Spend Spend Spend
- Chicago Public Schools put a $100 million price tag Tuesday on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s sudden mandate to air-condition classrooms in 206 schools, even as CPS faces a $1 billion shortfall and many other pressing capital needs.
Joel Hood, CPS spokesman, said Tuesday the district estimates spending $20 million per year out of the capital budget over five years to fulfill the mayor’s order to cool classrooms with window units.
He did not yet know which schools would be first in line, or how they’d been chosen.
They'll be chosen on the basis of their political viability for starters. After that, who knows. Some of these buildings have been without AC for decades, but by golly, if Rahm wants to burn through another $100 million, he just declares it to be so and damn the CPS billion dollar shortfall.
Labels: money questions
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
39 Comments:
You can buy or build a 50 story office tower with $100M. So figure tops $10M to build library and the other $90M stolen.
you did hear what they said right... 100 million for window air conditioner units. lets just say, for fun that each window unit costs 500 dollars... im sure they are a bit less but its resonable.. that means that would be enough money to purchase 200,000 window air conditioning units. So lets say each classroom needs one unit, but hey, lets be nice and give them two units... your trying to tell me there are 100,000 classrooms in public schools??? also, more than half of the public schools are already fully air conditioned. So cmon now, where is all that money going?? We all look on the internet. We know how much a good window unit for AC costs. 350-500 at most. where is this 100 million number coming from???? put in the window, and plug it in. done and done. more fuzzy city math.
"...the district estimates spending $20 million per year out of the capital budget over five years to fulfill the mayor’s order to cool classrooms with window units. "
It's for the children; to keep them in the CPS Baby Sitting Service.
The Daley Vanecko HVAC Inc. must be very happy!
These "window units" are going be great haul for burglars. Maybe they should be apinted with orange and black stripes and the sheet metal embossed with "Property of the Board of Education".
And are the electric systems of these schools, some of them ancient, capable of taking the load?
The Daley Crime Family must have gotten into the air conditioning business
Well thank God its free to run a shitload of window units. No problem Rahm. Kiss as much ass as you can while throwing money out that you dont have. Idiot bastard.
No, don't fund the pensions. Put air conditioning in for the two and a half months you may need it.
Call Vanecko Heating And Cooling today!
That is the way things get done in Rahm's world. Be Happy.
$100 million for window AC units huh? And only 206 schools need them?
You can buy an 18,000 BTU window AC unit (enough to cool 1000 sq ft) from Home Depot for $500, and that includes delivery. Even if you figure another $300 per unit for taxes and installation (which would be crazy even in Chicago) thats $800 per unit.
$100 million gives you 125,000 AC units delivered and installed, or ~600 per school.
Just how many classrooms do these CPS schools have now?
How is it a mere 49.9% of 3rd-8th graders and 66% of 11th graders are failing math when the mathmagicians teaching them are such failures?
The grade school my kids went to was built in the 40's and did not have AC. One of the parents did not want Johnny in an unAC classroom. SO she bought an AC unit each year for the classroom he was in. At 6th grade when students changed rooms she bought one for each room he would be in. School messed up, should have changed his room every quarter to fully stock the school.
Who has the contract ??
LOL!
With all the needs CPS faces, he wants them to focus on air conditioning?
Rahm, I don't know when you went to school, but school is out for the hottest months of the year... moron. The kids would be better served by upgrading the heating.
They will be "GE" air conditioners.
They figure they can shave 2-3 murders per year by keeping super-predators cold.
Maybe, CPS can help the city of Chicago help recoup $100M for air conditioners by enforcing their CPS Residency Policy for all those in violation, not a select few, and have those in violation come back and spend their money in Chicago. Here's a start:
Panel gives CPS the thumbs up to fire two teachers based on residency rule
April 8, 2014 3:43 PM
By Jonathan Bilyk
Two tenured Chicago Public Schools teachers who live outside the City of Chicago stand to lose their jobs after an appeals panel determined the school system’s residency policy had not grown “stale” over the years even though it may not have been actively enforced.
The First District Appellate Court late last month gave CPS the green light to follow through with its termination of teachers Jenifer Crowley and Darlyn Pruitt, who sued the Chicago Board of Education over what they alleged was unequal enforcement of its rule requiring all CPS employees to live in Chicago.
The panel’s ruling in the consolidated appeal upheld lower court rulings in favor of CPS by Cook County Circuit judges Mary Lane Mikva, who had ruled in the case involving Crowley, and Diane J. Larsen, who had ruled against Pruitt.
