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LA’s $578 Million Public School

Did all those teachers get fired for this?

Next month’s opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will be auspicious for a reason other than its both storied and infamous history as the former Ambassador Hotel, where the Democratic presidential contender was assassinated in 1968.

With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation’s most expensive public school ever.

The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la creme of “Taj Mahal” schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities.

“There’s no more of the old, windowless cinderblock schools of the ’70s where kids felt, ‘Oh, back to jail,'” said Joe Agron, editor-in-chief of American School & University, a school construction journal. “Districts want a showpiece for the community, a really impressive environment for learning.”

Not everyone is similarly enthusiastic.

“New buildings are nice, but when they’re run by the same people who’ve given us a 50 percent dropout rate, they’re a big waste of taxpayer money,” said Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution who sits on the California Board of Education. “Parents aren’t fooled.”

At RFK, the features include fine art murals and a marble memorial depicting the complex’s namesake, a manicured public park, a state-of-the-art swimming pool and preservation of pieces of the original hotel.

Partly by circumstance and partly by design, the Los Angeles Unified School District has emerged as the mogul of Taj Mahals.

The RFK complex follows on the heels of two other LA schools among the nation’s costliest — the $377 million Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, which opened in 2008, and the $232 million Visual and Performing Arts High School that debuted in 2009.

The pricey schools have come during a sensitive period for the nation’s second-largest school system: Nearly 3,000 teachers have been laid off over the past two years, the academic year and programs have been slashed. The district also faces a $640 million shortfall and some schools persistently rank among the nation’s lowest performing.

Nationwide, dozens of schools have surpassed $100 million with amenities including atriums, orchestra-pit auditoriums, food courts, even bamboo nooks. The extravagance has led some to wonder where the line should be drawn and whether more money should be spent on teachers.

Some experts say it’s not all flourish and that children learn better in more pleasant surroundings.

Many schools incorporate large windows to let in natural light and install energy-saving equipment, spending more upfront for reduced bills later. Cafeterias are getting fancier, seeking to retain students who venture off campus. Wireless Internet and other high-tech installations have become standard.

And what will be the political fallout or gain from this school?

Now to get state funds for a new school, districts must choose among three designs costing $49 million to $64 million. “We had to bring some sense to this process,” Cahill said.

In Los Angeles, officials say the new schools were planned long before the economic pinch and are funded by $20 billion in voter-approved bonds that do not affect the educational budget.

Still, even LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines derided some of the extravagance, noting that donations should have been sought to fund the RFK project’s talking benches commemorating the site’s history.

Connie Rice, member of the district’s School Bond Oversight Committee, noted the megaschools are only three of 131 that the district is building to alleviate overcrowding. RFK “is an amazing facility,” she said. “Is it a lot of money? Yes. We didn’t like it, but they got it done.”

Construction costs at LA Unified are the second-highest in the nation — something the district blames on skyrocketing material and land prices, rigorous seismic codes and unionized labor.

James Sohn, the district’s chief facilities executive, said the megaschools were built when global raw material shortages caused costs to skyrocket to an average of $600 per square foot in 2006 and 2007 — triple the price from 2002. Costs have since eased to $350 per square foot.

On top of that, each project had its own cost drivers.

After buildings were demolished at the site of the 2,400-student Roybal school, contaminated soil, a methane gas field and an earthquake fault were discovered. A gas mitigation system cost $17 million.

Over 20 years, the project grew to encompass a dance studio with cushioned maple floors, a modern kitchen with a restaurant-quality pizza oven, a 10-acre park and teacher planning rooms between classrooms.

The 1,700-student arts school was designed as a landmark, with a stainless steel, postmodernistic tower encircled by a rollercoaster-like swirl, while the RFK site involved 15 years of litigation with historic preservationists and Donald Trump, who wanted to build the world’s tallest building there. The wrangling cost $9 million.

Methane mitigation cost $33 million and the district paid another $15 million preserving historic features, including a wall of the famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub and turning the Paul Williams-designed coffee shop into a faculty lounge.

