California district can't afford to use new $105M school

[somone]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-06-20-Mothballed-Hillcrest-High-School-Riverside-California_n.htm

California district can't afford to use new $105M school
By William M. Welch, USA TODAY

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — In a sign of just how deep economic and budget problems have grown in the nation's largest state, a gleaming new high school built at a cost of $105 million will sit unused for at least a year because education officials say they don't have money to operate it.

Hillcrest High School in Riverside was planned to relieve crowding at a nearby school and was financed with bonds approved by voters in 2007.

But Wendell Tucker, superintendent of the Alvord Unified School District, says big cuts in state funding, the main source of money for local schools, have left the inland Southern California district without the means to hire administrators, teachers and other staff needed to open the campus when the school year starts this fall.

"When the California budget goes down and income in the state goes down, funding to K-through-12 education goes with it," Tucker says. "We made a number of budget adjustments. Right now, we simply are out of adjustments, and it's not feasible … to open this school."...

[sakabatou]

1. "Well, we'll just have to fire more teachers."

[salvorhardin]

2. Since when is California the nation's largest state?

I think they mean the nation's most populous state.

[Angry Dragon]

3. Why would anyone need a school that costs $105 million??

[Arctic Dave]

4. 105 million for a buildings of that size is cheap.

Plus, government buildings are usually built to a more stringent building code which adds cost but save money in the long run. Especially in earthquake prone Cullyahforneah

[Sirveri]

6. Schools also are typically used as disaster evac centers.

So they are not only built to state and local code, but to surpass it, at least here in CA they are.

[WatsonT]

5. It's not their fault, in the planning phase someone forgot to carry a 2

[Sirveri]

7. Instead they decided to continue operating the inefficient school down the street.

You know the one, it's got asbestos covered boilers that nobody knows how to turn off, despite it being the middle of summer. So all those radiators keep pumping out heat despite the room being 105F.