Bud Ferillo and I had lunch today for about two hours and 40 minutes, which is something we unemployed people can get away with (although it doesn’t touch my all-time personal best, a three-hour lunch with the late Gov. John C. West at the Summit Club, sometime around the year 2000, when I actually had a job).
Anyway, we spoke of many things, and one of them was this photograph he shared with me of Barack Obama last year when he first beheld J.V. Martin Junior High in Dillon. Bud urged me to note the president-to-be’s look of disgust that children were still attending class in a structure so old. (Or is he just squinting in the sunlight? You be the judge.)
Bud is the director of the acclaimed “Corridor of Shame,” by the way.
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The shame is that the parents do not volunteer to clean up and paint the school, instead of whining for someone in Columbia to hire repair crews.
A little bit of soap and water, and paint, would not cost very much.
Most of what is needed is some elbow grease.
If you think a little bit of soap and water is all that’s needed to “fix” a school like J.V. Martin, you’ve obviously never been to a school like J.V. Martin. At J.V. Martin, which was built in 1896, the auditorium is condemned, the classroom temperature hovers around 50 degrees in the winter, every day a train barrels past the mobile classrooms multiple times and is so loud they have to wait for it to pass, the paint is peeling off the walls, sometimes sewage creeps into the halls, etc. And they have a huge turnover of teachers every year.
I have been to JV Martin, back when it was a nice school.
Other schools which are older have been maintained and are in good shape.
Why has JV Marin not been maintained by the administration?
If it is money, why do they not have the money?
The state has 4% more in its budget than last year for education.
No one has shown that this is anyone’s fault outside of Dillon County.
Lee,
On this one, you are wrong. Soap, water, paint, and elbow grease won’t solve the problems at this school. I know first hand about this school. Years ago when dirt and I were getting started, one of my best friends and girlfriend attended this same school. It was in bad shape then and nothing has changed. The reason the school is still operational is because of the efforts of those who did volunteer with hard work.
There are too many people of wealth and influence in Dillon to allow this school to continue to operate. The Schaeffer family, owners of South of the Border had or may still have great influence over Dillon politics. So, why haven’t they along with the other families stepped forward and asked for better facilities for their children the children of the community?
There are times when we need to put the political and blame BS aside and face some hard facts. South Carolina is piss poor when it comes to educating our children. I know the old argument about it all starts in the home and on that point, I agree. However, we still need to have good facilities for our children and grandchildren to attend. We can still build good, sturdy, decent, attractive buildings and furnish them with modern equipment without mortgaging the farm to do so.
If we stood our ground when schools hire architects looking to build a monument to their artistic ability, demand function over form first, and build for 50 years, not the usual 25 to 30, we could build a facility foundation that would last much longer with less maintenance and upkeep. There is not one thing wrong with using basic brick and mortar construction with some amenities to dress the schools up. We don’t need bling, we need practical first.
Another cost associated with building schools is the incessant need to hire construction managers to oversee the day to day operations of the general contractor who is building the school. This is a total waste of money in my opinion and if the school board is concerned about the quality of work and integrity of the general contractor, then do due diligence BEFORE the job is bid and qualify every contractor prior to bidding the project. Require the GC to go through a screening process to determine if they are qualified, competent, and financially stable enough to be one of the bidders. Ask for letters of recommendation, go look at some of their established work. What is wrong with that?
Apparently you have some experience in the private sector of construction. Do you allow just anyone to bid on major projects or do you advise your clients to restrict the bidders to those who are capable of doing the work as required? Why should the taxpayers of this state expect less for the tax money spent to build schools or public buildings?
Bart, I was involved in over $300,000,000 of construction engineering and project management last year. I have engineered and managed construction of high rise buildings, hospitals, school buildings and large (1,000 acre) industrial sites.
A lot of people wonder why the state cannot come up with some common architectures for its schools, like it did in the 1950s, when it built new schools to replace the worst ones, for a 1-cent sales tax. A am one of those people.