Sohn said LA Unified has reached the end of its Taj Mahal building spree. “These are definitely the exceptions,” he said. “We don’t anticipate schools costing hundreds of millions of dollars in the future.”

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10 Things You Didn’t Know About Social Security

The Social Security program turns 75 this week. Since Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935, few workers have not been impacted by the social program. Almost all Americans pay into the system, and Social Security is the largest source of income for citizens age 65 and older. Yet this huge entitlement has many facets, some of which are not widely known. Here are 10 things you may not know about Social Security:

The system is bigger than the economy of most countries. For the past 20 years, the Social Security program has been the largest single item in the federal government’s budget. “The amount of money flowing through the Social Security system each year is larger than the total economies of all but the 16 richest nations in the world,” says Larry DeWitt, the U.S. Social Security Administration historian. The Social Security program has collected $13 trillion in income and expended $10.6 trillion in payments since the first tax collections began in 1937 through 2007. That’s an amount of money that Social Security’s first beneficiary, Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vt.–who collected initial payments of $22.54 a month for 35 years–probably never dreamed of.

[See 10 Places to Reinvent Your Life in Retirement.]

It’s not just a retirement program. The original Social Security program paid benefits only to retired workers. Later, disability benefits and payments for a beneficiary’s spouse and children and were added to the program. “If you graduated from college four years ago, you are already protected against disability,” says Edward Berkowitz, professor of history and public policy and public administration at George Washington University. “If you are married and have children, your dependents are protected.” Annual Social Security Administration mailings to all workers age 25 and older include an estimated amount that you would be paid if you become disabled and how much your spouse and children would receive if you should pass away.

You pay 6.2 percent of your income into the system. Almost all American workers (94 percent) pay 6.2 percent of their taxable income, up to $106,800 annually, into the Social Security trust fund. Employers pay a matching 6.2 percent for each worker. Self-employed workers must contribute 12.4 percent of their income annually.

There haven’t always been cost-of-living increases. Annual cost-of-living adjustments didn’t become a part of Social Security until 1975 (as a result of a 1972 law). Prior to 1975, an act of Congress was required to increase benefits to keep up with consumer prices. “Before then, benefits were protected from inflation only when Congress chose to notice it,” says Berkowitz. Now increases in payments are tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. Annual increases have ranged from 1.3 percent in 1996 and 1998 to 14.3 percent in 1980. For the first time in 2010, there was no cost of living boost because the index did not increase between the third quarter of 2008 and 2009.

Retirees can increase annual payments by waiting to claim. Workers can begin receiving Social Security benefits at age 62. But payouts increase by 7 to 8 percent for each year you delay your start date, up until age 70. Workers who sign up early receive smaller monthly checks over a great number of years, while those who delay claiming receive bigger payouts for the rest of their life. “If you know you are going to live past the age of 80, you are better off delaying Social Security,” says Lita Epstein, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Social Security and Medicare. “Baby boomers who know they are going to have a long life are much better off waiting.” Epstein, who is spending down her Roth IRA assets in order to delay claiming Social Security, says her benefits will increase by about $500 each month by waiting until age 70 to sign up.

Couples have extra options. Spouses are entitled to Social Security benefits of up to 50 percent of the higher earner’s check if that amount is higher than the payments based on his or her own working record. Widows and widowers are entitled to the higher earner’s full retirement payout. Duel-earner couples who have reached their full retirement age can even claim twice by first signing up for a spousal payment, then claiming again later based on their own work record (which will then be higher due to delayed claiming). Ex-spouses are also eligible for benefits if the marriage lasted at least 10 years.

[See 6 Ways Couples Can Maximize Social Security Payouts.]

Existing beneficiaries can get a do-over. If you’ve already signed up for Social Security and received a reduced payout, it’s not too late to boost your check. If you pay back the entire amount you have already received from Social Security without interest, you can then qualify for higher payments for the rest of your life.

