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day without sunshine is like, you know, night.
-
Steve Martin
Education is unique among
consumer products; when it fails to work as advertised,
it's the customer that gets labeled as defective.
- Kevin Killion
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Are you ready to financially maintain Eanes ISD as a sports magnet?
More "facility improvements" that voters did not approve.
In 2006,
the
Eanes ISD
community
sent
a
message.
We voted
down
the
covered
football
field
proposed
in the
bond by
the
Eanes
ISD
leadership
in 2006
at a
cost of
$5.5
million. Unfortunately,
although
artificial
turf was
not
included
in the
second
bond
that did
pass
(for
safety
and
security)
the
Eanes ISD
leadership
"changed
the
scope"
of the
2006 bond and
used our
public
funds to purchase millions
and
millions
(three
fields!) of
dollars
of
artificial
turf.
Eanes
ISD taxpayers are now responsible for the ongoing
replacement of artificial turf on THREE sports fields:
Westlake High School stadium and two additional WHS practice fields.
Will this multi-million dollars expenditure occur every 5-6
years? What is the warranty? Was the project
competitively bid? And who are the contractors?
Note: Eanes ISD voters did not approve the
installation of millions of dollars of artificial turf on
the two practice fields in front of WHS.
The Eanes ISD leadership changed the scope of the 2006 bond after
the fact.
U P D A T E:
Just
received the following email from a Keep Eanes
Informed reader along with
this attachment.
From:
<Redacted>
Sent:
Monday,
June 02,
2008
11:42 AM
To:
dpharr@austin.rr.com
Subject:
Eanes
ISD Turf
Field
Facts
Read on your
website the concern about the new turf install at the HS.
Interesting
facts:
1. Southwest Recreation Industries
(SRI) installed Westlake HS turf 5-6 years ago with an 8
year warranty.
2. Dec. 2003, SRI CEO Read Seaton
forms Hellas Construction Inc.
3. Feb. 2004 SRI files bankruptcy and
leaves hundreds of school districts without any warranty and
some with uncompleted projects.
4. Early 2008, Eanes hires Hellas to
replace HS field turf and installation of turf on 2 practice
fields. Hellas provides an 8 year warranty.
Eanes uses “Buy Board” cooperative to
purchase turf. However, the turf purchased is not on the
“Buy Board” supply list, thereby circumventing competitive
bidding laws.
5. Will Hellas be around in 8 years
or will Seaton form another company???
Keep
Eanes
Informed
located
the
following
information
regarding
this
issue:
In 2003,
SRI management changed. SRI did indeed
file bankruptcy in 2004. Hellas is currently
(2008) installing new artificial turf in the WHS stadium
(last installed in 02-03) and additionally, on two sports
practice fields directly in front of WHS at the cost of
millions and millions of taxpayer money.
Hellas
warranty information posted soon.
Regarding the competitive bidding
process,
check this
out. Perhaps there is an explanation regarding the lack of competitive bidding for
the artificial turf. Keep Eanes Informed will continue to seek
answers from Eanes ISD that will explain the possible use of
a cooperative for this purchase and the associated
implications, if any.
Given the circumstances, question # 5
is certainly valid.
Documents
obtained
from
Eanes
ISD and
courtesy
of
KeepEanesInformed.com
...
So, who supports sports
on the public dole? It's
not just young athletes,
their families, and
fans; the school system
is the biggest winner.
When a new sport is
added to a school's
program, a new dependent
constituency is created.
Where lacrosse used to
be the private
responsibility of player
and parent, it has
become the public good
funded by the
community's tax dollar.
The lacrosse bill is now
split between parent and
neighbor. And, the
threat of withdrawal of
the tax-funded,
school-district-redistributed,
funding source frightens
the parents of athletes
into action. They rally
behind the schools for
tax increases, no matter
the reason, no matter
the amount.
Most of us would never
think of asking our neighbors to foot a personal bill.
We accept responsibility for car and roof repairs as
ours alone. In addition, we don't bang on the door
across the street in order to demand a contribution
towards our children's figure skating lessons, tae kwon do
classes, etc. That which is consumed or used by our
families is to be paid from our pockets — the definition
of personal responsibility.
March 19, 2008
-
As I stood taking these pictures
of the athletic practice field
in front of the WHS ninth
grade center this afternoon, the
lyrics of an old
James Taylor song kept running through my
mind ...
Well, I'm a
steamroller, baby,
I'm bound to roll
all over you ...
