Can we talk abut school funding and the "voucher" option?

[dj_patm]

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[kenny]

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UCP is lying again...Second, she turned the lease of a new building into a negative somehow...Counting this as an inefficiency is fucking criminal, just like we expect though.

CBE is paying $65/sqft in their building and they sublease portions of the top 2 floors for $23/sqft. The 20 year contract they signed includes an annual 2.5% rent increase LOL. There are probably more issues with their lease but last time I looked into it, CBE was refusing to release the contract details. When those sub-leases expire they'll be even more fucked.

So if you're not a fan of UCP that's fine, but let's not pretend the CBE didn't fuck up big time when negotiating the lease.

[04Terminator]

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CBE is paying $65/sqft in their building and they sublease portions of the top 2 floors for $23/sqft. The 20 year contract they signed includes an annual 2.5% rent increase LOL. There are probably more issues with their lease but last time I looked into it, CBE was refusing to release the contract details. When those sub-leases expire they'll be even more fucked.

So if you're not a fan of UCP that's fine, but let's not pretend the CBE didn't fuck up big time when negotiating the lease.

It was 2010. So...... unless you are privy to some secret backroom shadiness, you are just full of shit like the minister is.

[04Terminator]

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Only on Beyond would you find people that think copying the US school system is a good idea. The school system that spends the most and produces some of the worst performing students in the developed world.

Never change.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...nd-south-korea

Yup, prior to this, they were only hung up on the American healthcare sham.

[kenny]

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It was 2010. So...... unless you are privy to some secret backroom shadiness, you are just full of shit like the minister is.

I don't think anyone outside of the trustees that did that deal has defended it so Kyle Fawcett is that you? George Lane? both those guys joined the board in 2004

[mr2mike]

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First, their "bureaucracy" (administration) consumes just 2.8% of their annual budget. Weird, that's better than CNRL for example. They have been running on shoe-string insufficient budgets for years, there's nothing left to cut!!

Knew there was some creative accounting going on for it to be only 2.8%...

In its operational review of the CBE released last month, the preliminary findings indicated "over half of the Central Administration Building's costs are allocated to instructional programming costs instead of being charged to administration overhead," the report read.

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...tion-1.4314396

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It was 2010. So...... unless you are privy to some secret backroom shadiness, you are just full of shit like the minister is.

Frank Bannon, a senior commercial real estate expert who reviewed some details of the lease obtained under access to information, described the deal as one of the worst in Calgary history.
In an email to CBC, Bannon said many aspects of the deal made no sense when it was negotiated. He says in today's environment of falling lease rates and half-empty office towers "the rent and other components of the deal are absurd."
The building, which is approximately 210,000 square feet, cost an estimated $130 million to build between 2008 and 2010.
The CBE moved into its new headquarters in February 2011 — leasing 200,000 sq. ft. from the building's owner, Toronto-based Bentall Investment Management.
The rent, which increases by 2.5 per cent each year, now costs the CBE $13 million per year.
That works out to an eye-popping $65 per square foot. Similar office space in the Beltline is being advertised for $14-$16 per square foot.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...tion-1.4314396

I think the hammer is about to fall. Hopefully someone can leak the documents on this lease agreement and find some more truths.

[rage2]

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Then move on to bulk orders of supplies. Go to grand and toy or whatever you want and push them for a deep discount based on your massive account or find the actual company and go directly to them with your large pens and paper order.
I can guarantee you the CBE is looking at the grand and toy invoice and saying, yep that's the cost...

What's hilarious is that I had a contract to sell computer parts (Monitors, mice, keyboards, etc.) to CBE back in the day. These things break all the time with kids use. Big order every month. Sold that shit at MSRP meaning 100 to 150% profit margin. Completely unheard of in the industry. They literally asked me for a price sheet, I provided it and they started ordering in bulk. I'd sell to retail customers at 10-15% margins. Did this for years, nobody wanted to deal with them because it can take months to get paid. That plus CBE is GST exempt, so if you don't charge enough margins, you're eating the GST for a couple of quarters.

[suntan]

The CBE lease is well known as the worst lease in NA. Whoever drew up that deal needs to be launched into the sun. The building will have been paid off by the end of the lease, which is unheard of.

[04Terminator]

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The CBE lease is well known as the worst lease in NA. Whoever drew up that deal needs to be launched into the sun. The building will have been paid off by the end of the lease, which is unheard of.

