My understanding is that some of the extra money went to the Gen 7 classrooms (with board approval), and also that the district has put more money into the fund to cover costs if they are higher than expected. I can't remember the exact name of that piece of the budget. As you mentioned recently, construction is about a month behind due to heavy rains in December. They may be setting aside more money in case issues arise because of this.
The superintendent has said that, as long as she's at the helm, there will be no diving board at the pool.

As I already said, I know a chunk of that money went to the Gen 7 classrooms: http://albany.patch.com/articles/school-board-to-discuss-new-high-school-classrooms-tonight. I think you'll need to direct additional questions on this to the contractor or the district. You are also welcome to write a letter to the editor (http://patch.com/A-319). Unfortunately, there are only so many hours in the day.

I did ask one of our reporters to make a call about this.

Update. It looks like AUSD just submitted to DSA.

https://www.apps.dgs.ca.gov/tracker/DeferredApprovals.aspx
Item Name: Aluminum curtain walls
Notes: BSO RECD DISAPPROVED DA 5/26/11 RT ARCH 5/31/11 (IR); Routed to LHou for review on 4/19/11. SSS not approved and sent back 5/27/2011. BSO RECD DA 8/2/11 RT LHOU 8/2/11 (IR):

I looked at the current agenda. Is the pool construction now 101 days behind schedule ?
Will the pool open in 2011?
What is the status of the modular classrooms?
Will the contractor be paying a penalty?

What is the projected opening day?

Hi Rita -- I am also concerned about the water temperature. The bond Measure E that we all voted for stated that there would be "an indoor therapy/instructional pool" and that is obviously not happening. I am bringing up this issue at the next Bond Oversight meeting in January 2012 and would love to have your input. Can you contact me at ebtz@aol.com? Thanks. Susan

Leaving the questions for those who work for AUSD definitely sounds like an excellent idea – except that it has not worked in this case.

As those who have been reading Albany Patch since its inception know, AUSD has very serious communications issues. Moreover, much of the pool development discussion has been held behind closed doors in possibly illegal meetings that apparently were not appropriately noticed and which may not have had any public comment. Also the district just made up numbers (no surprise for those following the API issue) when it came to expected usage. The district has had no meaningful business plan. The pool was supposed to open in September 2010. Now we have no idea when it is opening.

I hope that Albany Patch will do an investigative story into the many things that have gone wrong with the pool development.

Emilie interviewed the new pool director, so maybe some updates will be forthcoming from Patch, but it is virtually impossible to get any financial data from the district. They refuse to release the information. Supposedly, the construction people will be finished by November 4, according to the district’s pool web site and the indoor pool with open in December with the outdoor pool opening in February for the AHS swim team.
http://www.ausdk12.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=92446&type=d

Nick Pilch reported at the last Albany Strollers & Rollers meeting that racks with space for 18 bikes will be installed near the pool entrance.

Thanks for the update. How many spaces were removed during the construction period? Is 18 enough? In general, how are the schools doing with respect to providing enough bike parking?

Albany is too small for two pools so there will be a need to attract people from other communities. Will there be enough bicycle and car parking?

Good question Ira. Others may have definite numbers, but I only have my recollection. I remember two or three wave racks with about three real spaces each (wave rack manufacturers tend to claim two spaces per "U," which is not how it works out in practice). This suggests 18 spaces will be about double the previously available number, which is good news.

I have to also take this opportunity to apologize for previous statements I have made regarding what I thought was a decrease in bike parking spaces at the high school as a result of the construction. These spaces used to be along the west side of the pool building along the alley against the arts building. I finally recovered the document that was the source of the previous number of spaces and it indicated that my recollection of 90 spaces was wrong. The actually number was about half that. A count of the current spaces at the high school (now to the north near the main building entrance) indicates the number of spaces remains the same. This matches the district's information that all the racks were moved from the old location to the new location. So again, I apologize for entering incorrect information into the pool conversation in some other fora.

That said, it is clear that available bike parking at the high school is a limiting factor on the number of students that bike, which is not good. That is a topic for another thread though.

