Real estate recession means lavish dorm digs

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — River views, granite counter tops, stainless-steel appliances, 9-foot ceilings. This is student housing?

When classes start this fall — if all goes as planned — some 300 students at Johnson & Wales University will be living in Capitol Cove, an upscale condominium project that had been languishing on the market for more than six months.

“It’s a great Band-Aid,” said Irving Schneider, president of Johnson & Wales’ Providence campus, which just signed a three-year lease for the Capitol Cove development. “This arrangement was good for the developer as well as Johnson & Wales.”

Some universities around the country have found a silver lining to the real estate recession that has left condominium developers in the lurch. For less time and money than it would take to build a residence hall, universities in places like New York City and Ohio are buying or leasing entire condo projects. And they are also eyeing vacant lots once targeted for high-end condos for use as retail and parking.

“This is a bonanza of an opportunity ... for universities to acquire the space they desperately need,” said Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics.

For developers, such deals save their projects from being total washouts. The arrangements offer developers an exit strategy from flagging projects, allowing them to unload dozens of unsold units to a single buyer rather than piecemeal.

“They can’t sell them, they can’t mothball them, they can’t bulldoze them,” said Jack McCabe, a Florida-based real estate analyst. “Developers right now are looking for every way not to lose their projects into foreclosure.”

Sales of condos in April were down 9 percent from year-ago levels and are off 46 percent from the frenzied peak in June 2005, the National Association of Realtors said this week. At the current, sluggish sales pace there is more than a year’s supply of units on the market.

Developer Robert Roth has built only one of five buildings planned for Capitol Cove’s 5-acre site that bridges downtown Providence with the city’s residential East Side.

He began marketing the condos last fall for between $350,000 and $550,000, but got only four reservations and no sales.

Students at Johnson & Wales University will pay yearly rents of $10,383 for one-bedroom apartments and $9,249 to share a two-bedroom unit — comparable prices to on-campus dorms.

“We want the students to treat it more as if it was their home than just a dorm room,” said Jamie Stone, 21, a Johnson & Wales student and resident adviser.

Roth wouldn’t disclose the terms of the lease with Johnson & Wales except to say that it would help refinance the construction loans but would not come close to recouping the $30 million already invested by him and his bank in the project.

“For us, the big hit is that we’re not receiving any real equity back from the project,” Roth said. “It’s not putting any money into anyone’s pocket.”

In New York, Columbia University last year paid $67.6 million for a residence hall for graduate students and staff in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx after a planned condo development called the Arbor couldn’t sell out.

In Ohio, Capital University bought a 30-unit building for $4 million in suburban Columbus that had been marketed as 55-and-older housing but is now reserved for about 60 upperclassmen in good academic standing.

“To build a facility of this quality for a university, there’s no way we could have done that for that purchase price,” said Nichole Johnson, a Capital University spokeswoman.

She said the deal made financial sense: The cost per bed at the new building was $65, compared to a $93-per-bed cost at a dorm that opened in 2006.

Still, the transactions are raising eyebrows among city leaders who say they were told to expect luxury condos — not students.

Members of the Providence City Council question whether Capitol Cove violated its tax-stabilization treaty with the city by using the building as a dormitory, though Roth said he doesn’t expect the deal to be scuttled.

And New York Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, whose district includes Riverdale, likened the sale of the Arbor building to Columbia to a “bait-and-switch.”

“It would have been preferable if those were condos,” Dinowitz said. “Generally speaking, people who own their property feel they have a greater stake in the property.”

Nevertheless, builders argue these deals are in the best interest of the community.

Baltimore developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse had originally planned more than 100 condos, 15,500 square feet of retail and 550 parking spaces — at an estimated development cost of $75 million — on a lot next to Johns Hopkins University.

But the project was scrapped as the city’s condo market crashed, and the university bought the 1.12-acre parcel last month for $12.5 million — “susbtantially less” than what had been poured into the project, said James McGill, a Hopkins senior vice president. The school expects to use the site for retail and parking and possibly housing or academic purposes.