The painfully
real visual of a steamroller
ripping up a $400K sports field of
fancy (and
expensive) sod with embedded
wiring
... to be replaced
with fancy (and even more
expensive)
artificial turf ($2.5 million of
our school dollars)
left me
feeling as though yet another
napalm bomb had exploded (in
this taxpayer's wallet). It is hard to comprehend a
public school board that
is so willing to prioritize
something so frivolous, while at
the same time willing to remain
intentionally indifferent to the
discrimination against students
resulting from the district's
long standing ADA noncompliance.
(Note:
click here for "before" photos
and a 2007 KeepEanesInformed
report on this bond expenditure.)
The
'Think
Safety'
sign in
front of
this
construction
site
certainly
doesn't
seem to
illustrate
our
school
board's
sense of
priorities
for our
district's
children.
I doubt
another
Astroturf
practice
field is
a
taxpayer
priority. If
safety
is truly
a
concern,
our bond
money
would be
better
spent on
providing
access
to basic
needs
.... safe
exit
during
fire
drills,
access
to
playgrounds
and
bathrooms.
'Think
Safety'
would be
a
decision
to spend
our bond
money on
ADA
compliance;
a
decision
that
safeguards
children
and
reduces
our
district's
risk of
an
costly
lawsuit
that
could
result
in the
loss of
federal
education
funding.
'Think
Safety'
would be
a
decision
to
provide
equal
access
to all
facilities
and a
quality
education
for every
child
attending
school
in Eanes
ISD.
-
Susan
Bushart
Here goes:
click here, turn up your
volume and join me as we
continue to sing the Eanes ISD
'blues' ...
Spring
2008
- Eanes
ISD is
now
installing
artificial
turf on
these
two
sports
PRACTICE
fields
located
directly
in front
of WHS.
Surprised?
This
expenditure
represents
a
"Change
in
Scope"
(superintendent-recommended
and
board-approved)
to our
original
bond
package
that
(when
passed)
DID NOT
INCLUDE
artificial
turf (read
more
here
... Note:
According
to a
March
2007
Superintendent's
Recommendation
to the
Board:
"The
preliminary
estimated
cost to
add turf
($1,020,000)
and
lights
($100,000
to
$250,000)
to
practice
fields 1
and 2 is
a range
of
$1,120,000
to
$1,500,000.
More
information
is
needed
regarding
specifications
for the
lighting
to
determine
a more
accurate
cost
estimate.
This
estimate
does not
include
the
additional
2008 replacement
of artificial turf
in the
high
school
stadium.
This
artificial
turf was
last
installed
5-6
years
ago.
Does
turf
have
a
5-6
year
life?
Click
here
to
view
the
Westlake
High
School
artificial
turf
installed
by
Eanes
ISD
in
the
high
school
stadium
in
02/03
as
part
of a
multi-million
dollar
renovation
including
a
$500K Jumbotron.
That
turf
is
now
in a
landfill
somewhere
...
replaced
just
5-6
years
later.
And
we
are
at
risk
of
laying
off
teachers?
MARCH 2007
How Many Months?
B
ond Priorities Update -
3/20/07 - Warning! Pay for the fields and then KEEP
OFF! Eanes ISD
Board just authorized the expenditure of millions
of our tax dollars to "change the scope" of the
2006 Bond Program and "authorize artificial turf
and lights for Westlake High School ATHLETIC
PRACTICE FIELDS."
See more below ...
Can playing sports on
artificial
turf kill you? As the
debate rages on, parents need to
hear the story of one young
Texas athlete who’s lucky
to be alive.
IT
HAPPENED
ON THE
MOST
ordinary
of
plays.
Sixteen-year-old
Boone
Baker,
playing
wide
receiver
on the
Austin
High
Maroons
junior
varsity
last
October
7,
sprinted
a quick
five
yards
before
turning
and
snagging
a short
pass
from his
quarterback
sometime
in the
second
half of
a Friday
night
game
against
archrival
Westlake
High.
Immediately
after
Boone
caught
the
pass, he
was
tackled,
hard,
with his
left
shoulder
crashing
into the
artificial
turf
of
Chaparral
Stadium.
He
remembers
feeling
a
burning
abrasion
on his
shoulder
when he
got up,
but he
shrugged
it off
and
returned
to the
huddle.
