Comment of the Day -- If the D181 Administration Thinks All Voters Will Be Willing to Pay Higher Property Taxes to Build a New School, Then They Better Stop the Wasteful Spending of our Existing Tax Dollars

This morning we received the comment below, which we have decided to post as Comment of the Day because it expresses our (the bloggers') sentiments to a tee:

Anonymous said...

I would like to know what on earth the administration did for a team building event that cost $15,000? And why are tax payers paying $1100 for flights and $1500 for hotel reservations for 2 teachers? Who is expensing food at the airport? We're paying to check luggage? $500 for hotel stay for TASH conference? I could go on and on and on about these expenses. There needs to be a major crack down on the free for all spending mentality that is taking place here. Potbelly, Dunkin Donuts, Corner Bakery.....cut it!! And you want to build a new school? Stop spending money on unnecessary things!! This is tax payer money!!

August 18, 2015 at 7:56 AM 

Last night the BOE held a business meeting at Walker School.  We listened to the relatively short meeting (considering they haven't met most of the summer) and found ourselves shaking our heads through much of the discussion, especially the discussion on various Bills, including those mentioned in this morning's comment.  In addition to these expenses, there was also a discussion on over $6000 in legal fees spent since April responding to a Freedom of Information Act request that apparently related to documents the Attorney General's Office ordered the district to produce. We don't know all the details because the discussion was relatively (and we would bet conveniently)  vague, but it was referred to as the Mayer FOIA.   We would like to remind our readers that earlier this summer we published two posts relating to that FOIA request that flagged concerns about the significance of the content of those documents.  See the following posts:  Click to open 5/16/15 Post; click to open 6/6/15 Post.

All we can say is that if the Administration really spent $6000 on legal fees before it produced the documents discussed in the May 16 and June 6 posts, in our opinion it is pretty obvious that they were trying pretty darn hard to avoid producing them, especially the infamous Power Point that went from being a Special Ed focused presentation to one that suggested (ahem, ahem) that the best practices (ahem, ahem) spotlighted in the presentation also applied to Gifted/Advanced learners.  We are all smart, intelligent parents so we don't need to spell out for our readers the conclusions we have all reached about the real significance of these documents and how they related (or should have related) to the administrative reorganization that took place in late summer in the Department of Learning.  What we will spell out, loud and clear, however, is that the administration isn't fooling anyone. It needs to stop wasting tax payer money dodging freedom of information act requests for public documents that the community, and especially parents of students who have been negatively impacted by the Learning for All/None plan, have a right to review!

We may post more about last night's meeting later this week because there are other matters that were discussed that left us extremely disappointed in Dr. White's leadership (as he enters year 2 of a 3 year contract  -- a contract that we are starting to think perhaps should be his only one as the D181 superintendent) -- but for now we will simply state that the person who submitted the Comment of the Day is spot on when they say that there "needs to be a major crack down on the free for all spending mentality that is taking place here" before the administration or Board of Education dare to ask D181 taxpayers to open up their pocketbooks to build a new middle school!