don't think they have any though). Then now is the time to figure out a way to make it work.
That 15 years from now angle could work for ANY site as long as the performance of the district as a whole remains high.

I did not mean to make it sound like you did not like WVHS I was referring to travel time to there and it came out wrong....I know you are a proud Warrior parent as am I.
I just think it's time to move past BB and let's find a way to make site #2 work, wherever it is.

[proschool]

wvhsparent said:

OK dr., if you are so certain that it is going to be north site (I am not there yet), I do feel BB is out for good, barring some change of heart by the trust (I don't think they have any though). Then now is the time to figure out a way to make it work.
That 15 years from now angle could work for ANY site as long as the performance of the district as a whole remains high.

I did not mean to make it sound like you did not like WVHS I was referring to travel time to there and it came out wrong....I know you are a proud Warrior parent as am I.
I just think it's time to move past BB and let's find a way to make site #2 work, wherever it is.

Why put BB behind us before finding a way to make site #2 work? With all due respect you have been trying to put BB behind us for over two years even though your neighborhood would never have attended a school there.

I thought that this would be settled by the end of October. If there is not a viable deal that will save us money by the end of next week we should just go forward with BB. It's just dirt. It's either for sale or it's not.

[wvhsparent]

OK fine leave BB in play......You are right, I HAVE been against BB from Day 1....I don't deny that.

Even M2 stated that BB is now a long shot.

[justvote]

proschool said:

wvhsparent said:

OK dr., if you are so certain that it is going to be north site (I am not there yet), I do feel BB is out for good, barring some change of heart by the trust (I don't think they have any though). Then now is the time to figure out a way to make it work.
That 15 years from now angle could work for ANY site as long as the performance of the district as a whole remains high.

I did not mean to make it sound like you did not like WVHS I was referring to travel time to there and it came out wrong....I know you are a proud Warrior parent as am I.
I just think it's time to move past BB and let's find a way to make site #2 work, wherever it is.

Why put BB behind us before finding a way to make site #2 work? With all due respect you have been trying to put BB behind us for over two years even though your neighborhood would never have attended a school there.

I thought that this would be settled by the end of October. If there is not a viable deal that will save us money by the end of next week we should just go forward with BB. It's just dirt. It's either for sale or it's not.

WVHS is not putting BB behind us, the SB is. They have stated that they will not be purchasing the property at the current price. Why on earth would BB lawyers want to negotiate the price? What incentive do they have? Their only objective is to drag this on into eternity to rack up legal fees. Once the property is sold, the well is dry for them. They probably would love nothing more than for the judge to grant us a new trial, so they can drag this on even longer. There are no heirs encouraging them to negotiate with us to sell us the land.

The SB can't go back to the voters for more money for BB as there's too high probability of failure. They've already stated that the land cost has prohibited them from building a comparable high school on BB. Although I hate to say it, I think BB is all but history.

From "the rumblings around town", everything now points to a northern site (although probably far from a done deal).

[doctorwho]

wvhsparent said:

OK fine leave BB in play......You are right, I HAVE been against BB from Day 1....I don't deny that.

Even M2 stated that BB is now a long shot.

Since BB attorneys have zero incentive to make a deal at all - with anyone - I don't see why they would come back after 2 years of wrangling - I think it's down to the other sites period.

[momof3]

proschool said:

Maybe we should set our sites on getting BB to take a little less. They know they will never get that much money for their land. They didn't get that much for the land on Route 59. Taking off the five percent that they would have to pay a real estate agent might just be enough to close the deal. Plus they don't have to sue the district for their attorney fees.

Perhaps we can all help out by approaching the BB foundation ourselves. Maybe they would as interested in listening to the citizens as they are to the lawyers who have an interest in racking up as much in legal fees as they can get.

I have to agree on those points, proschool.

The lawyers don't care about the district, they are paid to protect their clients' interest.

The people behind the trusts make the final judgement call. The lawyers can give advice but don't make the final call.

Plus, I do believe that if the BB people tried to sue us to recover attorney fees, couldn't the district just drag it out for eternity? Two can play that game!

