Making Things Right

I like to offer solutions to problems, so rather than just drone on about the fiasco known as the high school renovation project, I offer the following suggestions to make things right:

1) Order an independent audit and investigation. Even if nothing criminal occurred here, someone is responsible for this mess and they should be held accountable. Some call this finger pointing, but how else do you assure the taxpayers that this will never happen again? “I promise” just doesn't cut it.

2) Reduce the bill. As soon as the school building committee realized that they were going to be over budget, they should have started cutting items from the wish list.

There is always room to cut back, but there's clearly been no attempt to do so. For example, the $4.1 million earmarked for “Furniture & Equipment and Technology” is an obvious target. What's wrong with the furniture that the students and teachers are currently using?

Moreover, there are third parties who could step up to the plate. The PTO could do fund raisers, and traditionally, the senior class has raised money and donated something to the school as a parting gift. Instead of another sign, maybe the next several senior classes could contribute some of that technology.

3) Stop fear-mongering and let the taxpayers decide. We've been told that simply waiting until May for voter approval could increase the cost of the project by $800,000, or that if the taxpayers reject the additional increase the school won't get its accreditation. Hogwash.

For a year now we've heard that more money will be needed, but as soon as someone suggests that the voters should decide, the schedule is suddenly so tight that we cannot wait another month for a vote. And I've read the accreditation standards; there's nothing that specifies how much money we have to spend or what “technology” must be in the school.

For that matter, the folks in charge should stop sounding like used car salesmen and sell the project on its merits. We have seniors on fixed incomes, people trying to make a living on seasonal jobs and folks who are losing their homes to foreclosure; $76 is a lot of money to them. I don't care if it costs me $1 or $1,000; if you can't justify every penny and argue the merits of the project, it's not worth the expense.

(This post also appeared as an op-ed in the Thursday, February 28, 2008 issue of the Falmouth Bulletin entitled, "Guest Commentary: Justify every penny of added high school cost")