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NewslettersField of Bluffton dreams strikes out in fundraising
Sat, 2008-03-15 05:45 — Anonymous
BLUFFTON -- The Beaufort County School District recently agreed to give a foundation established by Bluffton Mayor Hank Johnston a three-year extension to pay back more than $300,000 used to expand Bluffton High School's baseball stadium. Read the story here.
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This balance will never be paid. This bilking was sanctioned under which regime??
This balance will never be paid. This bilking was sanctioned under which regime??
The Bluffton debacle would have been hatched under Herman Gaither's regime . . . just as the Whale Branch High School was hatched under his regime and perpetuated ever since by superintendents and board members.
Thankfully the Bluffton bilking is only $300k, the WBHS is a $38 million bilking of taxpayer money . . .
Demand Accountability - Vote "NO" on April 26
This balance will never be paid. This bilking was sanctioned under which regime??
The Bluffton debacle would have been hatched under Herman Gaither's regime . . . just as the Whale Branch High School was hatched under his regime and perpetuated ever since by superintendents and board members.
Thankfully the Bluffton bilking is only $300k, the WBHS is a $38 million bilking of taxpayer money . . .
Demand Accountability - Vote "NO" on April 26
Yes, I knew which regime.
The Gaither regime is the past. It was truely a bad time and he made terrible, many times unethical, decisions. Get over it. We all need to give the new administration a chance to move us forward. Our children need safe, clean environments in which to learn. $16 a year is a good investment to put technology in classrooms, to rewire classrooms so as not to create a hazard with the technology. They need new roofs, carpeting, secure doors, drainage correction, stardardized lights, etc. But to do these rennovations as well as build new facilities, the administration is asking us to invest and support them. This support helps us correct the sins of the past. All mothers out there, you are in the schools, you see what needs to be done. We need to support our principals by giving them the money they need to improve the facilities and get techology upgrades. Vote "Yes" on April 26.
Boy have you swallowed the bait julie . . . let's start with the cost of this 5 year capital plan.
It has two parts - the referendum and the 8% money projects. The referendum will cost AT THE BEGINNING $16 and will peak at $24 (please see the info at the website that you obviously are quoting). The 8% projects will presumably cost another $20 - the total cost is supposed to be "only" $44.
Again, check the website and quit omitting the information that is clearly there. Those are estimates based on a whole lot of factors. They assume low interest rates, continued population growth, continued growth in owner-occuppied homes and continued property value appreciation.
Don't try to snow everyone with the $16 argument anymore please.
You speak of the "sins of the past" - here's a newsflash for ya - the Whale Branch High School is something this board could have corrected. But they just broke ground on it . . . this is a colossal waste of taxpayer money. There is no need for this school, none whatsoever. The "sins of the past" are also the "sins of the present".
Lest you doubt that consider again the fact that they are going to build an $888,000 (that's almost a million dollars) wrestiling factility at Battery Creek High. This is somebody's pet project - it obviously isn't a necessity.
And adding classrooms to Mossy Oaks Elementary? Spare me the whining julie, there are so many empty seats north of the Broad that the District can afford to CLOSE TWO SCHOOLS. If you don't believe me check out the minutes of the school board meetings, or do an archival search here in the BG. Dr. McDaniels told the board more than once that was the case but he didn't recommend closing schools because of the political repercussions. WE DON"T NEED MORE CLASSES NOB.
Then there's the almost $10 million auditorium for Beaufort High. This is a "necessity"? Again, spare me the whining - it's unbecoming of you. There is no way to rationally and logically justify this auditorium.
Ya might want to open your eyes and actually look at the propaganda that they're feeding you before endorsing it.
There is so much pork-barrel spending in this referendum that we should start teaching students how to slop hogs.
Demand Accountability - Vote "NO" on April 26.
It was stupid of our Beaufort School District to have given the OK for this school expansion without the money being there. Yes, Gaither was the Super during that time, unfortunately he just did not have the experience behind him to adequately management our school district. Not surprising since he attended a one-room schoolhouse in his education days - he tried his best, but how could that limited experience enable him to understand the workings and needs of communities rapidly expanding with the "foreigners" (ha,ha) being transplanted from some of our great US cities? Whatever Bluffton has wanted, Bluffton seems to have gotten, and that is where much of our NOB population has moved or is working.
Does Mrs. Truesdale have the necessary experience? We'll see about that, if our school district doesn't go broke first, so far she hasn't been able to settle on a one calendar, residence-based school system. She and our school board need to make some hard decisions and soon! Our increasing recession will have an effect on money available for public education.
I would say that i'm not inclined to vote yes on the pending bond, this based on the ongoing issues related to the management of the public school system. I thought that with the new board members joining the team we would hear a change in direction and a clear voice to which we may listen. The missing part for me is that I have not heard from the very people whom are dealing with the issue close up, "the teachers". If the school board wants this bond to pass, I believe they need to assemble a mass of the teaching staff from all the schools in a rally in an effort to sound a clear message to us, the paying public, that this is the direction.
I have yet to hear a sound reason to continue pumping millions into the system. The maintenance issue is one of management and the funds have been in place to keep our investment sound but apparently this has not happened. The people charged with the care of our facilities need to acknowledge that there are problems and if they are part of the problem they need to go. New technology is fine, but you may remember the last round, where the computers were purchased for a school that did not exist and what, do we buy them again or do we give that school 4 year old computers, if we could find them.