Social Security numbers have significance. The first three digits of your Social Security number are assigned based on geographical region, with the lowest numbers being assigned in the Northeast and increasingly higher numbers assigned to residents in the West. The middle two digits, called the group number, are allocated in a precise but nonconsecutive order between 01 and 99. The last four digits are issued in a sequential order. Over 420 million unique numbers have been issued and they are not reused after a person’s death. Social Security numbers have been assigned shortly after birth since 1989, which makes younger American’s Social Security numbers somewhat predictable if you know a person’s date of birth and home town, which is common information that young people list on social networking websites, according to research by Alessandro Acquisti, an associate professor of information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. “Do not offer personal information such as date of birth and hometown publicly,” he advises.

Paper Social Security checks will soon be retired. Social Security recipients will be required to collect payments by direct deposit into a bank account or a government Direct Express Debit MasterCard beginning on March 1, 2011. Existing beneficiaries must switch to electronic payments by March 1, 2013. Paperless payments are expected to save $300 million over five years, according to Treasury Department estimates.

[See 12 Ways to Fix Social Security.]

The trust fund has a projected deficit. The Social Security trust fund is currently projected to be sufficient to provide payments until the end of 2037. Then, unless changes are made to the program, there will only be sufficient resources to pay about 78 percent of scheduled benefits. Congress is currently considering a variety of potential fixes, including tax increases, benefit cuts, and pushing back the retirement age. A U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging report released in May found that relatively minor tweaks could put the trust fund back on sound financial ground for at least 75 more years. “It’s a shame that the tone of the 75th celebration is sort of nostalgic,” says Berkowitz. “I would hope that the 75th anniversary is not only about how good things used to be, but also about how good things could still be in the future.”

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Family

Summertime is the season for a Black tradition, and that is the family reunion. I’m not sure how other groups do it, but most of us have either our immediate family or groups of families that share the same ancestral line to come together somewhere in the US for a weekend of camaraderie, food, and fun.

We missed both of ours this year, but received updates from family members who attended. In a discussion with my favorite cousin, Nikki, I realized how this wonderful tradition could eventually disappear, since the younger generations (in my family at least) aren’t attending or interested in keeping it going.

Nikki and I got into a thought-provoking discussion about how it seems all Black people aren’t as dependant on family as we once had to be, due to segregation. Most of our families were able to get settled after the passing of the Civil Rights Act because they depended on the help of other families. If family had the means to move West or North for hopes of a better life, they would settle in and send for other family members. Also, families that couldn’t afford to relocate or take an entire family trip would send their children out to those family members who moved away to keep the connection strong, and to expose their children to something more than their immediate neighborhood.

There was also a time when families had to work together to create businesses to meet the needs of their communities. Sons would follow in their father’s footsteps and take up daddy’s trade; daughters spent time shadowing mama to learn how to garden, cook, sew, and do hair; and all these things combined led to Black folks having a taste of economic independence by having our own stores, salons, restaurants – any business we wanted and were skilled in.

With our world so topsy turvy, now more than ever we need our family members, and we need to work with them to bring some of these traditions back. There’s no one like your blood – and though they can get on our nerves the most, they are also the ones who will love us when we’re sad, feed us when we’re hungry, and embrace us when we’ve fallen off our path.

Take care of your elders folks. Talk to them and get YOUR family history. Stay close to loved ones, today and everyday. After all, family is love.

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What’s for Dinner?

My biggest challenge these days is balancing a full-time job (that can push me to 60 hours a week during peak periods), being a good wife, and keeping up with my toddler.  So, I am searching for a way to have good, healthy home-cooked meals for my family, while trying not to overspend and develop wasteful habits with my grocery shopping.  I’m hoping to be able to create more family time and less time in the kitchen cooking and cleaning for hours during the week after a long day.

Our financial advisor recommended a program called Dream Dinners (DD) that would help reduce our monthly grocery bill. DD is a program where you go online (www.dreamdinners.com) to view their menu, choose your meals, and set up a session time to visit the center and arrange your meals.  When you get to the DD center, you get an apron, meal cards for all of the meals you choose online, and several ziplock freezer bags.  The meal cards have the instructions on how you will prepare the meal when you are ready to cook it and the bags are used to store your meals.