“It’s fair to say we had a lot invested,” said Tim Pula, a Struever Bros. senior development director. But he noted: “We could have built a building and we’d be sitting on a bunch of empty condos, probably at this point.”

Back in Rhode Island, Roth said he intends to retake Capitol Cove in three years — though the university has an option for an additional two years — and resell to private buyers, hoping the market will have improved by then and that young professionals won’t be turned off by living in former student housing.

He said, “The whole idea for us is to hold the building and bring it into better times.”

More on Fort Cherry public comment

By Dawn Keller
Staff writer
dkeller@observer-reporter.com
Fort Cherry School Board is still considering changes to its policy about public comments.
The board came to a consensus last week that it doesn’t want to require that comments be put in writing if someone wants to speak at a public meeting.

The board is also considering how to respond to questions during the meeting. One suggestion has been to defer questions to the appropriate administrator, and another has been to answer them at a later meeting.

Mt. Pleasant Township resident Chris Lauff said the public has yet to hear a single question answered during a meeting. He said board members have said they don’t want to be blindsided by questions and accuse people of grandstanding.

Lauff questioned why that even matters since they don’t answer questions.

He said he’s not sure whether board members are unwilling or unable to answer questions.

“You should be embarrassed that you are not answering questions from the public,” he said.
He said that if questions are asked to the board, then board members, not administrators, should answer them.

District solicitor Mike Brungo said the Sunshine Law permits public comments. He said the board needs to make sure it follows the Right to Know Law and the Personnel File Inspection Law when answering questions. Before answering questions, board members need to determine if the answers fit an exception to the public records law, meaning information can’t be released, he said.

Other changes to the public meeting policy include posting the agenda on the district Web site at www.fort cherry.org 24 hours in advance. Board member James White asked for that to be changed to 72 hours in advance.

Board President Bruce Sharpnack said the board will continue to discuss the policy and get some of the questions about it resolved.

Holocaust survivor shares story

Life, Herman Snyder says, is precious.

"The most important thing we have is our lives," he said.

That's the message that he takes to audiences when he speaks of escaping the Holocaust during World War II.

The 90-year-old Pittsburgh resident spoke to Washington High School students Tuesday.

He took them back decades, recalling how World War II began and how he got to the United States.

He was born in Poland in a small town, where everyone knew one another.

No one - not his mother, father, brother, sister or any one else in the town - had any idea of the atrocities to come, Snyder said.

He was a teen when the Germans arrived in 1941. For about a month, everything was fine. Then, they were forced into a ghetto about 21 kilometers away.

His mother asked Snyder to remain so the family would deal with whatever happened together.

"Two and half months later, I did run away," he said. "For over two years, I was on the run."

Everyone left behind, almost 1,900 people, including his parents and siblings, were shot and buried in one grave, he said.

Snyder said he was always going east trying to get to the Soviet Union. Over time, he banded together with 11 others who also were trying to escape.

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"We didn't have anything to eat for days," he said. "We had to stay in the woods."

Sometimes, they would run into people who would help them. Other times, they ran into people who would try to turn them in since the authorities gave money to those who turned in Jews.

Eventually, they made it to the Soviet Union. Three joined the army to fight against the Germans. Snyder made boxes for bombs to go to the front lines.

While he was there, he saw a Russian girl walking in the market with three kinds of cheese. He asked her for a piece of cheese - a conversation-starter that eventually led to marriage and a family.

In 1946, they returned to Poland for a short time before going to Czechoslovakia and then Germany.

He came to Mount Pleasant in 1949 and has lived in the United States since.

Snyder thought he would see his parents again after the war, but that was not to be.

However, he said, he doesn't seek revenge because hatred only destroys those who feel that emotion. People shouldn't think they are better than others, Snyder said.

"We should always live to help each other, because no one lives forever," he told the audience, who gave him a standing ovation. "People who love live a better life."

Right To Know

If you read the local paper lately there has been a lot of questions regarding Right-to-Know policy and procedures.

Each School District has an "Open Records Officer" this person may be the Superintendent, Business Manager or the School Board Secretary.

