CSD: City Planning and Foresight Prevented School Flooding
Decatur Metro | September 22, 2009I inquired with Asst. Superintendent Thomas van Soelen about the extent of flooding at CSD facilities. Bottomline is that while there were a couple issues, overall CSD is grateful to the city for its stormwater management planning.
Here’s Thomas’ response…
No official flooding.
Summary of leaks that have been rectified:
* Winnona Park: 2 rooms and cafeteria, debris washed down onto the drainage covers (even though we wash them every day)
* Oakhurst: slight amount of water at cafeteria
Kudos to the city of Decatur for their fine work in stormwater management. Their planning and foresight prevented flooding in our facilities.
I love CSD. I teach at Renfroe and Thomas and the folks at the central office are so competent. Everyone makes mistakes but CSD tries to avoid them by being proactive. Refreshing!
A 100-year flood, and no problems at Westchester. Can we put that whole flood plain thing to rest now?
Meanwhile, Clairemont’s “field” (it’s really a postage stamp now that trailers, the play equipment, and the “pavilion” take up most of it) stinks to high heaven since the rain. Maybe it will help CSD figure out what’s wrong with that ground. It’s been a swamp no matter what they do to it.
Of course, what’s most important is the good stuff that goes on inside of Clairemont, but it is a real “I knew it” moment for those of us who think that children should be inside Westchester and the grown-ups should be in learning cottages.
Here, here, snowflake.
Snowflake,
I find its always best to offer reasonable solutions to any complaints, that way you don’t come off as someone that ALWAYS COMPLAINS ABOUT EVERYTHING.
Just curious, what do you expect the “CITY” to do about the drainage problem on Clairemont’s field?
Just so you know, keeping Westchester open wouldn’t have prevented the over crowding in CSD. Westchester would have trailers as well. When you have a GREAT school system, the word gets out quick. Families are moving to the area just so they can experience ALL the excellent qualities that CSD has to offer. If you don’t agree then why are you here? CSD isn’t the only school system in Atlanta or GA.
I look forward to your response.
Careful…that’s borderline personal insult. Stick to the issues, and leave the “why do you live heres” for the zombie neighbors.
(Oh, and of course the answer is always…”Because me like brains…”)
See, I don’t see the insult here–even a “near” insult, which I don’t think actually exists.
It’s not like he wrote that he thought she may have her head up her angus.
You don’t see how asking someone why they live here pisses people off and can derail the conversation?
Anyone want to go back and count how many times that statement has sent a conversation into a tailspin?
I’ll agree it’s a useless statement because usually people live in a place they want to live, but my point is it’s not really an insult–it’s true, he could have tried to lure her into an argument more creatively. The other question is who’s getting pissed-off and are they allowed to.
And what some call tailspins, threadjacks, or off-topics others call entertainment, discussion, or exchange.
It’s certainly shades of gray Gibbs. I don’t pretend like this is a science by any means.
And for every person that finds little personal “digs” (can we agree to call it that?) entertaining, there’s someone who’s completely turned off by that sort of thing. I have the emails to prove it.
So I walk the line.
DM – not an easy task and you do it well.
DM–I see your point–always have, but the issue I have is thin-skinned people who want to broadcast their always-precious opinions but not want to hear an opposing view, or even a way off the mark dig. Yes, a “dig” is good way to put it. Keep walking the line, sir. Cheers.
I agree you do a great job of moderating, D.M. No wonder you won an award. Just when the digs were feeling a bit sharp, you came to my rescue! I didn’t even have to send an email. (Hadn’t thought of that; got to remember that technique for the future.) Thanks for helping a lady in distress. I guess I’ll stay in town after all.
I love the great teachers, principals, paraprofessionals, and families in CSD!
Whenever I read a statement like “If you don’t like _____ about Decatur, then you shouldn’t be here” (or the many permutations along those lines), I find that I automatically begin to take the commenter much less seriously than I might otherwise. It’s just too easy to resort to that sort of response to flick off what can be warranted criticisms of the way things are, and to me, seems a bit of a cop-out. Every now & then, in the face of extremism, it might be appropriate (e.g., if someone claims they hate it here, or suchlike), but otherwise, it’s a bit off-putting. But hey, I’m not perfect, so if I ever go down that road without good cause, I hope y’all will smack my nose back into joint for me.
