Superintendent concerned about infrastructure
The NHRs Luther Turmelle reports:
Superintendent of Schools Greg Florio said Tuesday night he’s concerned that the recession could have long-term effects on the buildings the district owns.
Florio said that while the amount the district is able to spend adequately covers routine maintenance costs, it doesn’t allow him to do “those things that take an old building and allow the district to keep it current.”
The need for infrastructure improvements to our 60-year-old schools is a large part of the reason I've advocated the consideration of performance contracting. For example, you can marry a one-year payback lighting retrofit with a ten-year payback HVAC... and get a demonstrated five-year payback that the voters would likely support at referendum.
I hope the TM and Superintendent are talking about these comments that made me quite happy to hear:
Tim White
17 comments:
Our superintendent is always on the lookout for more money, no matter what. Everyone in CT is waiting and hoping more vibrant economic times will someday return to our state. Few if any signs of a return to better economic times exist though.
According to the NHR Superintendent of Schools Greg Florio said Tuesday night he’s concerned that the recession could have long-term effects on the buildings the district owns.
Possibly our highly paid and subordinate rich super has missed the bigger point. Could it be that the state economy is really on a one way trip, out of CT? Could it be that as we lose more and more jobs fewer people with jobs will be left to support his infrastructure which reflects past more vibrant times for this town?
Maybe our current superintendent should be focusing more on consolidating existing infrastructure and eliminating some of the numerous overhead positions within his organization as a first step to recognizing the seriousness of our current recession.
I am no fan of Greg Florio but he makes a point--our (8) schools are approaching are collectively 450+ years old, weren't built that great to begin with & kept together with a hodge-podge of systems. 2010--2060 replacement costs could exceed $1 Billion!!!
With many people(young and old) leaving CT and our student population declining I believe that new structures are a low priority.
If our (8) schools are approaching are collectively 450+ years old one could also say that the total age of 100 2 year old town vehicles is 200 years.
The 10 houses on my street are approaching a collective age of almost 200 years, must be time to knock them down and re-build even though there is still 15 or 20 years to go on each mortgage.
It is meaningless but those not thinking will be impressed by these great age values.
Florio is worried about infrastructure what a joke. Florio just wants another fund to draw money out of. The only way the town should allocate money for school infrastructure is if the money cannot be used for any other purpose but fixing the schools.
Anon 11:14 - Just because a builing is 50 years old doesn't mean it needs to be replaced. How old is the Louvre?
7:42: Comparing the building quality of Ches Schools to the Louvre??? That's something Glenn Beck would say...
11:57: Meaningless info?? What do you do for a living??Industry/Business use this methodology to assess maintenance and replacement costs (airline fleets/car rental fleets, hotel chains). Also, for appraisal purposes.
An honest evaluation and appraisal of the physical buildings including building envelopes; walls, doors, windows, roofs, heating systems, plumbing, electrical needs to be done. Then review each individual structure for needs and develop a plan to retrofit and/or repair one building completely. If energy savings are taken into consideration the return on investment becomes more clear. The process now is to fix something when broken or use the lowest bidder and it all comes back to hoaunt us.
11:40, it is meaningless to add up the age of a series of buildings to assess their condition or needs for maintenance. There is a whole lot more to whether or not some facility is in need of care or extra care. I don't think your typical maintenance manager in some big, equipment rich facility is sitting around adding up the total ages of all the gadgets, gizmos, buttons and switches etc in order to decide if maintenance is warranted.
Legal and technical requirements tend to ultimately dictate how maintenance programs are conducted in well run organizations. Organizations which have lost their way long ago have also probably lost the fundamental bases for their maintenance programs too.
" Meaningless info?? What do you do for a living??Industry/Business use this methodology to assess maintenance and replacement costs (airline fleets/car rental fleets, hotel chains)."
OBTW, this is just one person who has never seen any of the organizations you speak of using a collective age to assess issues of maintenance.