The appeal centered on separate actions brought by Crowley and Pruitt in 2012 after the Board of Education moved to fire them.
The employment termination proceedings began after a CPS system-wide audit of its employees in 2009 revealed Crowley and Pruitt were among 77 CPS employees who lived outside the city limits.
Crowley lived in Whiting, Ind., and had lived there since she was hired by CPS in 1998. Pruitt lived in Chicago when she was hired by CPS in 2001, but moved to Bolingbrook in 2004, according to the opinion.
Their decision to live outside the city placed them in violation of a CPS employee residency requirement. Established in 1996, the residency rule requires all CPS employees “to be actual residents of the city of Chicago within six months from the day their employment begins,” unless they obtained a waiver from the Board of Education.
Neither Crowley nor Pruitt were eligible for the waivers, and both employees received multiple written violation notices through the years from CPS.
CPS, however, did not take any action against them or other employees in violation of the residency rule for years, as it worked out problems with various aspects of its human resources record systems, the panel noted.
After disciplinary proceedings against the two commenced, the teachers did not attempt to dispute the allegations concerning their residency.
Rather, they argued the policy had grown “stale” through years of lax enforcement, while CPS had allowed certain employees, including social workers and Chief Administrative Officer Timothy Cawley, to maintain their employment with CPS, despite living outside the city.
Separate CPS hearing officers sided with the teachers, but the Board of Education rejected the hearing officers’ findings, and moved to terminate.
The teachers sued and the like the board, the trial judges and the appellate court sided with CPS.
The appellate court justices also determined the Board of Education acted within its rights to terminate Crowley and Pruitt.
They found the attempt to compare the teachers’ situation to “an at-will, high-level employee not covered by a union contract,” like Cawley, was “particularly inapt.”
read more here:
http://cookcountyrecord.com/news/263805-panel-gives-cps-the-thumbs-up-to-fire-two-teachers-based-on-residency-rule
It your pension dollars being used for good. The children are our future.
If it is not as hot in there we will learn more.
Anyone really believe that?
When I was in the CPS we had air-conditioning, it was called an open window. Even when it was hot out, we had class, studied and took tests. Some time we went to the school library to read a book.
It's for the children. Raise taxes to pay for the AC.
Who is going to pay the electric bill for all these inefficient window units? Where is the extra electricity coming from? Central AC is cheaper and more efficient for a largish building.
Who thinks this crap up?
One of the head democrats said that it cost Chicago $92 mil. Just to get the convention back in the 90's. That's without all the extra added costs. The city is thinking of bidding for the 2016 convention. The cost has to be more and rahm has to do something about the crime even though it will not be near the convention site? They are talking the United center. Spare no expense for rahm's coronation to VP! Even the head democrats know all about Chicago. NOT! Said its obama's choice for the convention site. Just great!
Just think about how many VRI man-hours that $100 million would buy...
Nothing to see here. The 41st ward irish will be tripping over themselves as they rush to kiss Alderwoman O'Connor's paste white arse just as their children swoon from heat stroke on the upper levels of and Onahan and Ebinger. Not to worry, O'Connor will be first to vote to keep the empty classrooms of Orozco, Nixon, Funston and Sumner ice cold with new air conditioning!
Take a good look at the bullshit CPS pulls and it's waste and fraud.
Google Chicago Public Schools Contracts and head on over to check out all the current contracts paid out so far in 2014, with the vast majority of them paid to vendors OUTSIDE the city of Chicago.
Check out how many Aguilars got contracts...
Then check out a few of the larger contracts in the millions.... then check out the vendors work performed.
dont worry because nora conroy daley will our next mayor the daley dcrime family saga continues promotions for everybody who live in the 11th ward
He says they spent $18.7 million to air-condition approximately 2400 classrooms already. So.....simple math puts this $7500 PER UNIT! How do I get the contract for the rest of the schools? Using this price, I can "purchase" 13,333 additional units and "install" them for the kids.
Mr Mayor, here's my off-shore account number where you can deposit the money in full and I'll get right on it.
Anything not to fund the pensions so he can raise taxes of all the city workers who are stuck in this hell hole....but hey it's for the children...
This is money that the charter school company does not have to
spend when they take the schools over. And the property taxes can
always be increased to pay for the
a/c's. Yep, increasing the property
taxes seems to be the answer to all
the mayor's financial problems.
