ENGcons

Well, I shared how I was coming up with 40%. If you correlate the feeder schools to Ulrich, using PASA demographics and AEIS data for economically disadvantaged, you will get between 36 and 43 percent depending on how you marry the PASA and AEIS data. If you have some better insight into the demographics for Ulrich, please share it. If not then what are you basing your opinion on?

Hate to break it to you but the original PASA study was Waaaaaaaaayyyy incorrect and you can call District to ask that. The second PASA study was so inaccurate that the Board actually told the District never to show it to them again. So, you can quote PASA all you want, but those that have been involved for a while know that PASA has historically been wrong, and it is more than likely not going to be used again. I think the Board is tired of shelling out money for PASA studies that continually show inaccurate information. So that is my better insight.

Lauchable? Schools receive funds under Title 1 for economically disadvantaged kids. Priority is given to schools that have 35% or more ed kids and at 40% the school is able to implement a schoolwide program. All of Kohrville is zoned to Ulrich and it has 39% economically disadvanted students. The largest area on Boudreaux zoned to Ulrich is a trailer park. This area is all the kids zoned to Frank outsize Gleannloch and more than likely has all the low income kids from Frank. That puts the ecomomically disadvantaged percent from that area around 50%. The remaining kids zoned to Ulrich are from Krahn. Krahn has a relatively low economically disadvantaged percentage (29%) but being from that area I know that a higher percentage is coming from the neighborhoods south of Spring Cypress and east of the railroad tracks. Memorial Springs is probably saving Ulrich from being over the 40%.

Yes it is laughable. And it is not going to be the case, this is nothing more than panic.

Wow. KISD just posted their preferred zoning plan for Ulrich on their home page http://kleinisd.net. It moves all of Gleannloch to Doerre and takes most of the low income kids off Boudreaux and moves them to Ulrich. The Brill kids east of the rr tracks will stay at Kleb. This will definitely lower the low income mix of students at Ulrich. Perhaps the district is going after the additional funds they get from having a Title 1 school.

It is laughable that anyone thinks that Ulrich will be a Title 1 School. Just not going to happen.

One of the proposals had all of Gleannloch going to Ulrich. The Gleannloch folks currently zoned to Krimmel were a little bent because Ulrich is "special". They think it is special because it is a 1-1 school (kids have tablet computers). Ulrich is NOT going to have the tablets. They were more than upset with the proposed move and requested a new option. All this was at the first zoning meeting. At the second meeting the new proposal using the railroad tracks was unveiled. I would be fine with all of Gleannloch going to Ulrich since it would balance the socioeconomic demographic.

I'm not sure why the district drafted a new proposal to make Gleannloch happy. I'd bet that most of them have at least 1 computer in their home. Same cannot be said for a lot of the homes east of the railroad tracks. I asked if they considered socioeconomics and was told that they cannot take that into consideration. Anyone know of a law that precludes a district from using socioeconomics when drawing school boundaries? The Dept. of Education lists it as one tool to help with diversification.

I know all four of the proposals, and the one that had all of Gleannloch at Doerre made the most sense. And I understand that only one lady stood up and made that ludicrus "special" comment and so the district came up with 2 new proposals and kept Gleannloch split. I can tell you that the VAST majority of Gleannloch residents that are at Krimmel would rather have all of Gleannloch all at one Intermediate School.

Right now that neighborhood is a community divided. The families that live in North Gleannloch are at a disadvantage when (if) the new HS ges built. Their kids will have gone to Frank, where the majority of GF does not attend, then to Krimmel where the majority of GF does not attend, and then if they go to a new HS only then will they go to school with the kids in their own neighborhood. How is that right? Not to mention how far Krimmel is away form GF.

The notebooks either need to go away, or they need to expand that throughout the District. Have some consistancy for once KISD. My understadning is that a great deal of parents do not like them anyway.

Now that I think about this it makes no sense whatsoever.

