1. On April 16 2008, the meeting minutes state the following:
- Henry Brackett, a resident of Lee, spoke about the Aramark Energy Savings Contract. He feels that some of Aramark’s suggestions should already be covered under our current contract with them. He also feels that large contracts should be put out for three estimates.
- The Board had a discussion on the proposed energy savings contract with Aramark. They discussed putting this contract out to bid to other companies and how much time this would take. Blaine Cox detailed the RFP Process with the Board.
Joe Quimby moved to have the District obtain two other competitive energy savings bids, 2nd by Jennifer Rief. Motion approved 7 – 0. - This was not advertised either to the public. Without a concerned taxpayer speaking up, it is unlikely that the board would have taken action to check up on the single bidder pricing and proposal
- Our question is...why is this not done for all large projects?
2. The Septic systems at Mast Way and Moharimet
- We approved warrant article 5 in 2007 for replacement of BOTH Mast Way and Moharimet Septic Systems. Coincidentally, there was another network upgrade project in this year as well.
- The very next year in March 2008, we voted and subsequently passed warrant article 5 replacing the Moharimet septic system (again).
- It has come to our attention that in the process two years ago to take care of BOTH septic systems, the district again DID NOT follow the purchasing and bidding policy. This resulted in only one septic system replaced when both were supposed to be replaced
- The result was that a year later, ORCSD had to come back to the taxpayers to approve AGAIN more taxpayer money to take care of a project that was a year late and a dollar short.
- As was apparent in the Aramark case, there was no advertisement to the public vendors that the septic system was up for replacement. This resulted in a lack of adequate cost comparisons and potentially unnecessary costs to the district and taxpayers.
3. School Laptops
- The school district is purchasing these from Dell at $1700 each!
- Dell was the existing vendor
- It is unclear if any public bid ever took place for this
- When asked about this at a budget session, the reply was something to the effect of "that is what Dell charges"
- Current cost for acceptable laptops in the school are not $1700! In fact, there are sub $700 laptops available in most vendor outlets
so here is the million dollar question....if the taxpayers keep approving these warrant articles and the projects are not getting done, WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING??!?!
ReplyDeleteI think this paints a very scary picture. It is easy to say that labor represents 70% of the budget and then put out the message that if you want to spend less, it means cutting back on the number of teachers. However, 30% of a $30 million budget is $9 million and it is starting to look like there is plenty of room for savings without laying off a single teacher.
ReplyDeleteThe cozy relationship between ORCSD administrators and the School Board (one blatantly violates District policy, the other covers up for them) is shameful. The dismissive tone in the SB's written responses ("it's time to move on") is disrespectful. How dare they disregard their own procedures, waste taxpayer's money, and then talk down to someone who points out the obvious!
ReplyDeleteWhere is the accountability? For this voter, it's at the ballot box! Citizens, let's not forget what we've seen here when March rolls around!
The job of the school board is to be the watch dog of the administration, not clean up their messes. This makes everyone look guilty. What are they hiding?
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Chicago, this kind of stuff was par for the course. I must say I'm surprised to find this kind of fiscal irresponsibility going on in broad daylight, as it were, here in our peaceable corner of the world. But I'm not surprised by the hostile response from the Board--nobody likes to be called out publicly after getting caught behaving badly.
ReplyDeleteThe citizens of Durham, Lee and Madbury have, for many years, been extraordinarily generous in supporting our schools. In return, the taxpayers have a right to expect that the money they have appropriated will be spent wisely. I can't speculate as to whether it is out of ignorance, laziness or malice, but clearly, the School Board has abused that trust.
We all need to work together to ensure that this NEVER happens again. A good start would be for the School Board to come clean about their own and the administration's past misdeeds, rather than hiding behind legal advice (for which the taxpayers are footing the bill!) in a lame attempt to defend the indefensible.
About the $1700 laptops, Apart from the cost, who decided what the configuration should be?
ReplyDelete