I've been a bike commuter for years, and my kid graduated from AUSD in 2010. HS kids biking to school? Isn't going to happen. The town is too small, and biking is just too uncool for this age group. Believe me, I've tried. Kids would rather walk. Getting HS kids on bikes is about as easy as getting them off their phones (they can walk and text at the same time). The exception is perhaps out-of-district kids who live 2-3 miles away. And those wave racks? Useless. I notice that they don't install them on the Berkeley campus anymore. Freestanding loops are much easier to use.

On the contrary, more AHS students cycle to the high school than there are rack spaces. This indicates parking spaces are a limiting factor on how many students ride. This matches broader research results where people indicate concern about adequate bike parking at their destination is a significant factor in choosing to ride or not.

The first time I heard about rack space possibly being a limiting factor at AHS was from a transportation survey of students presented by the AHS environmental club at the first Albany Green festival, which I think was in 2006. The survey consisted of a questionnaire students answered concerning how they got to school, where they lived, etc. The club realized that the number of students that bike was about equal to the number of bike parking spaces.

Then Albany Strollers & Rollers' student intern from AHS last spring conducted a two day a week survey of the volume and location of bikes parked at AHS from March through May. She found the racks were consistently full, and bikes were locked to a variety of other objects around the campus as overflow parking.

The final confirmation was Traffic and Safety Chair Ken McCroskey and I visiting the campus during a school day last fall. We observed for ourselves that all the rack space and more was filled up.

So the question is how to get these spaces and where best to put them (replacing a couple on-street parking spaces with bike corrals is my current preference to save precious campus space).

Who makes the decisions with respect to school bike racks? Is this an AUSD issue or is it a city issue?

The evidence has apparently mounted. Now who needs to take action? Did the intern present her findings to the school board, either in person or via a letter?

Also what is the situation at the other schools?

I know there is talk about the need for students to get more exercise, so I would expect this to be a high priority.

Also are the issues with the BART bike path causing problems; and if so, have they been addressed?

Preston,

OK, sounds like I need to go look for myself. I'm curious if we know if those bike are being moved, or are just parked their indefinitely. I'm also curious if we know anything about the time of year of when these surveys were conducted. What do kids do when it rains, for example?

Preston, On the way to work I did swing by AHS and counted bikes there. I counted 38 bikes altogether, 26 near or attached to the wave-style rack in the interior of the campus, about 10 attached to various street signs on the exterior of the campus, and a few more scattered around the neighborhood that I attributed to AHS. One bike in front of the gym clearly had been abandoned and stripped. I not sure how many of the locked bikes were actually in use, as opposed to have been parked and forgotten. Probably almost all are in use, otherwise they, too, would have been stripped.

38 bikes for a student population of 1268--that's about three percent. As a bike commuter, I hate those old wave racks (the have them at Plaza BART, too) and try to avoid them at all cost. I generally will use a street sign or a parking meter before I use a bike rack because most racks are poorly designed. Both the Berkeley campus and the city seem to be switching to more widely-dispersed U-racks which give you more room to maneuver a bike with panniers and fenders.

It's hard to argue against bike racks, since they are relatively inexpensive to install and just about last forever. However, I not sure this is really a huge problem for AHS, given their other budgetary problems. If I had wanted to park and lock my bike this morning near the high school, it would not have been a problem.

Were there many empty bike parking spaces?

Are the racks in a safe location? I ask because previous commenters have mentioned issues with bicycle theft near AHS.

From the comments I have seen so far, it does NOT seem that AHS promoted bike riding to school and the students did not respond; rather it seems that the bicycle parking set up is not encouraging.

The fact that an AUSD pool committee met multiple times and apparently forgot about bike parking would seem to indicate that encouraging bike riding is not currently a priority at AHS.

But I am guessing. Does anyone have anything more definitive about bikes and AHS beyond what Preston reported?

At the very least, is AUSD actively participating in bike to work day/week? Does AUSD spend much time discussing bike riding as a form of healthy exercise in health classes?

A search of the AUSD site does not find many hits relating to bicycle.

I've been spending a little time sitting in on the donneybrook over a religious banner posted in a public school, over at Cranston R.I. Patch... we got nothin' on them when it comes to complaint-fests...

Peggy, you've done an amazing job documenting this. Yet another of your successful, selfless volunteer contributions to the city! Albany Patch can't thank you enough.