Recent comments in /f/rva

55V35lM t1_j6au6n7 wrote

Ahh, the fire alarm, which should have both notified the RFD and indicated where in the building the alarm was triggered but did neither owing known maintenance issues was not the primary contributing cause but it’s the fault of the nonexistent sprinklers - which would have likely failed anyway due to… lack of maintenance.

3

Loose-Violinist-1103 t1_j6atrx9 wrote

I said this is state wide - most of these schools were build 50 years before our peer in the countries. There’s a $26B statewide need to repair or replace Virginia schools. It’s a current issue in the GA. This isn’t just RPS. Rps is just further in the hole than most. Bristol is rough too.

3

Diet_Coke t1_j6atau1 wrote

Reply to comment by ManBMitt in Petersburg Casino by SwanOverSunshine

Casinos are an inherently extractive industry, the entire business model is you go in with money and hope you leave with money. There's no need for scare quotes. The casino group put out pie in the sky projections and if you don't believe them you're somehow a racist? Get real doofus.

8

Loose-Violinist-1103 t1_j6aqmft wrote

And no - were not here because of fire alarms. That was obviously bad - but it didn’t prevent RFD from getting to fox BEFORE it was in flames. They cleared the building and LEFT.

We’re here because there are some 50 schools in RPS and too many of them (fox included) haven’t been retrofitted for sprinklers because that costs about $40k per school and we don’t have that money.

1

Loose-Violinist-1103 t1_j6apeqn wrote

The Board voted to demolish Elkhardt Thompson (forest hill Ave) in 2020 because its poor condition is “unfit for use.”

90% of the RPS budget is for desperately needed staff. We have $9.5M in CIP funds in the current draft budget. At that rate of annual investment we’ll make it through all $2B of deferred maintenance in 210 years.

That’s not because of a couple of decades worth of a shitty facilities director who should have been fired a long time ago. That’s because school funding is systemically broken and schools have no way to afford their maintenance or replacement.

2