Even the "expert" above made it clear that he was comparing to today's vacancy ridden core. Not the economy in 2010.

And why would they be good at real estate? Because if they paid their board competitive wages and the "ceo" 4 million a year, you same critics would by up in arms how management makes too much.

[04Terminator]

And let's say and pretend the deal is bad, even for its day (btw, 2.5% annual increases were very normal) and they could have saved 5 million a year. They are still short $40 million.

Surely you recognize the insincerity in the UCP motives.

Btw
Catholic school board is 15 million short.
Rockyview school board is 10 million short
Foothills school division 4.5 million short

[mr2mike]

This is crazy that you're defending the deal so badly. LOL.

You know the deal reeks of insider deals when it's sworn to secrecy.

[04Terminator]

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This is crazy that you're defending the deal so badly. LOL.

You know the deal reeks of insider deals when it's sworn to secrecy.

It's crazy "you people" are doing the forest for the trees thing and supporting the UCP on this at all costs. All school boards are massively short, she went after CBE first since they are the biggest and usually not shy to call out governments.

The only way you can reasonably describe what the UCP is doing is "political gangsterism". They are attacking the entire public sector at any cost. Blatant lies and misdirection.

1) crazy funding shortfall
2) forcing the removal of the word "public" from school boards that have it.
3) seizing control of teachers pensions
4) banning reporting of classroom sizes.

And that's not even touching the ethics issue, healthcare etc.

Gangsters. A level of corruption and gangsterism that I have never seen in Alberta politics.

[mr2mike]

Public sector means your business details should be public knowledge as they use public dollars. Change careers if you don't like it. Healthcare system is next, don't worry.
Lies? I see some pretty compelling facts on the CBE spends thus far.
All boards are short, but some are using their slush fund to cover rest of the year and they're down $17M not $32M.

The prov. gov't. wants to know how their money is spent. It sucks to have investment pulled but you dig in and find efficiencies and get cashflow positive. Or you cover up for the mismanagement and move to lay people off.
You're defending that they're the most finely tuned business out there and can't trim anymore without layoffs. I just proved you could in previous posts and then Rage confirmed one of them, lol.

[suntan]

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Even the "expert" above made it clear that he was comparing to today's vacancy ridden core. Not the economy in 2010.

And why would they be good at real estate? Because if they paid their board competitive wages and the "ceo" 4 million a year, you same critics would by up in arms how management makes too much.

Good lord you're stupid.

[roopi]

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A letter sent out every month telling staff how much money is in their retirement fund?!
15k employees * 12 months * $1.05/stamp = $189k/yr.
That's an easy one.
What's that, 3 new teacher's salaries saved right there in just moving towards a simple email reminder to login to their account to view an update to their accounts.

Yeah yeah argue the bulk stamp discount rate... But you get my point.
And I didn't include the envelope cost or the person spending a week printing and packing the envelopes.

There is one flaw in this cost saving measure. The CBE doesn't send these letters out. Those letters would be sent by the Alberta Teachers Retirement Fund Board. Also it isn't monthly.

[04Terminator]

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There is one flaw in this cost saving measure. The CBE doesn't send these letters out. Those letters would be sent by the Alberta Teachers Retirement Fund Board. Also it isn't monthly.

Union h8ers gotta make up copious amounts of BS to prove they are right!

[JRSC00LUDE]

I wonder what it's like to always be the smartest person in every conversation and topic?

If you took all of Mike Commodore's tweets yesterday, replaced Babcock with 04Terminator and Toronto with Beyond, they would read flawlessly.

[arcticcat522]

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Union h8ers gotta make up copious amounts of BS to prove they are right!

Union l0vers gotta make up copious amounts of BS to prove they aren't insane....

[suntan]

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There is one flaw in this cost saving measure. The CBE doesn't send these letters out. Those letters would be sent by the Alberta Teachers Retirement Fund Board. Also it isn't monthly.

Well the CBE doesn't send them out, but there is certainly a cost attached to those letters, and that cost is certainly borne by the teachers, who are paid by the CBE, who gets their money from the government.

[killramos]

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I wonder what it's like to always be the smartest person in every conversation and topic?

If you took all of Mike Commodore's tweets yesterday, replaced Babcock with 04Terminator and Toronto with Beyond, they would read flawlessly.

You must spread some reputation around....