What are the numbers west of the RR tracks to support a new school? Not enough probably

What about hte neighborhoods just east of those tracks on Spring Cypress? Do they stay at the same place? Is Gleannloch still split or is it all at one school?

Picking the RR tracks as a marker is just about the laziest thing I have seen. Put a little more effort into this and do some real work getting the numbers right. Don't jsut pick a point on the map and say that looks good.

This infomration has to be incorrect.

So now it is the railroad tracks?! I can see why Gleannloch would be angry. Currently that neighborhood is split between Doerre and Krimmel. The Gleannloch people that are currently zoned to Krimmel are the ones who are going to end up screwed. Krimmel is way out of the way from their location and that group was hoping Ulrich would change that. Gleannloch should be at all one school.

And for those of us who are supporting Jean Casagrande for postition #5 please go vote. She is a proven leader in the community that has shown through her volunteer work and countless other actions in the KISD community that she is the right choice.

To my knowledge she has:

•Led a community effort to raise over $150,000 for playground equipment for Frank Elementary.

•Recognized as Volunteer of the Month for KISD.

•Successfully lobbied the KISD Board of Trustees to change outdated transportation policies, making after-school transportation alternatives safer for children and more convenient for working parents.

•Worked with Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Jerry Eversole to install stop signs providing safe passages for children going to school.

•Successfully lobbied Harris County Judge Ed Emmett to prevent the open burning of debris in Harris County after Hurricane Ike.

•Assisted in obtaining an additional $41,000 for a playground for McDougle Elementary.

•Initiated effort to donate over $6,000 to Epps Island following the fire in December, 2008 as well as to replace eyeglasses lost in the fire.

•Worked with the KISD Technology Department to enhance internet safety procedures.

•Helped secure Social Studies books for Krimmel Intermediate.

•Currently serve on the Board of Directors of Harris County Municipal Utility District (MUD) 383.

www.casagrande4kisd.com

Actually I was able to attend. The meeting went very well. Many questions were addressed. There are 2 zone options for Ulrich. Most of the people at the meeting thought option 2 was a better fit fo the district. Option 1 will relieve Schindewolf, Hildebrandt, Krimmel and Doerre. Option 2 will relieve Schindewolf, Hildebrandt, Krimmel, Doerre and Wunderlich.

With option 1 subdivisions now in the Schindewolf zone like Forest North, Forest Ridge and Mossy Oaks would now go to Hildebrandt but then return to Klein Collins instead of Klein Oak. Thats not good.

With option 2 some kids south of FM 1960 would now go to Kleb instead of Wunderlich, but go to Klein Forest instead of Klein. Also subdivisions now in the Schindewolf zone like Enchanted Oaks and Cypress Forest will now go to Strack. In my opinion option 2 is way better.

What about Gleannloch? Will it be split in half between Frank kids staying at Krimmel and Hassler kids at Doerre or Ulrich, or will all of Gleannloch go to Ulrich, or Doerre?

I still want to know some details that keep being left out.

1. Who is the Architect?

2. Who is the Builder?

Who is the Contractor that is doing the work?

Alright, don't take my word for it, see a shot of the mortgage package below confirming HKS as the project Architect. Bam.

No need to get defensive, I was just asking.

The rendering posted is HKS's handiwork. I'm a fan of the concept. At this point, the Redstone/Stream conceptual plan that you're looking at calls for (1) a 20 story office tower that consists of 12 stories of large floorplate office (each floor over 33k sf, thus approx. 370k sf in total) sitting atop 8 stories of parking, (2) a taller approx. 30 story hotel/resi tower with 297 hotel rooms and 100+ resi units and (3) just under 75k sf of accompanying ground level+ retail. Pretty ambitious in this environment.

It will take a minor miracle to get financing for this one, so don't hold your breath here.

HKS? I was under the impression that Morris Architects was the one who was working the design for the Redstone Project.