This individual, who ever it may be, will differ from School District to School District. Per the Letter of the law if you you have a request for information you are to contact this individual.

This individual in turn must respond in 5 (Business) days. They must outline the cost of providing the information requested. If the requester chooses to pay the associated fees (usually 25 cents per copy) to receive the documentation, the School District must honor their request.

If the requested information falls within one of the "30 exceptions" the School District's Open Record Office may decline the individuals request.

The goal is provide tax payers with requested documentation in orderly and efficient manner. This will assist individuals in understanding School District operations and address any concerns they may have.

Holocaust Survivor at Wash High

Washington High School hosted Holocaust survivor Herman Snyder Tuesday for a school assembly. The deep respect granted to this speaker is indescribable. As a student I have seen many presentations; this was one of the most effective in terms of student participation. After watching a brief video about his life and experiences, Mr. Snyder went on to describe the new lifestyle he experienced during the Holocaust.

When he was a teenager he ran away from his family and the ghetto. He later learned that all of his family members were shot. Mr. Snyder then discussed how he survived in forests during the remainder of the war. Upon finishing his story he received a standing ovation.

A question and answer period followed for 30 minutes. Mr. Snyder connected directly with us students and emphasized the importance of education. "Learning is earning," he said.

Dawn Keller's story that ran in the Observer-Reporter Thursday, May 28, 2009:
Wash High adds to Holocaust remembrance

Curbing childhood obesity

Pennsylvania announced new initiatives Tuesday to prevent childhood obesity and increase physical activity in school.
What do you think schools can do differently?

Making the Top 10

After defeating cross-town rival Trinity to win the IU1 title, the Washington Academic Team moved on to the state championship. The team placed 10th.

Summer camping

Ah, summer. It’s almost here, the pool, the park, longer days, warm nights, the kids complaining that ‘there’s nothing to do.’ It’s a fact that most students lose a little academic ground over the summer months, so what’s a parent to do? There are so many opportunities now for students of any age in the way of summer camps. I know, I know, the stereotype for summer camps is less than appealing, but summer camps have come a long way in the past 10 years. There are camps for just about every interest. The Rock Farm is a summer camp program that offers daily lessons in guitar, drums, and/or bass guitar; songwriting and improvisation classes. Game Camp USA is a camp centered on building your own video games. New Image Camp is focused on weight loss. There are science camps, horseback riding camps, military camps, creative writing camps, golf camps, and the traditional outdoorsy camps. Program lengths vary from 2 weeks to 8 weeks; there are even a few day camps available and many camps offer financial aid to those who qualify. Pennsylvania has so much to offer its youth this summer, you should check it out. The site listed below has 845 camps, but I am sure there are others to be found. Summer camps are a great way to make new friends and learn a new skill or sharpen an interest. It just might turn out to be an awesome adventure for your student. Happy Camping!
http://tiny.cc/summercamps

Is Tom Turnbaugh leaving?

Trinity Superintendent Tom Turnbaugh is one of two finalists for a superintendent position in a Bucks County district. It probably won't be too long before we know whether he is staying or going.

Budget Passage

Hi, as I am sure you will be reading over the next several days schools in Washington County will be passing their preliminary budget.

What this means is that under state law the budget is set for 30 days for anybody in the public to view. Residents can usually review a copy at their local library or request a copy of the budget from their local School District at whatever price the School District may charge (not exceed 25 cents per page)under the Right-to-Know Laws.

From this point forward the Budgeted expenditures can not be increased and the budget must be passed by State law no later than June 30, 2009.

The State, however by amending its budget can require School Districts to re-open their Budgets to pass any new amount of substantial revenue that they may be passing down due to budgetary changes or legislative action.

This has happened only once since 2002 (2003 to be exact). What is interesting to note that while School Districts are required to pass a budget by law no later than June 30th each year the State could due various factor not pass their budget by the same dead-line.

Since Pennsylvania is looking at a 3 billion dollar short fall this year look for the State budget to possibly be passed a little later than usual.