[proschool]

justvote said:

proschool said:

Why put BB behind us before finding a way to make site #2 work? With all due respect you have been trying to put BB behind us for over two years even though your neighborhood would never have attended a school there.

I thought that this would be settled by the end of October. If there is not a viable deal that will save us money by the end of next week we should just go forward with BB. It's just dirt. It's either for sale or it's not.

WVHS is not putting BB behind us, the SB is. They have stated that they will not be purchasing the property at the current price. Why on earth would BB lawyers want to negotiate the price? What incentive do they have? Their only objective is to drag this on into eternity to rack up legal fees. Once the property is sold, the well is dry for them. They probably would love nothing more than for the judge to grant us a new trial, so they can drag this on even longer. There are no heirs encouraging them to negotiate with us to sell us the land.

The SB can't go back to the voters for more money for BB as there's too high probability of failure. They've already stated that the land cost has prohibited them from building a comparable high school on BB. Although I hate to say it, I think BB is all but history.

From "the rumblings around town", everything now points to a northern site (although probably far from a done deal).

I just don't see the advantage to dropping BB for a northern site that is "far from a done deal." The northern site will come in late and probably be over budget. If have a price in mind then I say consider it now and consider it quickly.

True the lawyers have no incentive to sell. But the landowner (the BB trust) does have the incentive to sell it for more money than they may be able to get anywhere else. The BB trust sold land to Costco and to PREIT so why not us?

If BB goes away we are at a weak position to negotaiate with any other seller. They could ask for even more money.

[momof3]

proschool said:

True the lawyers have no incentive to sell. But the landowner (the BB trust) does have the incentive to sell it for more money than they may be able to get anywhere else. The BB trust sold land to Costco and to PREIT so why not us?

Unfortunately, the people negotiating the PREIT / Costco / Etc deals are a different set of people.

The lawyers retained to fight the SD are Eminent Domain experts. The Brodie folks made it absolutely clear that they were going to the mat when they picked their attorney.
www.lawseminars.com/seminars/05EDIL.php
(eta - I didn't notice Whitt Law giving presentations at that seminar )

The lawyers negotiating the other deals are real estate guys who have some incentive to move things along.

I only hope the City of Aurora will remember this and sour any future deals for the Brach Brodie people on that property.

[rew]

I just want to ask, what are "the rumblings" and why am I not hearing them??

No really, two weeks ago everyone was saying it was Macom and the northern site was a joke, now everything points to it?

[momof3]

rew said:

I just want to ask, what are "the rumblings" and why am I not hearing them??

No really, two weeks ago everyone was saying it was Macom and the northern site was a joke, now everything points to it?

I think Macom is very possible. I don't underestimate PL one bit.

[proschool]

momof3 said:

proschool said:

True the lawyers have no incentive to sell. But the landowner (the BB trust) does have the incentive to sell it for more money than they may be able to get anywhere else. The BB trust sold land to Costco and to PREIT so why not us?

Unfortunately, the people negotiating the PREIT / Costco / Etc deals are a different set of people.

The lawyers retained to fight the SD are Eminent Domain experts. The Brodie folks made it absolutely clear that they were going to the mat when they picked their attorney.
www.lawseminars.com/seminars/05EDIL.php

The lawyers negotiating the other deals are real estate guys who have some incentive to move things along.

I only hope the City of Aurora will remember this and sour any future deals for the Brach Brodie people on that property.

I don't disagree. But the BB trust does sell property and they have a chance to get more money from the district than they can get anywhere else. So why wouldn't the trust hire what ever lawyers they need and do what's in their own best interests. plus do they really want to turn around and sue a school district to get their attorney's fees back?

[rew]

I guess my comment would be since we have filed a motion and set a hearing date of Jan 8, do people think the SB is going to announce an alternate site BEFORE then?

[Arch]

rew said:

I guess my comment would be since we have filed a motion and set a hearing date of Jan 8, do people think the SB is going to announce an alternate site BEFORE then?

Only if it's a donation.