As
football
games
go, it
was a
mundane
moment,
with
nothing
to
presage
the
medical
nightmare
that
three
months
later
would
almost
cost
Boone
his life
and
temporarily
rob him
of his
mobility
and his
eyesight
in one
eye. On
that
seemingly
insignificant
play,
this
strapping,
176-pound,
six-foot-two-inch
teenager
unknowingly
joined
the
swelling
ranks of
athletes—from
the
National
Football
League
to high
school
wrestlers—plagued
by a new
killer “superbug,”
a
pernicious
staph
infection
that
mimics
the flu,
races
through
the body
with
lightning-quick
speed,
and
resists
normal
penicillin-based
antibiotics.
Known as
MRSA (methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus
aureus),
this
bacterial
infection
first
emerged
in
hospitals
five
years
ago,
attacking
vulnerable
postoperative
patients
with
compromised
immune
systems.
But in
the past
two
years,
MRSA has
made its
deadly
presence
known in
the
community
at
large,
with
athletes
being a
prime
target,
since
the
bacteria
thrives
in
steamy
settings
like
locker
rooms
and
enters
the body
through
nicks,
abrasions,
and
cuts.
...Westlake
athletic
director
and head
football
coach
Derek
Long
acknowledges
that the
school
once
scrubbed
down its
field
following
a staph
outbreak
(not of
the MRSA
variety),
in 2003.
April 19, 2008
- TRENTON, New Jersey
(AP) -
The U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission is looking into the possible
health hazards of lead in artificial turf installed at
schools, parks and stadiums across the country.
Two fields in New Jersey were closed this week after
state health officials detected what they said were
unexpectedly high levels of lead in the synthetic turf
and raised fears that athletes could swallow or inhale
fibers or dust from the playing surface.
Link to Article Here
This field in Hoboken is one of two
closed
by New
Jersey
because
of high
lead
level
readings.
April 18, 2008 -
Toxic artificial turf? / A new concern?
Frankly, we scoffed when we first heard of potential
health issues with artificial-turf athletic fields. Just
another bunch of nervous Nellies and overexcited,
safety-obsessed parents latching on to yet another
environmental scare of the moment, we figured. But
nobody ever accused Dr. Eddy Bresnitz of being a nervous
Nellie. Bresnitz is New Jersey's chief epidemiologist -
the state's top "medical detective," so to speak.
Usually when he shows up in the news, it's to calm
people who are needlessly worried about some presumed
health threat. In other words, he's not the excitable
type. But this week, Bresnitz and Department of Health
and Senior Services Commissioner Heather Howard called
on the federal Consumer Products Safety Commission to
investigate the safety of artificial-turf fields
nationwide.
Link to Article Here
Texas Football Succumbs to Virulent Staph Infection From
Turf
Dec. 21, 2007 (Bloomberg) -- Missy Baker recalls the
moment when she realized that her football-playing son,
Boone, didn't just have the flu. "He told me he was
paralyzed,'' Baker said. ``I said, `What do you mean? I
just saw you walk to the bathroom two hours ago.' And he
said, `Mom, I can't move my arms or legs.''
Sixteen-year-old Boone, a wide receiver for Texas's
Austin High School, was suffering from a recurrence of
methicillin- resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA,
which his doctor said he got through an abrasion from
playing on artificial turf, Baker said.
Texas has artificial turf at 18 percent of its high
school football stadiums, according to Web site
Texasbob.com. It also has an MRSA infection rate among
players that is 16 times higher than the estimated
national average, according to three studies by the
Texas Department of State Health Services. "This
is a disease that can kill you,'' said Carolina
Espinoza, a graduate epidemiology student at the
University of Texas in Houston, who helped conduct one
of the studies. ``If I were a football player, I would
be alarmed.''
Full Article Here
Meanwhile,
Eanes ISD athletics remains fully funded
with the best of everything including
new
turf in the high school football stadium and two high school
athletic practice fields.
The district's
priority remains clear.
Eanes ISD is
presently spending millions of dollars
on new (not core) high school classes and expensive
related equipment ... film lab, film
teacher, video truck, garage for video
trucks and more. Many of us wonder
... will the Chap Club and athletic
program benefit from this new film course? Think ... games,
broadcasting, selling videos, Chap Club
fundraising. We know
that the
Jumbotron is a now a
money-maker for the
Chap Club. Remember, according to
district leadership, the Jumbotron was
supposed to "pay for itself" and then
fund teachers.
What's next?
Administrators are traveling to exciting
places, staying in gorgeous hotels, and
playing golf.
The district is creating more
new Central
Administration positions while
claiming that it needs more donations
just to keep teachers in the classroom.