In the DD center are stations with the meals that you and the other patrons (there are usually 8-12 of you in one session at a time) have chosen to buy.  At each station there is a recipe card for you to follow how to arrange your meals in the ziplock bags (or aluminum pans if applicable).  Once you have arranged your meal, you tape the meal card for that meal on the front of the bag and put it on your shelf in the refrigerator until you are ready to leave.  Once you are done arranging all you meals, the staff packs it in the cooler bags that you brought with you (I took insulated Jenny Craig bags) and you go home and put it all in the freezer.

The nice thing about DD is that all of the prep and clean up is done by the center, so you don’t have to chop any onions, peel any garlic, grate any cheese; you simply just dump ingredients in bags/pans and label and freeze.  When you get home you load up the freezer and thaw meals in the refrigerator for a day or so before you plan to cook.  Easy Peesy!

The quality of the food for us was average in the taste category.  There were 3-4 meals that were super yummy, and there were a few that just didn’t fit our (really my) taste palate.

The downfall of this program is that it can be pricey, but it all depends on what you spend currently on groceries.  The average price for a DD meal is about $22 per meal.  Each meal usually yields either 3- or 6-servings and each meal is only the main course; you would still need to shop in the produce and pasta/rice aisle for your complimentary side dishes.  The servings are generous, so my husband and I were able to stretch a 3-serving meal into 4 servings, but if you have greedy people in your family (lol) you may not be able to stretch the meals.  You have to purchase at least 36-servings at a time.  So that can cost you an average of $200 each session for 36-servings.  If you can make the 36 servings (36-servings = 6 6-serving meals or 12 3-serving meals) last the entire month, then this is a good deal.  But more than likely, this will only get you through 18 days worth of meals.

So to test the affordability, I thought I would try the concept of Once A Month Cooking (OAMC), created by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg.  This concept gives you a menu of meals for everyday of the month, which you will prep and cook all in one day.  After you cook, you freeze the meals, and thaw, warm, and serve throughout the month.  I purchased the book off Amazon, and tried this idea a few weeks ago.

Since I have such a small freezer, I decided to only cook 15 meals.  Even though I only cooked 15 meals, I still will have enough food for the entire month because every meal is 4-8 servings, which allows my husband and I to have leftovers.  The book is suppose to give you a complete shopping list for your meals, but be careful and double check your recipes because I found missing items on the lists they provided.  I also found many editorial mistakes in this book, like missing recipes, so if you choose to buy this book, double check EVERYTHING!

One of the tips they give you is to shop the day before, and then dedicate the next day to cooking.  Before you go shopping, they also suggest checking your cupboard to see if you have some of the essentials (such as salt, pepper, curry powder, chicken bouillon), so you don’t buy something you already have.  I budgeted $200, and only spent $175 on all the food I needed and storage containers.  Most of the storage containers are ziplock bags (which I already had), but some of the recipes called for things like 9-quart containers and baking pans.  To save time with my chicken dishes, I cooked all the chicken the day before and chopped it up for the various dishes on my list.  Another good tip I received was to buy frozen chopped onions (and other veggies) at Smart & Final.  This helped tremendously!

The following day I began cooking at 11am, took one break around 2pm and was finished with all 15 dishes by 5pm.  My legs hurt so bad from standing all day (you can tell I’m use to a desk job), but it was totally worth it.  We’ve eaten 3 of the meals so far, and there has only been 1 (Turkey Goulash, YUCK!) that I didn’t like (my husband ate it, but he will eat anything!).  Everything else has been yummy!

Of the two programs, I think I like the OAMC best.  There is more flexibility in the flavors and meals overall.  One thing I didn’t like about DD is that there were not any alternatives that I could choose for beef and pork dishes.  Being that we are a strictly no pork, occasional beef eating household, we eat a lot of ground turkey and other poultry.  So, the DD burgers were beef, and when OAMC called for beef burgers, all I had to do was buy turkey as a substitute.  When I do OAMC for August, I plan to get recipes from the Food Network and my own back pocket to create my own menu.

