only in Texas will a town try to pass a $150 Million Dollar school bond for a new football stadium first, and have it fail, before stating that they actually need $130 Million Dollars for a new high school because the old one is in such bad shape as the same people promoting the bond didn't maintain what they had. Oh, and no one asks why they asked for a new football stadium first!
Sure, the bond passed, but let's face it. A lot of folks in Cle burne aren't very computer savvy and thus don't read social media, the Cleburne Times Review actually doesn't have that big of a circulation in Cleb urne since it got sold to an out of town company, and the CISD administration did have $120,000 of taxpayer money to promote the bond. I bet if about 17,000 more people had known all of the reasons to vote that thing down, more of them would have gone and voted. People that were 'low information voters' unfortunately made the assumption that the people in charge wouldn't screw them, but as we've seen, respect for authority, when those in authority are idiots, has gotten us into wars for oil, gave us Obamacare, and resulted in one country being a good start for a world war, not once, but TWICE.
Always always question the action of those in charge, especially when it affects your pocketbook.
Anyway, let's talk about that school board there in C leburne.
Turns out, Heath, the Superintendent, told the school board he felt that he should be able to hire two new Principals for the, what was it, middle school and high school? to replace the folks that left recently, without any oversight, authorization, or input from the school board. Of course, this applies to what they get paid, too. No input from the school board, the entity whose sole reason for being is to act as oversight into the expenditure of public monies.
Of course, the reason the school board is SUPPOSED to have a voice in who is hired, is because that keeps a Superintendent from hiring his buddies, who may or may not be qualified for the gig.
Sure enough, Heath hired two people he worked with in Mansfield, his previous posting.
Word for the day! 'Cronyism'- the appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without proper regard to their qualifications.
You should all remember that word, because you're going to need it in the future when describing Heath's hiring practices..
Also, (yes, there's more!) Heath also got the school board to sign off on a change in the manner in which the school board provides oversight regarding the amounts the school can spend without getting approval from the school board.
Until recently, it was $25,000. That's right. The school could cut a check to a consultant, a highly paid custodian, a contractor, whoever, and with no more verification on the receipt than 'job done!' that person the check was written to would get $25,000 bucks without anyone outside the administration signing off on it.
Now, cutting checks left and right for a few hundred bucks is one thing, but when you start doing it for $25,000, well, now we're talking real money, right?
Except that Heath got the school board to RAISE the amount.. to $50,000. That's right. Heath can take the CISD check book, cut a check for $50,000 dollars to whoever he wants, and there is no one to say 1) hey, what was THIS all about? or 2) catch him BEFORE he cuts the check, to put the brakes on and say 'do we REALLY need to do this?'
The reason that these amounts are so scary, and should be lower, and should have the school board looking into the 'why' and the 'how much' on a lot of these expenditures, is that it is EASY for people to embezzle money from public institutions such as ... Cle burne ISD. Google it. Happens at other schools across the country all the time, usually due to school boards who have dropped the ball.
At this point, the good news for the school board, is that there is absolutely no reason for them to bother holding meetings anymore. Why waste the time? What's the point? These people budgeted a hot dog stand at Wheat Middle School for $245,000, which is insane for a kitchen, storeroom, and some bathrooms, at a middle school, where the facility will be used 8 times a year, and the school STILL went over budget, to a total of $277,000 (or more, depending on who you ask). And who thinks they will do a good job of providing any oversight on $130 Million Dollars?
And the people of Cleburne, through their lack of civic responsibility, just handed an administration without ANY OVERSIGHT whatsoever from this sorry excuse of a school board, $130 Million Dollars.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, stay tuned to 2016cleburneisdschoolbond.blogspot.com, or google 'Cleburne School Bond Scam', because I have a feeling, the drama, the incompetence, the lyin', cheatin' and stealin', it ain't over yet!
P.S. Want to have some real fun? When they start construction on the school and sports plex, take LOTS OF PICTURES of the construction, every day now! We can all compare pictures later, and they will come in handy when the numbers don't match up on what they spent vs what was done, and the state comes in to AUDIT this project, and they'll want to see pictures of what is physically there at the construction site, to match to the checks they wrote for materials and labor. Why, just imagine! If someone cut a check for $100,000 on $50,000 worth of work, well, I guess all those pictures and an audit would catch that wouldn't it? We don't need no stinkin' school board, we can be our OWN oversight committee!
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