If you expect to insure quality by restricting bids to those with high credentials, expect to pay more for less, when you limit competition to those who have done the most schools. Hiring an independent construction manager to insure quality is the best way to enforce budgets. I can think of many schools with plans were flawed, and they were done by architects with experience, unfortunately, in other fields. Sometimes the problems begin with administrators wanting to build unique monument to themselves.
My experience with local school districts is that they don’t take construction and maintenance seriously. They don’t pay the money necessary to hire a single high-level person, instead of a handful of inexperienced people.
But I went to school in a wooden 2-room building, 200 yards from a an express train track. I know black graduates of the Dillon schools in the 1960s who became doctors, judges, distinguished professors and teachers. So I am not buying the excuses of peeling paint for academic failure.
Hi Lee:
I believe you mentioned a while back that you’re a past president of Rotary International. What year?
Kind regards-
Jim
Lee, good for you. Impressive amount of money and from the looks of the response, you must work 24/7/52 with no breaks.
As far as hiring architects with no experience designing schools, then each school board should use the same criteria when selecting an architect. All too often, the local good ole boy architect is chosen simply for that reason, he or she is a good ole boy.
As far as contractors with experience and a high level of skill building schools, there is a long list of successful ones who have never needed the assistance of a CM and have always brought their projects in on time and in budget. From my experience and it is considerable, GCs who have the most difficulty are the ones who are saddled with CMs who have no practical field experience at any level other than the academic side of the business. Manhour, manpower, and other forms of production measures are well and good but they are only an indication or a compilation of information gathered by companies like Means to be used as a guideline.
Developing a quality construction schedule with realistic milestones involves a measure of practical experience, not just understanding of a program like Primavera or even Timberline. I have witnessed all too often a company using Timberline to develop an estimate by clicking on certain parameters on the plans and without one mental calculation, the information was entered into a preset format and accepted as accurate. Because of the lack of experience and understanding, factors are built in to cover missed items and information and results in higher construction costs.
Then, some CMs hire a professional service to establish a construction schedule and they can be off by weeks if not months simply because of the inexperience in real world events by the software operators and project managers. In turn, the schedule is used as a club against the GC and subcontractors when the inexperience of the architect and autocad operators miss too many important details. And on the for what its worth moment, I spent many years on the boards as a chief designer developing, designing, and producing working drawings for projects ranging in value from $500k up to several million. In addition, I had to develop a realistic construction schedule based on honest, practical experience, not something from an academic exercisel. I have developed schedules using Gantt, CPM, and simple barcharts. MicroSoft Project is a decent scheduling program if you have an understanding and practical experience with the different aspects of a construction project.
I too have had extensive experience with construction management. I too was a member of CMAA when it first started. After attending seminars and conventions in Vegas and other places, I reached the conclusion that for the most part, CM is a repetitive and costly function that ultimately serves no purpose.
I too have extensive experience in design and design build. So you can’t preach to me Lee. While true there are districts who need additional oversight simply because of the ignorance of board members and school districts, if due diligence is done when hiring an architect, one of the requirements could or should be that the architect include in his or her fee the services of a representative working out of the architect’s office who serves the same purpose as a CM but at a much reduced rate. I know several firms who used this approach and did so successfully. The end product was not more expensive and nor was the quality lessened.
There is one middle school under construction now and the plans are some of the worst I have ever encountered. When autocad was introduced, it was a good thing but over the years, the extensive and exclusive use of autocad had diminished the effectiveness and professionalism that was once a principal part of design and construction details. Now, we do have incomplete plans, insufficient details, and more often than not, a clear demonstration of the lack of field experience by those doing the design work. That also carries over into the inexperience of the autocad operators who know not much more than how to properly use the program. I was taught early on that every unnecessary line drawn on a set of plans cost money but just as important, an undrawn line at a critical place can cost even more.
I won’t argue with your comment about some school districts not hiring the necessary people to look after new construction and ongoing maintenance requirements. About the only time it would be prudent to hire a management firm would be to hire one that specializes in physical plant maintenance and upkeep instead of keeping permanent employees on payroll. That would depend on each district and their unique requirements.
