News-Record.com

Where DID all that bond money go? All I know is they promised a new middle school in Jamestown and that was a flat out lie.

I'd like to know where this huge windfall from the lottery is! Last I heard, the initial payment was put into an "emergency fund." What about all the other millions this was supposed to generate?

bunny,

According to one board member, the lottery money will have to be used to pay for the "emergency repairs" at the three middle schools. If those problems were caused by teh architect's faulty design, why aren't they recouping that money from him or his profesisonal lliability insurance? Is it because he doesn't have anything to recoup? Was he not properly checked-out to be sure that he was insured before hiring him? This smatter needs investigation. The board is running out of "emergency" funds to cover all of the problems that have popped up this year. Maybe they wil be more conservative in their wasteful spending next year...may not.

Sounds like a bunch of crap to me bunny. More likely than not, no new money will be given to the schools. If so, it will go into an 'emergency fund' (aka slush fund) or some other vaguely named fund.

Oak Ridge Runner

Regarding the engineer in question, have you noticed that nowhere has it come out that he's not only black but has had considerable problems in other school systems? Does this tell you that he was hired because of his qualifications or because of his race? But you haven't seen anything yet regarding inferior work on schools!

According to what I've read, the school system hired someone to study the low numbers of minority/women-owned subcontractors used to build/renovate schools. Powers that be in Guilford County want to increase the percentage of these type of companies used on school construction. This means that there will be times when a low-bid white subcontractor will be rejected in favor of a more expensive subcontractor so "the percentages" will be met. It doesn't matter if they're qualified, just so they are the right race or gender!

I've spoken to GC's who say they tend to have frequent non performance issues with minority/women owned companies (remember, qualifications aren't necessarily why they are hired). Very often, this non-performance or inferior work will generate added costs to a project through delay of work or through having to hire another subcontractor to finish the work.

Don't misunderstand me, please. I'm certainly NOT saying all minority and/or women-owned subcontractors are not qualified, I'm just saying that qualifications are very often NOT the first and most important issue in school construction.

Bunny,

That seems to be the problem with singling out people by race instead of other criteria. If you could actually implement an "all things being equal, we'll hire a black person" program, it would probably work. But get this straight: No 2 people, just like snowflakes, are EVER equal in qualifications and talent. Using race as a criteria is insulting and generally it really boils down to picking a token when you need to adjust the 'numbers'.