August 10th edition
of www.SynTurf.org
In the aftermath of
CPSC’s lead-in-turf
report, U.S. Rep. urges
EPA to look into other
concerns -
Eanes ISD has spent millions
of dollars this bond issue
installing artificial turf
made of crumb rubber on the
high-school practice fields
and Chap Stadium, despite
concerns of pediatric health
scientists and physicians
across the country about
harmful heavy metals, lead,
extraordinary heat, and
potential for spread of
life-threatening disease
like staph infections. These
concerns are so high that
some communities have placed
a moratorium on the
installation of this product
made of
ground-up tires and other
petrochemicals, and the
Centers for Disease Control
has issued an official
health advisory on the
issue.
www2a.cdc.gov/HAN/ArchiveSys/ViewMsgV.asp?AlertNum=00275
The turf industry says their
product is harmless, but
then, so did the asbestos
industry. Make sure your
children are safe. Learn
more:
Mount Sinai School
of Medicine's
Department of
Community and
Preventive Medicine
is renowned for its
work in children’s
environmental
health, occupational
medicine,
epidemiologic
research, and
disease prevention.
Synthetic
Turf, presented by Joel
Forman, M.D.,
Associate Professor,
Department Community
and Preventive
Medicine, Associate
Professor and
Vice-Chair for
Education Department
of Pediatrics, Mount
Sinai School of
Medicine
While elementary-school
teacher ratios decline
through attrition cuts, Nola
Wellman just spent $500,000
on a "vision" of
"initiatives that support
rigorous, engaging
instruction and professional
development of the highest
quality for staff" to make
Eanes a "world class school
district." This is
educationese for central
office administrators,
including a "Coordinator of
Performance Improvement" and
a "Coordinator of Math and
Science."
<<< "In addition EEF (Eanes Educational Foundation) is doing
a commendable job of
converting the mindset of our parents
from a "free" public school education
to more of aprivate school mentality whereby parents
expectto supplement the tax dollars with donations ... "
>>>
At the same time ...
Eanes ISD refuses to post its check register or financial information online. Eanes ISD continues to retain private attorneys with our tax dollars in an effort to withhold our public information.
The Eanes "message" is that EEF donations fund teachers. However, EEF donations actually allow Eanes ISD leadership to continue to fund their "wish list" instead of prioritizing our teachers.
Before Eanes ISD attempts to "convert the mindset" of district parents, before Eanes ISD "passes the hat" claiming financial need, the district should tighten its belt, fund teachers instead of wish lists, post the check register,
comply with state and federal laws, and stop using our
tax dollars to retain aggressive private attorneys to battle our children's rights and withhold our public information.
We know our students and our teachers are held
accountable, but where is the accountability for the
district administrators?
A continuing stream of money, provided through EEF, simply facilitates the
district's
priority on wish-lists and its intentional refusal to be transparent and accountable to taxpayers, teachers, parents and children.
How many administrative positions have been added by
Nola Wellman since 2004?
Many community members are discussing the apparent
rise of central administration positions and pay in Eanes ISD. Are the total expenditures (and
positions) for central administration on the rise in
Eanes ISD?
This
issue will be discussed in closed session during the
upcoming May 12, 2008 board meeting. KEI
recommends that the Eanes ISD board ask the Eanes ISD central
administration to create a spreadsheet showing the
central administration positions and expenditures by
year for the last five years and share that report
with the public.
In May 2008, the
Eanes ISD board posts the following closed session
agenda item:
Tex.
Gov. Code 551.074 Personnel Matters
Deliberate and Discuss Central Office Administrative
Positions
Check back for updates on this question ...
The Eanes ISD Superintendent and Board are planning a
new bond proposal.
In 2006, our community
voted down the bond proposal by the Eanes ISD leadership
to construct a $5.5. million dollar indoor football
practice field (also referred to as a MAC and a
natatorium.) When the bond failed, the board
continued to discuss the project. While many
aspects of our schools are suffering (both facilities
and programs) is this costly dream still alive and well
among those who lead our district?
Eanes
ISD taxpayers are now responsible for the ongoing
replacement of artificial turf on THREE sports fields:
Westlake High School stadium and two additional WHS practice fields.
Will this multi-million dollars expenditure occur every 5-6
years? What is the warranty? Was the project
competitively bid? And who are the contractors?
Steamroller Blues
2008 
How Many Months?
Our class sizes are expanding.
HAVE YOU BEEN CONVERTED?
While teachers are
cut and class sizes increase,