And when James Houlihan left the
assessor's office and the boys in
Springfield took away the seven
percent cap, how much money can be
charged and the exemptions have been up for grabs.
To every poster them old buildings retain heat.you probably need the a.c. 2-3 months of the year.On the low end you need a least 25000 btu a.c. unit per room,you can not just pop it in the window.It needs to be framed out by somebody who knows what they are doing for safety reasons e(legit people walking beneath and the meatballs in the classroom)then you need a dedicated line 230volts so then you (depending on the building)will have to upgrade the electric.Their number is still high but it would be more than the previous posters think
AlterNet calls us what we is:
Corrupt with a capital C.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/rahm-emanuels-bait-and-switch-public-employees-pensions?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark
If there's slush funds, sorry, TIF money to fund whatever Rahm's cronies want, why is it he doesn't have the stones to tell them, No way, TIF is for the SCHOOLS! Nothing would've needed to be closed, there would be money to keep kids cool and calm with AC for all.
And of course his multimillion dollar "benefactors" will, sooner or later, want off-duty cops at bargain basement rates to protect their accursed and overblown interests...
Don't fall for it!
A room that size with 30 little hot bodies radiating heat, would require at least 2 window ac units, I imagine that they would cost probably $700 each. These would be the 24,500 units. I wouldn't even be sure that these would cool the room satisfactorily.
Back in the day, the teachers would turn off the lights and you'd open the windows all the way. It was only bad a few days per year. The old schools had like 12 foot ceilings, transom windows on the doors and huge windows that opened. They were going to do this eventually anyway. But of course, Rahm thinks by doing this, the voters will realize how much he cares about the children and vote for him.
They have to stay cool during the hot summer months while they eat their tax subsidized breakfast and lunch. Not to mention all the idiot summer school kids and all the programs.
Somebody did some back of the envelope figuring. It probably isn't that far off from reality, once you account for graft, markups, bogus minority companies and the several building trades that have to be involved. You're not going to get the school janitor to pop those units in the windows.
As someone noted, that little residential unit isn't going to cut it. Most schools will need an electrical upgrade to get 220V into each classroom. That's a lot of conduit, new panels, and probably a little work around the feeds. Then the carpenters will show up to repair the walls and prep the window openings for the window units. They will need bracing and reinforcement so some little snowflake doesn't get flattened when they try to boost the units. The units themselves will be installed by the sheet metal workers. Probably need the painters in there as well.
I suppose in some schools, if they have forced air heating, they might put in a proper central air system, but I would expect those schools are already air conditioned. Gonna need some wrought iron to protect the big units out on the playground.
I also would expect that some schools won't have good windows, so they might need the bricklayers and plasterers to make wall openings. By the time it's done, all the building trades will get a nice taste.
Once the AC is in place, you'll have year round school, which will be touted to keep the kids safe, which means the electrical bills will be sky-high. Then someone will get the bright idea that if we put solar arrays and wind turbines on the roof of each school, we can cut the ComEd bill. And Rahm will take care of more of his buddies.
It's a great plan.
We had no air conditioning fifty years ago at St. Philomena school and the nuns still managed to graduate a Gemini astronaut (a fighter pilot and real astronaut unlike publicity stunt Mae Jemison), surgeons, lawyers, nurses, and more than a few of Chicago's Finest! Stick that in pipe and smoke it, Rahm!
Window units? Huh? These things are NOISY... Easy to steal. Anyone wanna bet on how long it takes the thuggies to push them out the windows?
Don't forget about electrical upgrades to go with all these AC units... More money for electricians, ComEd, etc...insane
"...Once the AC is in place, you'll have year round school, which will be touted to keep the kids safe, which means the electrical bills will be sky-high. Then someone will get the bright idea that if we put solar arrays and wind turbines on the roof of each school, we can cut the ComEd bill. And Rahm will take care of more of his buddies.
It's a great plan.
4/23/2014 05:53:00 PM"
BANG! The light bulb just flashed!
Rahm does not care about the electric bill.
Didn't he switch all that electric power generating business from ComED, (which uses coal ad neuclear for power) to that other generating company that uses natural gas???
As soon as he did that the cost of natural gas went up.
Aren't we proud to pay the highest electric rates in the country.
It would be cheaper to bus these kids way up north for the summer school year, Hudson's Bay or maybe The Yukon.
Pass your tests or we leave you up here.
Use Tif money for A/C and Pensions? Ask private donors for money for his DePaul and other projects?
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