Just an FYI for everyone regarding this subject. I work for an electrical supplier and the project is bidding on Feb 12th. I have worked on numerous schools and this project will be an 16 - 18 month design. Klein High School #5 is also moving forward with a bid date of Feb 19th.

Klein HS #5 bidding Feb 19th? You might want to check that since Klein put the breaks on HS #5 for a minimum of 1 year.

Right now any major project that does not have financing in place is pretty much dead.

Thought I'd pass along some info I heard regarding this project. The story is that this project is going to go forward, but it's going to be 2 years down the road. The tenants and others lined up are ok with the delay and there is a basic problem with the financing people being able to come up with the money the had committed to providing. I also heard that BLVD place will not have the hotel or condo tower straight away either. The long term plan is to do it and the construction will allow for them to be added later, but there are some financing issues on that project as well.

Don't shoot the messenger. I think this is a good source for what it's worth.

I knew the owners had procrastinated on getting their financing together and that this project may not go all at once but in phases. I have not heard that they are pushing it back for 2 years. Are you sure about that statement? Not starting any construction until 2010?

You guys place too much stock in those renderings. They are only to show the overall concept of the design, many times they are not specific as to how many floors the building has. The floor count on any major building can change from week to week depending on costs. you most likely won't get an accurate floor count from any rendering.

small update

main tower 89 floors

secondary tower attached 52 floors

HBJ rendering is the current building

all subject to change of course

Where did ENGcons go? Any new info on this? Are they really going to make it taller and turn it into a supertall?

Fellas these projects don't happen overnight. There have to be meetings, and then there has to be meetings about the meetings. Then we can start talking about setting up the next meeting to discuss the action items of the first meeting.

Frank Elementary will have T-Buildings on the first day of school? That is rediculous. No new school should have to open with T-Buildings.

My bad, they had the first one in around Thanksgiving. I was only off by a few months. They have already run the conduit for all the others they anticipate.

That's really disappointing. Sounds similar to what the Ritz did in Dallas....not really a meaningful addition to the skyline. I think we'd all have preferred the taller, single tower. Any idea why they would change it up? Just too expensive to build one single tower?

I believe it has to do with financing the buildngs with the sales from another. Condo sales could finance the building of the second tower and visa versa if you build two instead of one. That is my assumption.

So what's the status on this? Is the 66 story Ritz still in the works?

My source is telling me that the Ritz in in the works but is more than likely not going to be 66 floors, it is probably going to be two 30 story towers, one for hotel, and one for condo.

No real updates on this project that is in its infancy of design development. All I know is that the land is already owned by the group, and the group is out of Dubai.

Guess the W is now final.

Nothing is final until Contracts are signed. That has not happened yet. Like I implicated in another thread, there is so much that has to go into a project of this caliber that most here have no idea.

Looks like two of the towers are easily over 30 floors w/ one of them being closer to 40.

Currently the tallest is 36

Wow, slamming me for bringing something to the table. Project like these are very sensetive and the financial backers do not want word getting out unless they put it out. Contractors who might have an inside track due to a relationship with an owner do not want these coming out because it creates more competition for them, the same goes with design firms.

Some of you are obviously not in the business of building designing or development, if you are you are not a major player in town. Some of you have no idea how projects can be put off of years, or never built due to some of the stupidest reasons. I would hate for a project like this to get put off due to some investor getting ticked off because his ego didn't get to announce this first. Things like that happen believe it or not.

It jsut so happens that I happen to be privy to some of the high end projects in town and it is hard to sit on information, I admit it I am sometimes a gossip queen. I happen to know of about 4 other projects in town that would be great topics but if I am going to get called out for trying to give you fellas a nugget to chew on then noway. Someone did this to me on the W project and I said I wouldn't divulge anymore, I guess I didn't learn my lesson.

You want to know about this project here it is:

Two towers in the galleria area by Williams tower, one office building 80 floors, one residential 50 floors. Right now only in the planning stages, it may never get built, but if it does it will take off within the next 18 months.