Thursday, August 31, 2017

UNPRECEDENTED

While certainly not winning the war, the battles won by schstoobig and its supporters are unprecedented. Consider the consequences that occurred after schstoobig's efforts to educate the Scott County community regarding the shenanigans going on at Scott County Schools:

Roger Ward / Scott School Board Chair - ousted by the voters losing all 9 of his precincts;
Becky Sams / Former long time Chair - smarter than Roger and chose not to run for re-election;
Phyllis Young / School Board Chair - ousted by voters;
Luther Mason / Board Member - ousted by voters;
Patricia Putty / Superintendent - contract non-renewed;
Mike Luscher / Director of Facilities - retired one more time after losing his alliance;
Alliance Corporation / Long time SCS project construction manager with curious bid skills - victims of a change order;
Matt Thompson / ASSL (Assistant Superintendent of Student Learning) - saw the writing on the wall;
Rick Culross / ASSO - followed Matt's lead as well as his coat tails;
Roy Prince / Artistic Director of Transportation - AWOL;
Roger Kerns / Roy's Igor - fizzled after Roy went AWOL;
Mark Wickersham / Safety Director - terminated after new Super determined he had no skill set outside driving on sidewalks;
Joetta Crowe / Cardinal Academy Principal - saw the writing on the wall;
Frank Howatt / Peter Principle Human Resources Director - demoted to an Asst. of an Asst. position;
Tom "Gerrymander" McKee / State Representative and father of football coach - ousted by the very Scott County voters he gerrymandered;
Sherman, Carter, Barnhart Architects - ousted after proposing to build GCHS on a fill site;
etc, etc.

ALL HISTORY! And an ugly history it is.

Probably the most consequential battle won for the benefit of Scott County taxpayers was the school district's dis-association with Alliance Corporation. The icing on that cake was the concurrent departure of Mike Luscher from his role of Facilities Director and Alliance liason.

Probably the most consequential battle won for non-administrative district employees was the contract non-renewal of Superintendent Putty and the subsequent mass exodus of her administrative staff, although of little recompense to the many whose vocations and reputations were ruined by this malicious bunch. Most affected were the 28 transportation employees who had the gall to complain that Putty's Artistic Director of Transportation Roy Prince discussed and drew a penis for them on a flip chart during a mandatory meeting. Putty found "no violation" but soon after made working for Scott County Schools pretty miserable for the 28, and found and even fabricated reasons for some to be terminated. Yet Prince remained on the payroll (although absent from the workplace for the last year or so) until his retirement was sufficiently spiked in October 2016.  Lawsuits are pending to this day, but lawsuits will not restore the reputations of good people.

And there were other battles won, but by in large the the most consequential battle lost was Great Crossing High School (GCHS) successfully being held hostage to a tax increase. All we can say here is that it is very difficult to "fix stupid". Anyone who believes that feeding the organism that is Scott County Schools even more money as an answer for anything is simply a useful idiot. Already underway are the filling of more and more unneeded positions as well as other efforts to consume the 25% increase the recent tax increase brought to the school district's annual coffers. (see the last paragraph of GCHS on page 16 of the August 15 edition of the Georgetown News Graphic) You see, the organism must always be able to demonstrate it "needs" more, therefore it must always consume all funds provided. The extra $5 million a year now going into the bottomless pit known as the General Fund was not needed, just as the increase in bonding potential (borrowing ability) that the $5 million supports was not needed to construct GCHS.

As this blog soon retires, do not forget the "two pots of money" - the General Fund and the Construction Fund. Do not forget that the General Fund is where money is wasted and the Construction Fund is where money leaks. Both funds are ultimately the School Board's responsibility and it is here that we hope the schstoobig facebook page is wrong in its assessment that despite the battles won, it seems to be the  "same game - different players".

We thank the ten or so who in 2012 expended their time and treasure to fill the Georgetown News Graphic's abandoned role of community watchdog of its taxing entities such as the school board and the library board. We thank the anti - tax committee who successfully overcame the 2013 School Board's outrageous attempt to raise property taxes 27% and the 2017 committee, whose valiant attempt to stop this last increase failed (again - it's hard to fix stupid). We thank all those who encouraged us along the way, including the 130,000 visits to read this blog.

To Roger Ward, whose conniptions we so enjoyed each time we weren't stupid enough to acquiesce to his elitist demand that we allow ourselves to be marginalized by giving up our anonymity - just ask Tish, Rog. She knows us by our middle name - Resolve.



P.S. - The folks at the schstoobig facebook page have committed to continue alerting you to the community goings on that the News Graphic avoids. Become a friend there if not already. They will watch the two pots and have also committed to keep an eye on Scott United's tax returns to see how Toyota's gift of $2 million gets accounted for by this Chamber of Commerce look-alike. And if needed we will resurrect the blog. Just watch the facebook page,




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