It’s been 20 years since the doors opened on a new high school in Albuquerque, and that stretch is coming to an end. That was the headline on Kob-TV's website about the first high school to be built in Albuquerque in 20 years. That school, Volcano Vista High School, was built on the NW mesa of Albuquerque and will open to freshman only this fall as the school is set for total completion next year.

Now I have always been very critical of APS (Albuquerque Public Schools) for not building any new high schools in over 20 years. The last high school that was built before Volcano Vista was La Cueva High School which opened in 1986 (which might I add was only 2 years after I was born and I will be 23 this month).

Also it is not like we have not been growing or anything. According to the U.S. Bureau of Census, between 1986 and 2006 (the last year there is data for), Albuquerque has grown by over 250,000 people. So we have grown by one quarter of a million people (at least 1/3 of our current population) and not one single new high school built? WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS SCHOOL DISTRICT.

In one of my planning classes a few years back, the head of planning for APS came in to give us a presentation about their planning and all that other stuff. So when it came time for a Q&A session, I asked him why APS had not built a new high school since La Cueva? His response was that "APS was right where they thought they would be. Being that I went to Cibola High School (the districts most over crowded school with over 2500 students when I went there, and now almost 3500 students) I was pissed off with this answer and let him have it. I asked him "So, APS was expecting to be to a point where most of their schools were severely overcrowded?". He had no answer to my question, and very quickly changed the subject. Meanwhile, my planning instructor was over in the corner trying not to laugh too loud that I was ripping the head of APS planning a new ass hole.

Now some people tell me when I bring this subject up, "There too has been a new high school, Rio Rancho has built a few high schools in the past 10 years". Well, I do not consider Rio Rancho to be part of this equation. APS got very lucky that Rio Rancho split off, and formed their own school district back in 1997. Had Rio Rancho not spilt off, APS would have even more students then they do now, and things would be much worse off then they were.

So now here we sit 20 years later, with the first new school opening and at least 2 more set to open in the next 1 to 5 years. All I am going to say is "ABOUT DAMN TIME". Now maybe students in APS will have a freaking chance at getting something that might resemble a education.

I have figured out that the City of Albuquerque would not know planning if it bit them on the ass. I mean really, look at this city. Our bus system is joke, our roads are way past congested, I am not even sure they know what land use is and our impact fee system is a freaking mess. They think a planned community is just sprawl and rapid unplanned growth.

Take for example an article in the Westside Edition of the Albuquerque Journal from Friday March 9, 2007. The article was about how Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) is trying to plan for the future and work with a developer of a new Westside master planned community to make sure that land & money for schools will be there, so they can have real schools in place.

For once in APS’s history, I think they are trying to plan for the future and not play catch up like they have for the past 10 years or so. But the City of Albuquerque which I think is just pissed cus Quail Ranch was annexed by Rio Rancho in 2003 so they will not see the tax base does not see it that way.

This agreement had been delayed once before because some of the Albuquerque city councilors had voiced opposition to the agreement. Councilors Debbie O'Malley, Michael Cadigan and Martin Heinrich said in a letter that "Albuquerque Public Schools should not assist the developer of Quail Ranch in avoiding sound growth management and development practices called for in the (city's) Planned Growth Strategy,"…"APS should not support non-sustainable draw-down of our common aquifer. APS should not ignore the traffic congestion on the West Side that it will significantly aggravate if it chooses to support the development of Quail Ranch."

Um, I’m sorry, but when did it become APS’s problem to deal with traffic congestion or our aquifer. Um, cus its not there issues to deal with, it’s the cities. Yep, last time I checked it’s the city’s job deal with growth and traffic and aquifer type crap, not the school districts. Also these dumb asses need to realize that schools do not create these problems, lack of planning and lack of infrastructure on the part of the city and state does.

Really by not building schools in the area where there is new home development, that would make traffic worse as you would force the area residents to commute to these schools instead of having them in there area. But not according to the Albuquerque City Council who also said in there letter, "By agreeing at this time to provide schools in Quail Ranch, APS will become a primary force for rapid unplanned growth,"…"New schools foster new development."

So I am guessing that the city council is not getting the point behind “Master Planned Communities”, which is that they are planned down to the very last detail including roads, schools, parks, and community centers. I think the city council does not like Master Planned Communities because it makes them look bad. LOL.

See the City of Albuquerque for what ever reason has relied on the developer to build the cities infrastructure. That is why when you goto the Westside you see so many roads that go from 4 lanes to 2 lanes back to 4 lanes again, cus the developer of the property is only responsible for his/her portion of the road, only on there half of the street, which is why only half of a lot of Westside roads are built. So really the city created this mess them selves. Which is why I think they don’t like master planned communities, where all the roads within the community its self are complete to full build out.

Anyway, case in point, the city does not know the difference between planning and there asses. As I have said before, the city did not even have a planning office until 1975. If you look at the parts of the city that were built pre-planning office and the parts that were built post-planning office, the parts that are pre-planning work a lot better then the new parts.

Anyway that just my bitch for now.

So, that headline was one of the lead stories in the paper today. Just for all you out of town / state people, APS (Albuquerque Public Schools)is our public school district here in Albuquerque.

What I guess kills me is that we are charging our school district Impact Fees. Impact Fees cover the expenses for the infrastructure (such as sewers and roads) and public services (such as fire and police protection) that the new development will require. To me, public schools fall under "public services".

To me in a perfect world (which we all know Albuquerque is not even close in), the school district should be getting money from the impact fees to pay for new schools, and improvements to the older ones. I have no clue how it is done in other cities / states, but I know that here in Albuquerque, APS has not built a new high school since the early to mid 1980's. So anywhere from 20 to 25 years with out a new high school in town that has been growing at an unchecked rate is just crazy.

Cibola, the high school I went to, was the second newest school built back in 1975. It was designed for a true capacity of 1,800 students. Right now, Cibola is around 3000 students. APS claims that Cibola's capacity is 2,200, but I have seen the documents, and that is a bunch of shit. It is amazing the stuff you see and learn when you were not only a student in the district, but also an employee of the district also. Also, back when I worked for RDA, we were doing projects for APS, and some of the stuff they try and get away with is messed up.

So, here is the article you people who care.

Impact Fees to Cost APS Millions

By Andrea Schoellkopf Journal Staff Writer     Albuquerque Public Schools will have to pay about $1 million in impact fees plus $3.1 million to bring utilities to a new West Side high school.     APS has budgeted $60.8 million toward the first phase of a new high school to open on Universe just south of Ventana Ranch as early as 2007.     The new school is being built to ease overcrowding at Cibola High School, which was built for 2,200 students but now serves close to 3,000.     Some $988,000 in fees is required under the city's new Planned Growth Strategy.     The other $3.1 million is expected to be the off-site costs of extending utility lines, roads and sidewalks to the undeveloped land west of the city's escarpment along Universe, said John Petronis, president for Architectural Research Consultants of Albuquerque, which is helping plan the new school. That's because there has not been any other neighboring development yet to absorb those costs.( Full Story from Albuquerque Journal )