May Watts Meeting 1/15

[fedup]

I went to the Watts meeting tonight.

Greatest hits:

1. The $5 M estimate is for ALL attorney fees; ours and bb and does not allow any leeway for additional damages or damage to remainder awards. Our attorneys have advised that we won't be on the hook for additional damages. Lord help us! These are the same guys that got shredded in court by Simon & Helm.

2. Daeschner said they really only has $140 to work with; they are counting on the extra 6.4 M from BB. He indicated that he was unaware that they had indicated that they aren't interested in the 25 acres.

3. Daeschner looked angry. He did not like the extremely specific financial questions asked of him. He agreed that our attorneys dropped the ball.

4. When questioned how the district could have determined transportation costs and bus rides without determining the boundaries, he said he has had "studies done." Asked if we'd like to see them. We said YES but then he dropped it.

5. Alka was there and someone directly asked Alka if she supported the North site. She started to answer and Daeschner interrupted and literally jumped in front of asker. Daeschner said "The board will vote next week." Speaker said, well can't I ask Alka if she supports the site? Daeschner said "NO!" That's when he looked the maddest, I'd say. Like Alka's not allowed to talk to us? It was a little weird.

Over all, I'd say Daeschner had a very cursory understanding of the numbers and was pushing the location as the reason we are switching sites. Spent a lot of time on location.

My understanding is that we are abandoning Brach/Brodie because we can't afford it but that's not at all how Daeschner came off tonight.

[EagleDad]

Thanks for the summary fedup, and wecome aboard!

That is very close to what I observed as well.

[doctorwho]

eagledad said:

Thanks for the summary fedup, and wecome aboard!

That is very close to what I observed as well.

Also another keynote-- Waubonsie is now being called a 'western school' not a central school. This was done repeatedly tonight and I think for a reason.

Central Es's like COWL and WATTS now have no school ! NV was called southern and AME was called northern -- yet that naimg convention was no abadnoned for WV - which moved to be a western school.

Well I have a news flash -- WVHS and AME are on the same d**n street - EOLA -- if we want to play the name game-- then we now have 2 western schools and 1 eastern school.


Also I called them on the fact that the maps are still not to scale -- the one being used made AME look as close to us as the forest preserve south of 75th street. Neuqua appeared twice as far away from us as AME - when it is just the oppsite -- get some darn scale maps

[fedup]

Thanks for the welcome.

I noticed that as well, Doctorwho, about the maps. The giant maps that were shown were out of scale in order to make the district look like a square instead of a rectangle. Not sure if this was done on purpose, but it worked to Daeschner's argument. Someone called him on it and he admitted that he knew the maps were not to scale.

The other thing he used was a Laidlaw map from 2005 to show where the students live in order to sell the location of AME. The map was merely a bus stop map and gave no indication of student density. I found this to be extremely misleading as well. The Laidlaw map was also out of scale in order to make the district appear to be a square.

[Arch]

Months wasted and more BS bogus crap information put forth to 'substantiate' a decision.

BTW, welcome Fedup

[d204mom]

doctorwho said:

Well I have a news flash -- WVHS and AME are on the same d**n street - EOLA -- if we want to play the name game-- then we now have 2 western schools and 1 eastern school.

That is a good one. Subversive but effective. NOT an argument that we have a North, Central, and Southern school. But we have a North, Western and Southern school, when as you point out, punchline please, the "North" and "Western" school are on the same street!

Do they really think they can sell this and we are buying? Who do they think they're talking to, a bunch of kids?

I don't like the shaky financial justification backed up by even shakier location justification.

Time will tell if the board members are buying. Especially when they have to eat their site selection report in order to do so.

[gumby]

Argh. I was wanting to go to sleep, and now discussion of that A1 asshat has gotten me riled up again. I don't like him. I just get wave after wave of bad vibes.

[gumby]

ED, you're going to have to put the "AH" word in the filter.

[d204mom]

d204mom said:

doctorwho said:

Well I have a news flash -- WVHS and AME are on the same d**n street - EOLA -- if we want to play the name game-- then we now have 2 western schools and 1 eastern school.

That is a good one. Subversive but effective. NOT an argument that we have a North, Central, and Southern school. But we have a North, Western and Southern school, when as you point out, punchline please, the "North" and "Western" school are on the same street!

Do they really think they can sell this and we are buying? Who do they think they're talking to, a bunch of kids?

I don't like the shaky financial justification backed up by even shakier location justification.

Time will tell if the board members are buying. Especially when they have to eat their site selection report in order to do so.

The other interesting thing about calling WV the western school is that the farthest southern people in the district will probably go to WV (Western school) instead of NV (Southern school).

It will be interesting to see if they will re-group and change the naming conventions to sell the school board. Or if they HAVE been using this to sell the school board. And the board hasn't called them on it...?

[numbersmom]

doctorwho said:

eagledad said:

Thanks for the summary fedup, and wecome aboard!

That is very close to what I observed as well.

Also another keynote-- Waubonsie is now being called a 'western school' not a central school. This was done repeatedly tonight and I think for a reason.

They're calling WVHS a "western" school so that they can send everyone on the western side of the district to it. The "eastern" half of the school district is then divided into "north" (MVHS) and "south" (NVHS). There is no central. We lost central when we lost BB.

Based on this subtle name dropping, I think most people can guess how the boundaries will play out.

[d204mom]

numbersmom said:

doctorwho said:

Also another keynote-- Waubonsie is now being called a 'western school' not a central school. This was done repeatedly tonight and I think for a reason.

They're calling WVHS a "western" school so that they can send everyone on the western side of the district to it. The "eastern" half of the school district is then divided into "north" (MVHS) and "south" (NVHS). There is no central. We lost central when we lost BB.

Based on this subtle name dropping, I think most people can guess how the boundaries will play out.

Crazy! I can't believe they wold send Brooks and Young to WV and not the AME site but maybe you are right. Absolutely nothing would surprise me at this point.

[anteater]

fedup said:

5. Alka was there and someone directly asked Alka if she supported the North site. She started to answer and Daeschner interrupted and literally jumped in front of asker. Daeschner said "The board will vote next week." Speaker said, well can't I ask Alka if she supports the site? Daeschner said "NO!" That's when he looked the maddest, I'd say. Like Alka's not allowed to talk to us? It was a little weird.

More than a little weird, I'd say. If she's not permitted to interact with residents/taxpayers/voters, why was she even there??? And if the super is allowed to determine whether she can take questions, is it much of a stretch to figure that he will provide her with the acceptable answers???

[Arch]

If it happened like that I wish someone would have yelled out "LET HER SPEAK FOR HERSELF"

[doctorwho]

archwinsome said:

If it happened like that I wish someone would have yelled out "LET HER SPEAK FOR HERSELF"

some did say exactly that - one gentleman asked Dr D -- you mean you will not let her answer the question ? his answer was a firm NO !

[gumby]

doctorwho said:

archwinsome said:

If it happened like that I wish someone would have yelled out "LET HER SPEAK FOR HERSELF"

some did say exactly that - one gentleman asked Dr D -- you mean you will not let her answer the question ? his answer was a firm NO !

My oh my, what did we get ourselves into with this character? I'm still mad that we paid for damaged goods. There was certainly a reason why Jethro's contract wasn't renewed. I'm wondering if we're starting to see some of the causes come to light now.