Try both and tell me what you think!

Live. Eat. Love.

Be Prosperous!

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What’s Faith Got To Do With It?

Faith is defined as,  “a strong belief in God or the doctrine of a religion”. I am no expert on faith, or on marriage, but I know traditionally faith has played a significant role in marriage. Couples vowed to stay together until death do them part or fear the wrath of God. These marriages lasted decades. A lot has changed since then. Which begs the question:

As people lose faith in God, will they also lose faith in marriage?

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It Takes A Village…

This weekend my other half, Chris, and I had the arduous task of pulling off a birthday party for our 2-year old son, Eli. It would be our first official “kiddie” party, and in spite of whether or not Eli knew what was going on, we were determined that it be an event he and the other guests enjoyed. After reading a “how-to” article on throwing parties for kids, we decided to set an end time and make the party a short and sweet, 2-hour event.

We tried to keep party preparations within a budget, but as events tend to do, we overspent a little. An hour before the party we had transformed our backyard into a kiddie carnival: a slide, basketball hoop, a trike, and balls and hula-hoops were everywhere. But by the time the party was suppose to start, we had no guests.

I watched as Eli ran around the yard, oblivious to the fact that anybody was suppose to enjoy all the toys other than him. When 45 minutes had passed, he let it be known it was time to eat and Chris and I agreed. Of course, once we sat down to break bread, guests began to arrive.

Needless to say we went way past our two-hour plan, and didn’t notice or care. Once all of our loved ones had arrived safely, we were happy to spend time catching up and watching our children/godchildren interact. I sat back in awe of the folks in our backyard, most of which we had grown up and went to school with. It’s always amazing to think that we’ve sustained friendships long enough to now have families of our own.

In classic Black tradition, the kiddie party simmered on down into an adult party once the children wore themselves out. We spent a few hours having some amazing grown folk conversation, challenging each other on various Wii games, and just spending time together. Though Chris and I should have been worn out too, spending quality time with great friends renewed us, and gave us our second wind.

A good village does more than just raise children; it supports, uplifts, and upholds families. We are so grateful for the one we’ve been blessed with.

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FEAR of A White Dress! (Women and Marriage) UPDATE!!

So I was watching the BET awards over the weekend and I noticed an alarming trend. All these beautiful, strong, talented, gifted, and smart…single moms, unmarried women having children. My mother-in-law said that in this day and age, there is no such thing as an accidental pregnancy. How is it that we (and our young girls), respect and look up to the likes of Alicia Keys? If you saw the headline, Pop Star Sleeps With Newly Divorced Man And Gets Pregnant! What would your response be to that? Where are the women that liked getting swept off their feet and invest in marriage before they have babies!? Now, I’m not judging Alicia Keys’ actions; she is an adult and a human being, which makes her not perfect by any means, but this is just how I view the situation. And it sparks the question: Are Black Women more fearful of marriage and commitment than Black men?

UPDATE!! UPDATE!! UPDATE!!

Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats announced late Tuesday evening that they’re engaged, and that the Grammy-winning singer is expecting the couple’s first child together.

The news might have been a surprise to some: Keys is an R&B/pop superstar who has performed at President Barack Obama’s inauguration, while Swizz (real name: Kasseem Dean) is a Ruff Ryders alumnus and a veteran hip-hop producer who’s laced Jay-Z and DMX with some of their grittiest tracks.

But the musical couple have been dating for a couple of years, at least since 2008, when rumors of their union began to swirl — and recently whispers about the two ratcheted up when photos of Keys with what appeared to be a baby bump appeared online.

Here’s a timeline of the couple’s relationship:

» In 2008, music-industry insiders began buzzing about a pairing between Swizz — then married to R&B chanteuse Mashonda — and Keys, but the speculation turned public when gossip blog TheYBF.com published a post detailing their union, citing a source close to the singer.

