SPEND IT IF YOU GOT IT

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December 20, 2006

This is a follow-up from Monday's article "New School for No Students". GRPS Superintendent Bernard Taylor has recommended to the Board of Education a plan for consolidating elementary schools on both the Northeast and Southside sides of town. Eastern Elementary is to be closed and its students distributed to Kent Hills, East Leonard, and Coit schools. Including North Park and Aberdeen schools, that will leave five elementary schools on the Northeast side.

As mentioned previously, the school district has $8 million available to spend on new construction on the Northeast side. Instead of building a new school outright, Taylor is recommending that Kent Hills have $5.5 million in "renovations" (in effect, a new building) while East Leonard gets $750,000, North Park $1,000,000, and Aberdeen $750,000. You might be wondering how those figures were determined. Is that the actually cost of what is needed to be done? Is it only a coincidence that the amount of renovation required equals the amount available, $8 million? Or is this another example of spend it if you got it?

Posted on December 20, 2006 at 10:15 AM in Public Schools | Permalink

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The Pig in the Python
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The Fixer
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No Honor Among Thieves: The Demise of Quixtar
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Defenders Who Do Not Defend
Excessive plea-bargaining, lack of preparation, shoddy to non-existent representation, conflicts of interests are rife among lawyers taking public defender cases on the taxpayer dime.

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