Well I tried to be the voice of reason. I tried to get everyone to take a step back and slow down. I said we haven't had time to think things through. But the new bus barn was railroaded through anyway. Now here we are, one month later and already there are signs that something's amiss. Was this decision made to hastily before all the facts were in? The board has already had to pass a resolution to correct clerical errors. This move really scared me. Clerical errors? I am trusting that a name change is all that will be fixed. That's what our CEO said. But in reality the board gave permission to allow a contract to be changed with no formal board approval. Kinda scary when you think about it. I contend that this wouldn't be a problem if people had used cool heads and taken their time. Rushing major purchases through without thinking things through tends to lead to problems.
But here's the part where I get to say I told you so. I am also going to play Madam Kellie and pull out my crystal ball and make a prediction for the future. Madam Kellie has been told the bids on the bus garage renovations are in. Our districts CEO first predicted renovations would be around $140,000, then revised it to $190,000. Low bid was $315,000 and high bid was $450,000. The latter is what the building cost us! Oooh. Not good. Wait wait… my crystal ball is clearing up…. I see separate bids being offered on various projects… I see bids coming in at various times… I see murky combo bids being made on "concrete work" and "carpeting work" for the bus barn and various buildings… wait- what's this? It looks like a question mark. Question marks represent all the problems we don't know about yet. Madam Kellie calls this the "stuff that didn't happen until you moved in" syndrome. Oh no! Now I'm getting a red tint to everything. My ball is showing me that we are quickly going to be in the red regarding renovations on the new bus barn. Now it's green question marks bouncing around. They represent the confusion involved in trying to keep track of money spent on renovations when bids will come in at different times, on different projects, and I predict this is all going to turn into a convoluted mess. I predict that before all is said and done this bus barn project will be a million-dollar project. Your session with Madam Kellie is over. I must rest the crystal ball after putting it through stress like that.
First of all I do not want to hear the mantra "you can vote how you want but support the decision of the board after the vote" I did not support this purchase because I knew we were jumping in with our eyes closed and noses plugged. Now we are stuck with a building and spending a lot more on it than originally stated for our huge fleet of 19 busses! I think it's prudent to add that our audit recommends we reduce our fleet by two busses. Frankly it's not going to matter how you re-bid the projects. A duck is a duck and obviously this building needs a lot of work. Oh well- maybe next time we have an extra $800,000.00 someone will actually look at our capitol improvement plan and consider implementing it. Or at least hanging on to the money for a while and looking at options. I didn't spend our tax return as fast as our district spent almost half a million dollars.
Please be sure to thank the people that made this all possible.
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Whether you agree or disagree with Kellie's perspective on the bids for the bus garage renovation, you would not have had any opportunity to comment on the issue before Wednesday's board meeting if Kellie were a business as usual board member. Now that you have this knowledge several days before a vote will be taken, you have the opportunity to contact your elected board members and let them know your thoughts, positive or negative, before the vote.
And even those of you who feel Kellie is too negative are still reading... Maybe you should encourage a board member whose views are closer to your own to start a blog. My personal belief is that if more board members were sharing the news of our schools and their views on that news, the district, taxpayers and parents, would benefit.
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