The strategic issue before town voters and the BOE alike is the condition of facilities and any need for future changes to infrastructure. The current superintendent sees maintenance as just one more issue to be used to collect more and more tax dollars. Once the $$ is in his budget he can then move it around as is done year in and year out.
OK, the Louvre is better constructed. The point is, simply adding up the age of eight buildings and declaring 'Wow, those are really old' is not a sufficient reason to declare an emergency. There are plenty of older buildings -in Cheshire- that stand in stark contrast to that superficial argument.
Well it is good to know that, while we may not be willing to pay money on schools (since the amount of kids are declining) we are willing to spend money restoring a barn. Guess grant, AND matching town money, is OK for that!Even when economic times are tough....
This sure is change
8:52, you should take a look at the town budget and see how that relates to the property tax each property owner must pay.
To say we may not be willing to pay money on schools is a pretty shallow comment. Based on the numbers provided by TW and if the math is right it appears that we the tax payers forked over almost 1/4 BILLION DOLLARS since '01 just for teacher salary.
Trimming the salary budget by just 1% would free up millions while raising taxes at this time will just result in voter frustration.
It's past time to initiate changes which lead to a meaningful reduction in the support staff and teacher head counts freeing up dollars which could be redirected for use in any necessary additional maintenance for school facilities.
Re; Meaningful info gentleman--never heard of analysts commenting about the 'average' age of an airline fleet or REIT properties to help determine ROI & stock price, etc? Never heard of the the FC of CFD say they need a new truck becuase the eixsting one is hard to find parts for??
The LONG TERM issue before the town voters (one who has lived in Cheshire since the '50's,) graduated (along with children) from CHS & knows up close the infrastructure of the Town from an engineering perpsective, knows that the Town is heading for a trainwreck infrstructure wise
from a replacement cost point of view (recent artivle about the wsewer upgrade costing $35 million possibly to fix)
Guess is most reading this blog plan to leave Cheshire in 5-10 years to a cheaper COL venue, leaving the old-timers to pay the bills.
7:50am said:
"Maybe our current superintendent should be focusing more on consolidating existing infrastructure and eliminating some of the numerous overhead positions within his organization as a first step to recognizing the seriousness of our current recession."
Can you please list the specific numerous overhead positions you speak of? I've been watching the BOE budget review meetings and only 2 people have asked questions in the 4 budget meetings held so far.
Why are the folks from this blog raising these issues here NOT showing up at these meetings and raising same?
How about the most recent assistant superintendent hire for starters? Let's try an across the board 14 % reduction in staffing in order to pay for the current 14%+ pay raises.
Look at the relentless BOE budget increases and the relentless town property tax hikes. And oh yeh, look at the shrinking CT job base outside of municipal unionized workers and state unionized workers. And don't forget the amazing growth in town housing which last year resulted in maybe 15 whole house. And then there is that new local job engine the phantom north end mall. And didn't P&W recently announce they were going to add 1,000 highly paid jobs in the town industrial park?
Those of us who deal with large CT companies know their are no work positions left which are so crucial they can't be eliminated or combined, except when it comes to CT municipal government jobs in and out of the education sector.
14%+ pay raises in the worst of times are just plain stupid unless the town is actually growing by at least that amount. Unfortunately the only thing growing is going to be our tax bill while the current superintendent continues to babble helped along by all his very nice graphics.
BOE has a problem with listening. Maybe with new members on board it will change. This might take a few years. A change needs to occur whether it's by electing new members or a huge financial crisis. Meanwhile it's the same old same old and that is why very few people attend BOE meetings. Start to listen please.
The huge financial crisis is here and now. With the current 'old hand' superintendent doing his same old same old - - give me money and give me more money now it's for the children it's for the children - - song and dance routine, town residents are going to wake up one day soon to a nasty financial mess.
Let us all hope that the current group of town bureaucrats isn't finally instrumental in making Cheshire look a whole lot more like a poor inner city then a middle to upper middle class suburb. As taxes ramp up real estate values will head down, people who can will flee and those who don't will limit investment in their properties as property values and mortgage balances converge or even cross . . . .
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