Wrangling over Walls

Today was another busy BSF Day. This morning the Chair (Henry) and I met with some of the parents who had expressed most concerns about the project. I don't think we could say that all their fears were allayed, but they were happier with the decant plans. Over and over again we keep coming back to value for money and some day soon I will steel myself and write my general BSF process rant. The other big things were changing rooms and lockers. There are a lot of people who really want improvements in the plans for changing rooms. Of all the "extras" I think that's the one that seems the highest priority. There is also a bit of a debate going on about lockers. Again, probably a subject for another post. After the meeting I wandered the school with the person who's arranging the decant and we tried to think a bit laterally about some of the issues.

I then met with the Head and hatched plans (but for the purposes of clarity this was a random discussion and won't be included in my meeting count).

We then had our last set of 1:1 meetings with Heads of Department, which were generally positive. My big fear has always been that there will be classrooms missing, and I don't that's going to happen. Having had these discussions we were able finally to look at work and meeting space. Things are obviously getting a bit tight financially as we ended up wrangling a bit over walls. It was pretty good natured, but it went something like this:

Me: Couldn't we put a wall up here (in nebuland for those who know the plans) and create more office spaces.

Lovely Architect: Well, it's a matter of cost.

Me: But look, we've taken these walls out here. Can't they just be moved over to nebuland instead.

Lovely Architect: I don't think it's affordable.

Me: Well, how about we do this. This saves us a door as well as some walls.

Lovely Architect: (makes general negative noises) etc. etc. You get the drift.

It's the dawning of a new, tougher era.

Meeting Count 2/11/07 - 22/11/07 - Sixteen