Fort Cherry students practice their First Amendment rights

Fort Cherry High School seniors Amanda Alderson, left, and Lyndsie Delparto make a sign to protest the resignation of former principal Tim Royall. The two seniors and several other high school students voiced their displeasure with the administration before Monday night’s school board meeting for not allowing Royall to finish the school year or attend commencement ceremonies after he offered his resignation in April. “He brought so many positive things to the school, but some on the board didn’t like what he was doing and he paid the price,” Delparto said. About 20 students also protested in front of the high school Monday morning.
(MIKE JONES/O-R)

What public school activities should a cyber school student be permitted to participate in?

A Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School student who lives north of Philadelphia is attending Neshaminy High School next year. He's attend schools in the Neshaminy District in the past and wants to go to the year-end eighth-grade dance. However, the school says no. Administrators say dances are social activities for current students. They argue that law allows home-schooled and cyber-school students to participate in public school academic and co-curricular exercises, such as sports and music, but not social activites, such as dances.
What do you think?

State contracts for curriculum

The Pennsylvania Department of Education announced today that Data Recognition Corporation will receive contracts to write updated curriculum. The contracts can be viewed at the link listed above.

Earned Income Tax

As you may know the state is looking to eliminate the multi-jurisdictional aspect of collecting Earned Income Taxes. Each School District as well the Municipalities in which they operate can have separate people/organizations collecting their Earned Income Tax.

This of course creates inefficiencies and costs that could be saved by going to a state or at least County by County tax collector system.

In the next several months you will start to see this change finally take place. As mandated by Governor Rendell, each county in Pennsylvania will go to some type of single collection system for both the County governments and the local School Districts.

The goal is to stream line the number agencies collecting Earned Income to a single collection agency. This will hopefully promote cooperation between the local government agencies and the School Districts and eliminate some of the over head costs and red tape.

The difficult task will be to pick a collection agency that makes at least the majority of brokers happy and to make sure that the cost structure generates the savings it should by having such a stream lined operation.

The goal is to have the operation up and running by 2011 to meet the Governor's time line.

Taking a visit to New Castle

The Washington School District is taking a trip to New Castle to see how the district handled moving seventh- and eighth-graders to the high school.
The board decided Wednesday night to go to New Castle on May 27.
The move at New Castle occurred about six years ago. New Castle is one of about 140 districts in the state that has a seventh- through 12th-grade school, said Washington Superintendent Roberta DiLorenzo.
Washington is considering moving seventh- and eighth- graders to the high school as a way to consolidate resources and have a more efficient, effective program, DiLorenzo said at public hearings about the plan.
She said New Castle is similar to Washington so she thought it would be the right one for interested members of the community to visit. Community Advisory Committee members have asked for data showing how moving seventh- and eighth-graders to high school affected districts.
DiLorenzo said she told New Castle administrators that in addition to meeting with them, Washington representatives would like to meet with teachers who went through the transition.
She said administrators, teachers, school board members, City Council members, community advisory committee members and parents will be invited on the trip.
DiLorenzo said third-grade parents will be invited first because they will be affected first, based on the expected date of the move. She plans to create a flyer about the meeting and work with the district’s parent liaison to get information out to parents about the trip.
The district plans to take one bus to New Castle, and it will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis, she said.

Student bloggers

Please welcome Brendan and Benjamin Marasco, two Washington brothers who will post on our blog. Since the blog is about education, I thought it would be a great idea to have students posting here as well.
Welcome guys! Please jump right in and blog.

What's the best class size for kindergarten?

The Chartiers-Houston School Board had a discussion during its education committee meeting about the right size of elementary classes. The district is considering all-day kindergarten. What's the right size for those classes. Is it OK to keep them smaller if that means the upper elementary classes are larger? (Say ... 18 in kindergarten vs. 25 or 26 in fifth or sixth grade.)

If you had $100 billion, how would you fix public schools

Jay Mathews, of the Washington Post, has an interesting column today about suggestions of what public schools could do if they had more money. What do you think of the suggestions in his column? What do you think the top priorities should be?

