News-Record.com

I'm sure you did great and said everything perfectely, just like you and Terry practiced.

Maybe I missed something, but why would Terry Grier want to publicize that fewer GCS schools met test score goals last year??

Cause the more schools that fail, the bigger raise he gets?

"I'll take a guess" makes a lot of sense. So far Grier's pay has been an inverse relationship with student performance.

Come to think of it so has the School Board.

It was reported earlier on another strand that due to construction costs running higher than expected, GCS will not be able to complete all of the projects that were originally proposed in the 2003 school bond because they are $30 million short of funding all 28 projects.

As a point of information, there is a fund that exists known as the Capital Improvement Program which is a fund that accumulates and is available for school construction, and is due to favorable bids, untapped contingencies, and sales tax returns. In the 2/10/04 Board Meeteing, Sharon Ozment reported that this fund consisted of $25.7 million at that time. It was recommended, along with other projects, that $1,637,467 of the CAP fund be used for construction in the High Point Choice Plan, specifically $1,362,456 for Andrews and $275,000 for Southwest.

In Terry Grier's Friday Notes dated 4/15/05, he stated: "The district did NOT divert monies from School Construction Bonds to fund the High Point lottery program-this would be illegal. Because of good stewardship, the district managed to save significantly on construction costs and as a result were able to fund additional much needed school contruction improvements."

Terry Grier is correct in stating that School Construction Bond monies was not diverted to pay for costs of the lottery program. However, CAP funds was used to fund school construction costs of the lottery program, and whether they would be considered "much needed" is up for debate. In any event, the truth is that they opted to tap into this fund to construct computer labs at Andrews and dance floors at Southwest in order to facilitate the approval of the plan by the Board.

Now, if there was $25.7 million in the CAP fund a little over one year ago, and those funds were created due to management saving significantly on construction costs, why are they now facing a deficit of $30 million to fund all 28 projects proposed to be constructed with the 2003 school bond? If they were so efficient in financial management of school projects until one year ago, how did they get $30 million behind in so short of a time? I'm not sure that I understnad how this could happen.

Can someone explain this to me? Were they right then, or are they right now? Has something changed in the past year? Have we used over $25 million in "needed" constructon projects in one year? Has the district managed construction costs poorly in the past year?

Folks, I dislike Terry Grier and the "going ons" of the school board as much as any of you. Heck! I'm a teacher and they've made my life miserable at times. Even so, I don't believe jumping on Bruce when he mentions publicizing things going on in Guilford County is the answer. You don't have to always like his reporting, but if you look at his past articles and comments here on the Chalkboard, you can clearly see that he does his best to report accurate information and to remain as objective as possible (in other words, doing his job). Besides, we should be directing our anger and frustration towards Terry Grier and the Board--not those who are attempting to report what is taking place.

Dean,

This is the most thought provoking post I have read in many months.

Bruce/Jennifer,

Can you please try to help us out with getting an answer to these questions?

Dean , that is ridiculous. We are just honest people trying to the best for Guilford County children!

Dean Wormer, you have asked questions that the N&R will avoid. Wait and see, no one will even acknowledge the question.

The N&R's response will be to create a few more Blog strands and you will be archieved.

Dean,
The CAP is used for things like covered walkways, new phone systems, etc in old schools. Not sure what they did with all the money- but I'm sure that the bond money is for new construction only and CAP is used for all other stuff, like broken AC etc. Have you looked at meeting summaries to see if there is any info?

Dean,

That's a good question and I've sent a message to the GCS office asking for a detailed answer.

I don't have an exact breakdown of how that money was spent, but I believe it already has been spent on a variety of needs. For example, the recent renovations at Southeast High School were paid for out of that fund. So was the replacement school for Oak Ridge Elementary. I believe much of the land purchased for these new schools also came out of that fund.

I don't know how much is left, though. But we're trying to find out.

By the way, the recent construction at Southeast was for a new weight training building. It's located right by several trailers being used for classrooms. It's a great building and one that the athletes will use a lot. Even so, I wonder if a trailer or two could have been elimnated by using that space for classes.

Chancellor Wormer:

I hope Bruce can get to the bottom of this. This is an excellent question!

This would make a great letter to the editor if the News and Record would ever print it. Maybe you could fit all the words in under Counterpoint.

Bruce,

Excuse me, but what I am seeing in a response to how $26 million of CAP has been used in little over one year is a bunch of @*&%. How is any of this to be consider "much needed school construction" as Terry Grier called it? Andi's point is very well-taken. If GCS is using their mad-money in this manner instead of classrooms, then this is criminal.

No, I think that I am smelling a new bond referendum being floated with justifications being developed to support it. If that is the case, I think that I can safely predict that when the citizens and taxpayers learn how their funds are being mis-used, that bond referendum will be DOA. But then, the citizens and taxpayers have been made fools many times before by Terry Grier and the School Board, so what's new this time. :-)

Debora,

No, I haven't gone back through minutes for the past year, and frankly, I don't plan to do so. But, I think that we would all have been aware of approvals for projects that would have spent $26 million in one year, don't you? We know that they spent almost $2 million on the Choice Plan to build computer labs and dance floors. So, what other "much needed" items do you think that they have spend the money upon. And, to now say that they are $30 million in arrears on the last school bond is one huge joke on the citizens of this county.

Dean,
I would think I would remember also, but don't rmember anything huge. Does the GCS have to have the BOE vote on spending that money or is it within the staffs right to use that money without their vote? I believe the rest of the 'leftover' money from the bond of 2000 was used for Oak Ridge, purchasing land for Northern HS and Middle school, Mcleansville (I think) and probably others I can't remember.

Nice posting.I like most that"the state of things" link most.