Let me first say that those that offer their time and effort for public service deserve support, and respect for what they do.
That being said, to allow the millions to be removed from the operations budget, and placed in capital spending to create the new school board building, means one of two things, the elected trustees were unaware of what the consequences of that action, or were aware but put blinders on so that desire for a new office complex, overcame their concerns.
It must also be noted that the paid executives do not seem to be stepping forward, to share the load in attempting to explain the losses, the direct losses to the clients, the students.
Now my view is that we all fell down on this one, and it cost dearly in the classroom. It shows that we all have to be more aware of what goes on with our tax dollars as they apply to the school system. After making what I call a moral not legal error in putting a building ahead of students, that error is being compounded by spending more money to hire an expensive consultant, when as said before, any reasonably informed citizen could tell for free, too much of a limited budget was, and is, being spent on capital side and the administrative side. It is hard, but cuts need to be made in these two areas now, so that over a period time, much to long, critical services can be returned to the classroom.
John Harper
