The Paullin Plan

After nearly two years, Dr. Paullin, of The Paullin Group, presented the executive summary of the long-range Master Facilities Plan to the Racine Unified School Board. I’m sure that there will be many forthcoming discussions on this, but I thought I would summarize the plan as much as I can. There were not any handouts at the meeting, nor did they use the overhead projector so most of the amounts will be rounded up and I am sure I missed some details, so please be patient with me…

First off, the board had instructed Dr. Paullin to do the facility study with the following grade configurations: K-6, 7-9, and 10-12. As you all should be aware, RUSD is planning to offer 4-year old kindergarten in the fall so the plan had to be changed midway through the process (This is one of the many reasons that report is 6 months overdue!) However, the board received the results of the $1.2MM study with the following grade configurations:

Early Childhood (3,4, and 5 year olds)
Grades 1-3 (Lower Elementary)
Grades 4-6 (Upper Elementary)
Grades 7-9
Grades 10-12

When asked why he did not follow the board’s directions, Dr. Paullin stated that this configuring of grades was the most “safe and cost-effective.”

Most of the one-story elementary buildings will become lower elementary schools and the multi-story buildings will become upper elementary in this plan. The plan also calls for moving the REAL school to the former Caddy Vista building, returning Gifford to a junior high school and making Olympia Brown a high school. It should be noted that with this plan, the northern part of the district will be left without a school for its 4th-6th graders( which will require more busing, I imagine). The plan also did not account for the current magnet schools at the elementary level, either.

It should also be noted that the following price tags for the plan do not include ANY new buildings, or takes in consideration the population shift from the city to the outlying areas. The plan simply calls for fixing up the buildings we have; it does not address the fact that the buildings are still not where the people with children are.

Here’s a rough estimate of what the plan will cost the district:

Early Education - $44MM
Lower Elementary - $52MM
Upper Elementary - $72MM
Junior High - $83MM
Senior High - $122MM

The biggest understatement of the evening came at the beginning of the presentation, Dr. Paullin said the study did not take in the “political realities” of our district. Do you think so? We do not have the use the plan, but after spending $1.2MM it would be not be in the district’s best financial interests to ignore it. But to use it without modifications (such as addressing the magnet schools and the growing suburbs) may be political suicide.