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Redmond schools past and present This letter by Bill Bodden of Redmond was submitted to The (Bend) Bulletin in July 2002 Presumably your (John Costa) column (July 7th) on the need for school upgrades in Redmond was addressed to the voting residents of the Redmond school district. A more useful exercise would be to address another version of your column to the various officials involved in spending funds that the taxpayers might authorize. Your column refers to a level of intelligence and judiciousness that went into the construction of the original Redmond high school (now Evergreen Elementary) that appears to have been lacking during the last decade in Redmond and may continue as such in 2002. Consideration of Evergreen Elementary and more recent construction will help to illustrate my point. There is an architectural rule of thumb that says that a square, multi-story building is less expensive to build and maintain than a one-story building spread over a larger area. The latter design becomes much more costly when gratuitous cathedral roofs are part of the design to satisfy the egos of architects and officials. Evergreen is a model of judicious design; all other schools in the Redmond school district are anything but. There is also the question of acreage allotted to each school. I believe it would have been better to be a little more generous with land for recreational purposes for Evergreen, but the campuses at most of the other schools are excessive. Presumably, sports addicts will not agree with this, but I am inclined to believe that others that believe schools are primarily for education will agree with my position. There are other problems that promoters of the new school bond need to address if the bond is to pass. Suffice it to say at this time that I agree completely with Frank Smith in his letter regarding SDCs for schools published on the letters page of the Perspective section. To sum my position on this issue, I am in favor of providing the young people of Redmond with the facilities they need to get a good education. I am, however, not in favor of conducting business as usual. Back to Education Home Page Back to Schools Home Page |
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