The discussion forum hosted on chuhfacilities.org is now closed to new entries, allowing us to focus attenttion on a single resource that is also easier to use. All entries and comments are preserved for review, but we will use the Civic Commons conversation for electronic dialog from this point on. http://theciviccommons.com/conversations/ch-uh-school-facilities

There is also a preview of recent responses embedded in the Civic Commons page on this site, with a link to access the conversation directly.

Please share this update widely so we can have many voices represented!

The Community Committee, chaired by Chyrel Oates and Krissy Dietrich Gallagher, will hold its first meeting on Thursday, November 29 at 7pm in the tasting room at the Wine Spot, 2271 Lee Road.

All are welcome.

The PowerPoint presentation made by Alvin Saafir on behalf of the Buildings Subcommittee at the Nov. 14, 2012 meeting of the CH-UH Lay Facilities Committee at Noble Elementary School can be found here.

I’ve added a number of CH-UH specific photos to the site that will rotate in the header area in place of the beautiful but generic photos that came with the template we’re using. Thanks to the Heights Alumni Foundation for the use of the photos which came from their Facebook group and the Al Gray Photo Archive.

Blog subscribers noted an influx of spam notifications this morning. This is because I turned forum/topic notifications on — there were two prior instances, but only the administrator was notified of them. The spam messages and the offending accounts have been deleted.

Any registered user can create and post to forum discussions (which we want), but I’ve added a layer of protection against spam-bots by requiring newly registered users to submit a verification code to complete their sign up. This will only prevent automated systems from abusing the system, so there’s still a chance that we’ll see spam in the future. I’ll delete the spam and the poster’s account as quickly as I can.

There’s a new discussion going on both in the forum and on our Facebook page, so take a look if you haven’t.

I encourage anyone interested in the work of the Lay Facilities Committee to click on “Discussion Forum” on the home page (live link here), to be part of a discussion aimed at helping the committee actually achieve anything beyond more talk.

There is a conversation at The Civic Commons, “CH-UH School Facilities,” which you can find here.

Also on Civic Commons, a conversation called “School facilities planning: True sustainability or lip-service?” can be found here.

We’ll do our best to keep everyone apprised of the places where conversations are going on. Please help by sharing any or all of this with anyone you think might care, and let me know when a link is dead or you have an idea on how to streamline things. It wouldn’t hurt to persuade those CH-UH resident who say they don’t care, that it might be in their interest to look in and weigh in.

– Posted by Patrick Mullen, Nov. 16, 2012

The next meeting of the LFC’s Buildings Committee is Tuesday the 20th of November @ 7PM in the Open Office’s space @ Coventry Commons (formerly known as Coventry School).

The meeting is open to the public and anyone is invited to be a member of this, or any, subcommittee of the Lay Facilities Committee.

The recently started Civic Commons conversation (thanks again Deanna!) is now embedded in our blog for your convenience. You’ll need to click through to the Civic Commons site to fully engage in the dialog.

The page is in the site menu, and you can click here to access it now.

We’ve made multiple updates to the site:

Added a dedicated “Roster” page with all the committee and sub-committee members

Added a “Resources and Links” Page where important content is posted. There are sub-pages with links to the presentations given at the 10/24 and 11/5 meetings and to research and commentary about grade level configuration.

CH-UH Lay Facilities Committee Meeting #3
11/14/12, 7:15 – 8:45 pm
Noble Elementary School Cafeteria

Agenda

1. Welcome & Thanks
Patrick Mullen, 5 minutes

2. Clarification of Committee Charge from Board of Education
Kal Zucker, 20 minutes including questions

3. Grade Configuration Summary
Doug Heuer, Jeff Talbert, 25 minutes including questions

4. Buildings Subcommittee Report, Clarification of Charge and Priorities
Alvin Saafir, 30 minutes including questions

5. Preview of Dec. 5 meeting.
Patrick Mullen, 5 minutes

Adjourn

On Nov. 8, 2012, Lay Facilities Committee member Betsey Bell sent me this email:

It is with a very heavy heart that I write to you to resign from the Facilities Committee.  I have begun a new job that requires some travel.  I have already missed one meeting, and know for a fact I will miss the next.  With the work that needs to be done between meetings, I simply know in my heart that I cannot pull my weight.  I believe wholeheartedly in the work being done, and I wish you the best of luck in the work ahead. I will continue to follow the work of the committee.  Thank you for all that you are doing for our schools.

 

On behalf of the committee, I thank Betsey for all the work she does in and for our schools, and wish her every success in her new job.

– Posted by Patrick Mullen, November 14, 2012