Our second set of options considers what alternatives are available in Portola.
Portola High student capacity is 513, a current enrollment of 271, and an annual utility cost of $181,125.
C. Roy Carmichael Elementary student capacity is 700, has a current enrollment of 318, and an annual utility cost of $113,510.
C. Roy Carmichael Elementary student capacity is 700, has a current enrollment of 318, and an annual utility cost of $113,510.
Alternative 1 is to do nothing.
Alternative 2 is to create a K-12 and possibly moving portables to Portola High - recognizing that facility modifications would need to be made to accommodate Elementary age students.
Please share with us your feedback.
If the issue is to save utility costs I think that we should investigate what can be done to conserve utility costs, such as adopting a 4 day week, which would reduce the utility cost by 20%. Other schools are doing this. If we start closing schools and shuffling students prematurely, it will end up costing the future taxpayers to build new buildings when the economy improves and jobs return to Plumas County, which they eventually will do.
ReplyDeleteJust how much will alternative 2 save the district? How much sense does it make to pay for portables and modifications to accommodate elementary students and completely change the culture of both schools without a complete and accurate estimate of the cost of the modifications?
I think it's interesting that our school district use to be one of the richest districts in the nation but because of the decline of timber sales, we have dipped to an all time low in many regards. But what I find most interesting statewide, is: As the State placed more "administrative" staff on board to "educate" our children, our education has become worse and the only threats I ever see are the closing of facilities and laying off of teachers...When are we going to start eliminating the fat on top and allow the teachers, staff and Principals to educate our children? We don't need a district office or the staff in it.
ReplyDeleteThe total enrollment of CRC and PHS is 589 with a current PHS capacity of 513. Of course this doesn't add up and although the plan indicates facilty modifications to accomodate elementary age students, I believe this is not a workable plan financially or beneficially to our children. It would take entriely too many resources to modify the facility to accomodate elementary aged kids. I wouldn't want my 6 year old strolling the halls with 17 year olds. Already the teachers are sharing classrooms at PHS. Speaking of annual ulitity costs: Does the $181,125 include the closed middle school that the district can't figure out how to turn the heat off to an unused building?
ReplyDeleteAlternative two is not even workable as you have the numbers that already exceed the capacity available. CRC is a beautiful campus that facilitates a sense of pride and excitement about learning- letting go of that facility would be a mistake- although there are many alterations that would need to be made to CRC to include the middle high school students there. I am a parent of a CRC student and am not excited about the idea of blending k-12, however I would prefer that over bussing to Quincy. If that were the alternative for my child I would either homeschool or send them to Reno or Tahoe to private school and abandon the district all together. Of course my first preference is to do nothing with the portola sites.
ReplyDeleteIt's so easy for persons in other communities to say "just shut down Indian Valley Schools". Do they understand the impact it would have to any of our towns to shut down schools? It would devastate our communities, not to mention the already declining property values. We've already lost a ton of jobs and have very little to offer new persons coming in. All four of our community schools have something to offer our beautiful Plumas County. We are all individually special and need to support one another. How about if each gave a little to save a community?
ReplyDeleteHave you really taken into account all the factors of the facilities? e.g. Are unused classrooms still receiving heat/air conditioning. Taking action to running the utilities more efficiently can make a major impact. At CRC are you considering the financial gain you receive by renting out the facility to Head Start? If you close a facility, what will come of it? Will you heat it and watch it deteriorate like the Middle School? That has to be a major financial burden even though it is a closed campus. Does the expense one would go through to prepare the High School Campus for elementary students outweigh the annual expenses of the current campuses? E.g. you would need additional bathrooms, additional classrooms, additional playgrounds, additional playground equipment……… I think the Portola Community schools are arranged about as efficiently and productively as you can get here while still providing a quality education for our children. I think alternative 1 makes the most long term sense while focusing on a plan to help cut utility costs.
ReplyDeleteI can see the posts from the committee have not been updated recently but the "options" are so simplistic it is ridiculous. How can any of these comments or opinions matter when there is nothing but size and utility costs to base them on. Why aren't we looking at the whole picture? What about the long term costs associated with one k-12 site, additional playground facilities, a second cafeteria for the k-6 kids, additional staff parking? And anyone "from inside" who knows how the last few retrofits went down knows they ended up over budget and over the time estimates due to lack of proper planning and project management. Will taking on such a project really save the district or the site any money? How are we to know, because this blog doesn't really give us enough relevant info.
ReplyDeleteUltimate efficiency dictates the abolition of the district. There is no justifiable advantage in having 4 geographically separate communities forced to work in some faux unified effort. Control of and responsibility for running each school, and consolidations necessary in each community should be determined by each local community. Private schools run their operations under these constraints. When will government entities learn this lesson?
ReplyDeleteFacility costs could be reduced if employees are encouraged to turn off lights in classrooms and offices when not in use. Also, if the District invests in motion activated light switches for all the rooms, then lights will automatically turn off when rooms are not in use. Furthermore, if the District replaces the old leaky, heat-wasting hot water pipe for the heaters at Portola High there will be a substantial long-term savings on heating costs. Perhaps having a qualified energy conservation audit of all school buildings is in order to help identify potential savings.
ReplyDelete