No one has said to my knowledge that peeling paint is an excuse for academic failure. I think the point is that going to school in old, dilipaded buildings is not conducive to academic excellence either. While you may be the most practical or pragmatic person on earth, it would be a reasonable expectation for you to take into account that maybe you are a very distinct minority.
Take for example your old vehicle with over 200,000 miles on it. You take care of it, change the oil, check the pressure on the tires, keep it washed and waxed, and do all the required maintenance to keep it running. But, if you use it every day, drive it over rough roads, and all of the other things an active vehicle goes through, eventually it will need replacing no matter how much you take care of it. This is exactly what we are seeing with too many school buildings in SC. They have been driven too long and need replacement. JV Martin has reached its time and so have many others.
Sorry for the long response but some of us do understand the actual workings of these issues just as much as you, bud, Doug, Birch, and others who post their opinions and comments seem to.
The time to stop politicizing this problem is long past due. Clyburn, Sanford, Leatherman, and all of the agitators need to shut the hell up and take action to help this state move ahead. Bitching about every damn line on the stimulus or budget does no one any good unless the bitching is productive and our children and grandchildren are helped especially for their future.
Finally, :), if Sanford is too damn ignorant to figure out how to effectively use the $700 million plus for the intended programs and not saddle SC with “additional” programs that will need funding after the money runs out, he should be removed from office. For once, put our money where his mouth is and prove his point without the political grandstanding.
I am not preaching to you, Bart. And when I talk about districts not taking construction seriously, I am thinking of some in Columbia that have been promising to come up with a life-cycle management plan for 20 years, and still don’t have one. They spend more money on portable classroom rentals than it would cost to build brick additions.
I agree about not needing Primavera, Timberline, or MS Project to manage most construction. I remember building some of Columbia’s skyline in the days before computers, using a legal pad.
There are no shortage of ideas from politicians on how to spend all this “stimulus” money, and more, too. Every one of those ideas is wasteful.
The state has all the money it needs, and more than it needs. The spending plan is growing 2 and 3 times the rate of private incomes. That has to stop, and the time to stop it is now. If Jim Rex or any other administrator cannot run the schools on the gobs of money they now have, they need to resign and let someone with more ability take over.
Sorry for the long response but some of us do understand the actual workings of these issues just as much as you, bud, Doug, Birch, and others who post their opinions and comments seem to.
I don’t believe I have ever said I understand the “actual workings” of South Carolina education or the stimulus money.
If I have given that impression, then I apologize. All I have tried to say on this issue is that I would like to see those that have a strong opinion either way have an open, honest and reasonable discussion like adults.
But I do believe I understand the “actual workings” of politics in this country enough to know that this is never going to happen — at least not publicly between the decision-makers anyway.
Guys,
The public schools are not the cesspools of waste and inefficiency that some of you imagine them to be. On the contrary, we do a great deal with sometimes very little. And why should that be? If the education of the rising generation is so important to our future, why should they be educated in spartan facilities, with few resources, and teachers who are expected to work with large groups of children for very little money?
Our governor wants what he calls “choice,” which would be tantamount to the re-segregation of the schools of S.C., with middle-class parents sending their kids to academies named after confederate generals where they can be taught creationism, conservative christianity, a dixiecrat view of history, and be separated from people of color or from linguistic minorities.
When you combine weak resources, low pay, poor facilities, vouchers, choice, and some of the most difficult standardized tests in the nation, you have a recipe for the eventual demise of public education in S.C. and the resegregation of society.
Is that what we want??
Why were we able to build new schools for all the black students in the 1950s with 1 cent of sales tax, but cannot do it today with 4 cents?
A lot of teachers make $50,000 to $65,000 a year for 180 days of work.
That is the equivalent of a full-time, year-round job at $69,000 to $90,000 a year.
Annual expenditures per student are about $8,000.
Class room sizes run from 21 to 30, which is $160,000 to $240,000 per room. That means the school is getting about $100,000 per room over and above what they pay the teachers. Where is that money going?
Birch, I did not intend to type your name on the list. Of all the posters on this blog including myself, at your age, you have a better understanding of politics and issues than most. Apologies.