A beautiful school, but … (Aug. 23)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
I stayed at the Ambassador Hotel in L.A. a few times in past decades attending conferences — always on the boss’s nickel. I was sad to learn in 2006 that it was being torn down. Now, I am absolutely buffaloed to find out a new school has been built where the hotel once was — the most expensively built school in America.
It cost $578 million, and will house 4,200 students, from kindergarten through grade 12.
If I were a voter in the Los Angeles Unified School District, I would never, never, never vote for another school bond issue. These bozos running the L.A. schools have shown once again they have no shame. A few years ago, you may remember, that same group of head-scratchers built the $238 million Belmont Learning Center, and then had to spend another $100 million tearing it down. Turns out somebody discovered the land on which it was built was a toxic site.
The original budget for construction of the nation’s most expensive public school was a mere $270 million. The school bosses managed to more than double that.
The Los Angelinos ought to come to Madera and learn a thing or two. Here, the district brought their new schools in on time and on budget — and they are nice schools.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Unified School District, like many others, is having to lay off thousands of teachers, so one wonders who will teach the students once this new school opens its doors.
Despite being an outrageous travesty, this school has soaked up money that can’t be spent on other needed Los Angeles Schools. So, here is what will happen: Before long, the district will go begging the voters for more money for more schools.
No doubt this school — which has been named the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools — is a beautiful building. According to The Associated Press, it includes fine art murals and a marble memorial depicting the complex’s namesake. Kennedy, we remember, was assassinated at the Ambassador in 1968.
Meanwhile, the dropout rate in the Los Angeles district is 50 percent.
How do the people of Los Angeles put up with this?