Scanton State School for the Deaf to close and its students will attend the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf

The Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf will start providing more students education in the 2009-10 school year. The school will take over the existing programs for the Scranton Sate school for The Deaf. Operations will continue to be offered on the Scranton site during the 2009-10 school year.
Over a three-year period, the Western Pennsylvania School will work with the community during the transition of closing down the Scranton School.

Washington School District

As Dawn stated, the feasibility study of renovating Washington High School and the possibility of moving grades 7 and 8 to that building was discussed at the May 4 School Board meeting. A presentation of this study was also done at the April 20 School Board meeting, which included information from the architect and a financial planner for the district.

The Powerpoint from this presentation is now available on the Washington School District website. You may click on the following link:

http://www.washington.k12.pa.us

and then click on the link to view the Powerpoint.

Another public forum meeting to discuss this will take place in the near future on a date to be determined. As soon as a date, time, and place are decided, I will post that information on this blog, and it will also be posted on the district website.

Answering questions about moving seventh and eighth graders to Washington High School

At Monday night's school board meeting, several parents said they don't want seventh and eighth graders moved to Washington High School. Many others felt the community needs more information before the board votes on whether to move the students. The Observer-Reporter is going to work on getting those answers and posting them here. If you have questions you would like answered, please post them on the blog. I will work on getting answers from the administration and school board as quickly as possible.

How much will your property taxes get cut?

For the second year in a row, home and farm owners in Pennsylvania will see a property tax cut because of state gambling money. You must live in your home or on your farm to qualify. You must also apply. This year's deadline was March 1. If you missed the deadline, you can still apply to get the tax relief next year.
The cuts are different in each district. However, within a district, everyone will get the same amount slashed off of their tax bill. Find out what your tax cut will be here.

State Budget/Stimulus Funding

This week's post will discuss the update on the Stimulus Funding and the impact it may have on the education funding for the schools in Pennsylvania.

I attended a conference on the Stimulus Funding on May 1, 2009, to hear what the State's top financial people had to say in terms of defining how the funds could be used and how School Districts would be accessing and accounting for these funds.

Unfortunately no clear answers were given at this conference. The State is still in a wait and see mode, looking for guidance from the Federal Government. This makes it very difficult for local School District's, who by law must pass their preliminary budgets this month.

My speculation is that most School Districts will not incorporate Stimulus Funding into their preliminary budget or even their final budget if no clear set of directives are given.

What may happen is that the School District's may treat this funding source as "pass through funds" posting the actual expenses and revenues as transfer items to their actual expenditure and revenue accounts (which haven't been developed yet by PDE) when they actually receive the funds as close their financial books on 2009-10.

Hopefully, some of the logistical issues can resolved soon so that money from the Federal Government can be put to good use immediately and enable School Districts to not raise taxes in order to expand academic opportunities for our students.

Roller skating in physical education class

The Donora Elementary students were obviously having fun when they were doing this. The school brought roller skating in for two weeks during physical education classes. Schools are doing a number of cool things to get kids to be more active.
What cool stuff is your school doing in phys ed?

State tutor of the year is from Pennsylvania

I interviewed Celia Reynolds earlier this month, as well as Elva Sanchez, the woman she has tutored to read and prepare for the GED. Reynolds has been named 2009 Outstanding Pennsylvania Tutor of the Year.

Ringgold School Board member accused of sexual assault

Ringold School Board member Charles H. Smith Jr., 53, of New Eagle, was charged in connection with a 2007 sexual assault.
State police accuse Smith of forcing a female employee into having sex with him when she went to his mobile home about 7 p.m. July 7, 2007, to retrieve paperwork.

McGuffey mulls response plans

At Thursday night's school board meeting, the McGuffey School Board discussed the changes the administration made in response to bomb threats and listened to parents concerns about how to deal with any threats in the future.
One parent was concerned about keeping all the kids in the stadium and suggested the district find another location. Another asked that the administration send letters home to parents, keeping them informed about what's going happening.
The administration stopped student parking for a few days and also has regulated which bathrooms can be used since that's where the threats were left. The students must sign into use the second-floor bathrooms and all others are closed, except those around the cafeteria. They are open for use during the school's four lunch periods.
How do you think McGuffey should respond?