Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2007 > September > 19 > Entry
Building project gets new manager, rules
A new construction management team has been picked to run Dayton’s $627 million school building program and the school board set new rules for hiring on its projects Tuesday.
The choice of managers still has to be approved both by the city school board and by the Ohio School Facilities Commission, but John Carr, the district’s construction chief, said Shook Construction of Dayton and Touchstone, a division of the Tuttle Services construction company in Lima, are the tentative picks.
The team of Danis Construction of Dayton, Columbus-based Ruscilli Construction and Quandel Construction of Pennsylvania ran the first phase of construction but disagreed with the state over fees for the second phase, leading the management work to be rebid.
Going forward, the board will stick with its current goal to spend at least 25 percent of construction dollars on local companies and 35 percent on minority-owned businesses. That level of participation has been elusive. For the five-school first phase of the project, local participation was 26 percent but minority participation was only 11 percent.
Last month, Terri Allen, the district’s diversity and outreach coordinator, proposed that the board drop the district’s goal for the inclusion of small and minority companies to 20 percent of the district’s construction spending and expand the definitions of small and minority-owned companies.
Allen said the board’s original goal was too ambitious as there were too few companies that qualified to work on school projects and a 20 percent goal would match Columbus, Cincinnati and other nearby cities with similar programs.
The board voted Tuesday to keep the original goals, but did expand the pool of eligible companies by altering its inclusion program so that companies already certified as local or minority-owned by the city or the state would not have to follow a different process to be considered for school projects in the city.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, School Construction
Comments
By Teacher and taxpayer
September 27, 2007 7:50 PM | Link to this
In the past, DPS has taken a model that has worked well in one building and foisted it upon all others (remember the Words of the Week?) Stivers has very successfully housed grades 7-12 in their building for at least 10 years. One would think that the Dayton powers that be would have looked at the Stivers model when determining the make up of the new buildings. Instead, they ignored what was in front of their faces and went with this very questionable decision to put 7th and 8th graders in with very small children. Also, I wonder how these new buildings are accommodating children who need more advanced coursework? (There are some!) My own children took high school level math courses while in 8th grade; they would not have that option in the newer buildings. Also, Scott, I am under the impression that Dayton is building fewer buildings than originally planned and budgeted for. Does this mean that we will be receiving a reduction in our building levy millage? If not, what is the money collected being used for?By Laura
September 21, 2007 10:32 PM | Link to this
DPS would have been better off building large buildings to house various grade levels than what they have done. Fairborn moved all of their students into buildings set up for specific grade levels; k-3, 4-5, 6/7-8. This was done in an effort to combine schools and close 2 schools. I have talked to teachers there and they love it. They were initially reluctant but the ones I have talked to are very happy. All of the teachers of a grade level are together in one building. They can meet without driving from building to building, they can plan inservices more easily and efficiently. The k-6 buildings in Dayton were working fairly well. Instead of creating a new mess, why didn’t Dayton see what some of the other districts were doing that worked? Fairborn’s 7-8 are divided into communities, with each community’s teachers working together. Their jr. high was getting pretty out of control but things have improved a great deal. Dayton must do something about the mess that is developing having added the 7-8 grades. They are bringing drugs, sex, more fighting, weapons and some terrible attitudes. As these students become more out of control and move on to the high school, they are going to carry these problems with them.By Caroline
September 21, 2007 4:12 PM | Link to this
My point was that the district is making a huge mistake adding 7th and 8th grades to elementary buildings. Like usual, the Board is just covering up the problem with Band-Aids, rather than really getting control over the schools. Middle school students are not big elementary students.By Agree with Laura
September 21, 2007 1:12 PM | Link to this
What was DPS thinking when they added 7th and 8th grade to the ELEMENTARY schools? Anyone can see the distructive examples as the bigger students push off the busses in the morning and push on again at dismissal time. The MIDDLE schoolers knock down and crowd out the little kids. The bullies show no respect for the little ones. Wake up DPS and look around you at the SUCCESSFIL Blue Ribbon districts that are designing their schools in the opposite direction of putting K-1 in separate schools like in Centerville. Springboro has done this for many years. Miamisburg has 6th grade in one building and 7th,8th in another building. Brilliant! All the resources to cater to these highly different age groups are together in one cost saving, emotionally and physically compatible location. The principal doesn’t need to be putting out “turbulance” amongst the 15 year-old(!) 7th graders whle neglecting the upcoming troublesome 5th graders and ignoring the incoming K-3 students. Nothing gets accomplished. No ones needs are met. It’s a shambles and is the most harmful and detrimental decision which involves the students, teachers, and parents. The Dayton community will never benefit from this “one size fits all” school community which overlooks the various developmental ages of our children whether they be in pre-school or 8th grade. Nine grades and pre-school in ONE building—the disaster is upon us.By dps teacher
September 21, 2007 11:00 AM | Link to this
I think the reason behind the PreK-8 buildings is purely economical, the state’s guidelines for new buildings sets different standards for PreK-8 bulidings than for middle school buildings, i.e. classroom size, property size, room usage, etc. The middle school buildings would have been more expensive to build than the PreK-8 buildings. DPS is constructing the bare minimum buildings with very few extras, the buildings have very little extra room for anything other than classrooms. No room for small group instruction, hence the sudden reliance of push-in instruction for special ed. teachers. Basically DPS tried to do a billion dollar project for 650 million and it shows.By Laura
September 20, 2007 10:31 PM | Link to this
The board returned to k-8 buildings in an effort to get some control over the middle school population. They were and still are out of control. The hope was that if the students stayed in the schools they were familiar with they would have more pride and ownership and feel they were part of a “family”. The interesting thing is that California tried this experiment and have begun returning to separate elementary and middle schools. There is a huge difference in primary and middle school and the two should not be mixed. Another thing that bothers me is that the students are not being readied for high school. The majority of administrators and teachers do not understand the the developmental changes that middle school students are going through and still try to treat them as elementary kids. Another thing that bothers me is the changes in classes that are traditionally available to middle school students. They are usually allowed to take home ec, shop, languages and other classes to help them transist to high school. None of these things is happening. The next group to be out of control will be the high schools.By Concerned Mom of 3
September 19, 2007 9:31 PM | Link to this
Caroline- Did I miss something in this article? I didnt notice anything about a knife. Also, I don’t think Jefferson is a Montessori school anymore. The only Montessori school left if Dayton Public Schools is Franklin Montessori.By Caroline
September 19, 2007 7:48 PM | Link to this
How old was the kid who pulled the knife on the 10-year old at Jefferson Montessori? I wouldn’t be surprised if it is a middle-school aged child. I don’t know what the Board was thinking when they joined the elementary to the middle schools. Are any of us surprised if a middle-school aged kid threatens an elementary-school aged kid in DPS?