CREDIBILITY LOST

In February 2005 the Finance Officer of the Burke C= ounty Public Schools answered a direct question from one of the commissioners, “Could the school system buy and prepare land, build two high schools, and the athletic facilities for $40 million?” The answer was, “Yes”.

Then the school system presented its budget to the commissioners and if fully fu= nded it would require a tax rate increase of 5 or 6 cents per $100 value. The commissioners said they could not and would not approve the funding request= .

Then the school board voted to pursue mediation to present their case. Earlier t= his month the school system was saying they would now need $45 million to build= the two high schools saying the price of everything has gone up. I can remember when gasoline was under thirty cents a gallon. It has been 16 months since = they got approval from the previous board for the $40 million they asked for and= as yet the school system doesn’t even own the pr= operty for the schools. If the system keeps on dragging its feet soon it will cost= us $50-60 million to build the high schools. Build one down east with the $40 million that was approved for 1,500 students and let= 217;s move on.

Also the proposed science labs and auxiliary gym projects are put on ho= ld. Recently it was found out that the renovation of the field house at Freedom High School has been halted because the school system d= oesn’t have the money. Chairman Armour said that FEMA didnR= 17;t give them the money. However, the state of North Carolina put up $230 milli= on for the victims of the flood damages last year. The finance officer told the board at an earlier meeting they were getting $118,000 for the project but = that it wouldn’t be enough to also repair damag= es to the track. Didn’t the Freedom Boosters also raise several thousands of dollars for use on this project? So why has this project also been halted?

The money made from the recent sale of the house built by the vocational class = at the high school raised several thousand dollars when the house was sold. This money has been grabbed by the finance o= fficer rather than going back into the program. The daycare operations are also being used as a source of raising funds and a= new position has been added to monitor that situation.

When two of the top officials make statements to the effect that, “I’= ;ve been known to pad the numbers to get what I want” and, “I can m= ake these figures do anything I want”, causes me great concern that the credibility of this system and the current board is in sad shape. I would g= o so far as to say it is pitiful.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

The top 25 administrators/bureaucrats in the school system have salaries of over $1.6 million. Seven or eight of these salaries are fund= ed with county money. Twenty-one of the twenty-five receive salary supplements from local funds of 5.5 percent for just over $100,000. The top three administrators travel allowances and bonuses of $29,000 come from county fu= nds. We used to have only two maintenance supervisors in 1999, now we have about eight or nine all making around $40,000 each. Each one has a county vehicle= to drive and most all drive them back and forth to work each day. Two live in other counties.

Furthermore, the schools used from capital outlay funds $255,xxx to pay for legal fees in settling the dispute between them and the contractor = that built W.A.Young and Ray Childers schools. They = also spent $500,000 for a study as to the mold and mildew problems there. The sc= hool system received $1.5 million from the settlement, and it was also reported in the paper the schools got $2.x million from an insurance policy payment.

Board chairman Armour stated the school system is payi= ng off for three middle schools and will be done in 2010. Only two of those schools are under that bond issue of 1990, Heritage and Liberty Middle Schools. We = were told in the paper Walter Johnson was bought and paid for and came in 20 per= cent under budget for about $12.3 million, which meant they originally had about= $15 million in their capital outlay fund for that school. The leftover balance should have been enough to do the auxiliary gyms and start the science lab = projects.

Maybe, just maybe if the system wasn’t adding num= erous new positions to their payroll and using local money to pay for them they m= ay have the money they should have but now say they do not. =

It’s called accountability where I come from. Apparently, the school sy= stem and this current board don’t think that accountability should apply to them and have acted accordingly for too long= . I call what they have been doing, nothing but greed on the part of some individuals. That is again Mr. Chairman what I call pitiful when you compar= e it to what the overall economic condition our county is in at present.

The county should stick to their guns and make the system show where the money really is going and how it has been spent/misspent. The people of Burke County deserve the truth and so far they haven’t gotten it from the system or this board and that too is pitiful.=

The people have the right to know what is going on in this system. I am tired of paying for filet mignon and getting nothing but boloney. I have been trying to tell the peo= ple this for quite some time. I would be the greatest fiction writer of all tim= e if I were making this all up.

Rob Hairfield