LEAH BINKOVITZ ON MEMORIAL PARKWAY JUNIOR HIGH RENOVATION:
Once again, Ms. Binkovitz doesn't quite get it right in her reporting of a slanted KISD story in the Houston Chronicle on June 17, 2015. She appears so anxious to please the wayward superintendent, that she fails to do her homework and use correct information when she writes her story.
Memorial Parkway JUNIOR HIGH was NOT the "poster child of outdated facilities" in the 2014 Bond Election; it was Memorial Parkway ELEMENTARY that had that honor !
And just for the record, MPJH HAS had some renovations over the years--just not lately.
Just to refresh her memory, Memorial Parkway Elementary is the school that has had students drinking water and having their lunches cooked in water from "old, corroding, zinc pipes" for the last twenty years or so. THAT was the big story in the press last fall. Has the superintendent fixed THAT problem yet?
Neither MPE nor MPJH should be so run down and awful looking. The reason they are in such disrepair is because both schools are a testament to the lack of maintenance being done on ALL KISD schools ever since former Maintenance Director Frank Norwood left the Katy ISD. Blame THAT failure on the superintendent.
Those of us who have lived here a while have witnessed all the schools on the east side of the District fall apart over the years because of the decision by a school board to hire someone who cares little about older schools. The superintendent that the Board hired, obviously, if one looks around, is more interested in the fame of being associated with sparkly new Taj Mahals, giant stadia, and big Jumbotrons than in maintaining what already existed before he got here eight long years ago! One has to ask, "What took him so long to fix these schools?"
His perspective might be better if the school board would buy a home across the street from Memorial Parkway Elementary and require that he and his family live there!
To answer my own question: Mr. Frailey is just getting around to fixing these schools, not because he saw the need, but because Mr. Frailey needed votes from all areas of the district to pass the bond referendum last fall so he could build his new stadium in old Katy. He figured if he tossed every area or the District a bone, he could get more people out to vote for his bond. He was right! All of the pro voters fell for the ruse.
As for Ms. Binkovitz' story about MPJH in which she makes fun of the shape of the rooms, I have to say that she is way off base. My son went to MPJH when it was brand new. It was a beautiful school. More importantly, there were teachers there who could really teach! No one bothered them, and they taught what they knew they should teach--at least when Superintendent Gordon Brown was still here and Roy Mendez was the principal. That son got a good education at that school --triangular rooms and all, and at Taylor High School. He went on to get his electrical engineering degree from Rice University.
The shape of the rooms is not what is wrong with the education being provided in KatyISD!
MPJH had many new features when it was first built. It was also pretty outside with paint that complemented the brick. (When the dummies repainted it, they picked the wrong shade of turquoise, and it's never looked good since!) Surely someone who is in charge of maintenance for a school district as big as KISD can match paint chips! (They also mismatched their re-paint at nearby Hayes Elementary as well, but that's another story....)
I have a video of that "ugly" MPJH cafeteria when we fixed it up for the Eighth Grade Dance. It looked like an expensive nightclub, and all the students attended the dance whether they had a "date" or not and thought the place looked great!
I'm guessing the current renovators will also cut down all the oak trees during their renovation which were planted by my friends and me way back when. Those trees have never been maintained either. Oak trees have to be pruned every two years to make them grow and have a pleasing shape. The oak trees in my yard that were planted at about the same time are huge compared to the ones at MPJH.
Memorial Parkway Junior High cost $11,000,000 when it was built in 1981-82. Now they are going to spend $23.5 million to freshen it up! They're spending $33 million on Junior High 13! Why not just go ahead and build a new junior high for 9.5 million more since all the Katy citizens are so willing to pay taxes through the nose? That they are NOT building a new junior high school for the children of those of us who live in Memorial Parkway and Nottingham Country, should make all of us vote against incumbent board members and bond referenda for the next ten years!
It's interesting that this story in the Chronicle, which was on the City/State front page, was nowhere to be found on line. They didn't want the comments that ensue from Ms. Binkovitz' flawed, in my opinion, reporting. It's there now if you want to look for it, but they aren't taking comments! Such cowards!
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Katy ISD board hears details of $23.5M junior high makeover
By Leah Binkovitz June 17, 2015
A junior high school that became the poster child for outdated facilities during last year's $748 million Katy ISD bond campaign will soon be getting a makeover.
School board members were briefed Monday night on the latest design details for Memorial Parkway Junior High School, which is getting a $23.5 million renovation.
Last fall, Katy Independent School District officials and bond committee members discussed the dated halls of the school, including its awkward layout, crowded facilities and aging mechanical and plumbing systems.
"The bond committee talked about this property a lot," said board member Rebecca Fox, who attended the briefing.
Built in 1982, Memorial Parkway Junior High hasn't had a major modernization since then, according to Laura Sachtleben, a project director with Stantec, an international design firm focused on oil, mining and educational facilities. The one-story junior high is perhaps best known for its triangular classrooms that can make utilizing space tricky.
"That was the No. 1 priority," said Sachtleben, "making sure that we did a layout that gave the campus effective use of the space that they had."
Some of the classes currently crammed into the awkwardly aligned spaces will be moved out into an addition, including several of the science classrooms, the art, sewing and drama classes as well as others. The addition will be the first step in the construction process set to begin in November, and Sachtleben said it will allow the school to move children into those new rooms while the crew finishes the work on the existing building, including redoing the cafeteria and stage, the gym and weight room and updating everything from flooring to duct work.
Click on the link above to read the rest of the story.