» Later in 2008, Alicia Keys threw a surprise birthday party for the art-collecting producer (who by then was separated from his wife) at New York’s Guggenheim Museum. Although they wouldn’t appear in public together until the following year, the shindig solidified that the two were an item.

» In 2009, Swizz Beatz all but confirmed his relationship with Keys through a remix verse he added to Drake’s hit, “Best I Ever Had,” rapping, “She gave me a party at the Guggenheim … What’s next? The ring? The baby? She really loves me.”

» Throughout the year, Keys and Swizz (engaged in a messy divorce from Mashonda, including public spat on Twitter) were spotted together at a bevy of events, including his pre-Grammy Awards event, game three of World Series (where she performed alongside Jay-Z), and a swank Whitney Houston album preview event; the musical pair worked together to produce the Houston single “Million Dollar Bill.”

» This year, the duo have been frequently photographed together, both domestically and abroad; pics of Keys performing across the Atlantic caused a stir online as the singer’s loose-fitting clothing led many to believe she was hiding a baby bump.

» On Thursday, a spokesperson for the couple confirmed that they were engaged and are expecting their first child together. The baby will be her first and his third: The producer has two other children from previous relationships.

What do you think about Swizz Beats and Alicia Keys’ relationship? Let us know in the comments!

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The Dating Game – Pt. I

I had a conversation with a friend of mine, a single man, about his single status and what challenges he faces with dating. He lives in New York, and I wondered whether his experience mirrored what I’ve been hearing here in Los Angeles. His primary concern is wanting to make sure whatever woman he’s with does not “dig for gold” and supports his 24 hour/7 days a week work ethic. I asked if he had ever come across a woman to fit his criteria. He replied, “I’ve had many good women that I’ve let go. In the back of my mind I always feel I can find someone even better.” I asked him why -why risk letting a good one go? He replied, “That’s how I was raised. Moms told me to run through as many chicks as possible.”

I had to think on this now that I have the opportunity to raise a young man of my own. As a single woman, I would hear these stories about mother’s advice to their sons and it would frustrate me. I couldn’t understand how a woman, who had previously been on the other side of things, could advice her son to run through women. Now, as a mother, I understand that perspective so much more. Part of it is a desire to protect the son from the wrong women (according to mom) coming at him aggressively and getting him caught up in a marriage or creating a child he isn’t ready for. Another part of it is the fear of knowing one day the son will grow up, and commit his life to a woman other than his mother. As a mom, you want that other woman to be someone you like, get along with, and who won’t try to separate you and your child.

Where does this protectiveness come from? Is it natural instinct? Is it a Black issue or does it affect mothers and sons of all races?

Earlier this month, an article was posted on Essence.com asking the question, “Do Black Women Raise Their Daughters And Love Their Sons?” For many generations, the idea of Black mothers favoring sons over daughters has been discussed, and seen as an exercise within our community. To understand whether or not this is an issue that pertains solely to Black people, I decided to scan the text of the infamous Let’s Make A Slave by Willie Lynch.

The section of the letter that discusses marriage amongst slaves advocates for slave owners to breed black males and females and then take the males away and allow the females to raise the babies from these unions alone. Lynch states, “Without the influence of the male image, the female will be frozen with an independant psychology…[the male] will be raised mentally dependant and weak, but physically strong…in other words, body over mind”. This claim made me think about my own upbringing and how the desire and need to be indepedent was taught to me very early by my mother who was a single parent for half of my life. I wondered if within a two-parent household, did the same atmosphere exist? And if so, are many Black men taught to be dependent on their mothers and therefore struggle with creating an emotional bond with other women?

Brothers, please speak on this topic – and know it’s not a judgement but a question. Let’s talk about this so we can begin to understand one another!

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Black Is…BRILLIANT

An article about this family was sent to my inbox a few months ago. Since then, I’ve been super curious as to how these children became such braniacs. Turns out, it runs in the family. This family, in spite of their location, gives me hope about the future of our children when properly educated. Far too many statistics support that Black students are underperforming and the focus is usually on the race of the student, not on the educational institutions that are miseducating them. If this family can succeed at this rate, we all can.