That said, I have to agree that space for students, teachers, & actual schooling should trump space for administrative staff. I also think that CSD should consider parents’ input as to how that will eventually be accomplished. That’s me two bits on the actual subject, for what it’s worth.
Amen.
CSD Mom and Snowflake –
Now we get to the bottom of what you two were REALLY talking about in your recent posts about the BOE elections.
No, not really. There are always many issues at stake when discussing BOE and this is just one of them.
I am absolutely in agreement with CSD Snowflake in her assertion that the children should be in the schools and the administration should relocate. I further maintain that our administration is too big and a cutback in their numbers would facilitate their move to a smaller space. We are now putting trailers at College Heights while our administrators continue to enjoy the playground (?), auditorium, and classrooms at Westchester. I hope for a smarter use of space in the future.
Kids in the buildings, administrators in the trailers sounds great – no one can argue with that. Unfortunately it isn’t that simple. Like it or not, there are economies of scale when running schools. There are issues such as state funding allocations for teachers and support staff, cost of cafeteria and custodial staff, transportation costs, etc. Add on cost of additional specials teachers like PE , Art and Music, additional Special Ed and counseling staff . With College Heights students you need early ed specialists and social workers, too.
We can’t just gather up the overflow from crowded schools and move them into Westchester. Even if the administration was housed somewhere other than Westchester, there would be lots of possible obstacles to re-opening the school at this point. I am not saying it won’t happen but I am far from convinced that now is the time.
I don’t know what the ultimate decision should be for CSD but I do know it is more complex than some parents seem to think.
Snowflake, I will make an effort to meet these 2 candidates. Will you be attending meet and greets for Mark and Valarie ? I have seen both at work in CSD and the wider Decatur community for the last decade. They are fantastic public servants. I won’t say regardless of agendas because I don’t really get that concept. Doesn’t disregarding agendas make the election nothing more than a popularity contest ?
I’ve been to many many official and informal meetings with Marc and Valarie over the years and have lots of respect for them and thanks for their hard work. Haven’t been invited to any of their meet and greets yet but me or the hubby will definitely try to hit several candidate forums.
I actually think Rob Pope and Garrett Goebel are fantastic candidates, regardless of agendas. I’ve seen both at work in CSD activities. Go to the meet and greets and candidate forums and judge for yourself!
A lot of people confuse flood plains with stream buffers. The Westchester issue is not a flood plain thing. It’s a stream buffer/protect the environment thing. It has to do with not disturbing or increasing impervious surface/silt/pollution near Peavine Creek. The Georgia EPD requires a 25 foot stream buffer from creeks like Peavine. In addition, in Decatur, there is a requirement of a 50 ft. undisturbed natural vegetative buffer as well as an additional 25 foot buffer where any type of impervious cover is prohibited.
You can’t expand the Westchester building or add parking to the building without disturbing the stream buffer. You’d have to leave it just like it is. That’s why they couldn’t use it as the 4/5 Academy. Westchester only holds 220 kids, right?
My bet is that with growth like it is, Westchester will be opened for something involving kids (but not expanded) within the next 5 years.
Please refer to t DM’s post on Sept 17 – Ark Weather?
Begins with – “Can the flooding get any worse than in front of Westchester Elementary ? .
There is always a problem there on Scott when it rains, but it is actually in front of the apartments on the opposite side of the street.
That is a Scott drainage issue and has nothing to do with the school property.
There were similar issues all over Decatur and Atlanta.
Please refer to Nelliebelle’s pictures of flooding on Oakview!
I have yet to see a CSD school field that doesn’t have water problems, except the new DHS stadium. As I’ve said before in a post, selection of the original school sites must have ranked “tendency of ground to get wet and muddy” very high. Maybe it’s because that was the land left that wasn’t already zoned for residential construction?