Lauderdale BOE Hires School Consolidation Consultant

From a scholar who knows what cooks:

The Lauderdale County Board of Education has now signed a contract to pay $20,000 to a consultant from the Alabama Association of School Boards for a “Facilities Assessment & Strategic Plan”. Basically, the Board is paying $20,000 for someone to tell them how to consolidate schools – something they should already know how to do since they are all so richly experienced and so very well qualified in public school management.

So there you have a perfect example of the essential defect, that if anyone on this Board or in the district’s executive management had aptitude or intelligence equal to his responsibilities, the Board could have saved the district $20,000 for classroom use. I’m quite sure the many teachers who buy classroom materials out of their own pockets could make much better use of $20,000.

So let’s look at a summary of all the unnecessary expenditures made by this gaggle of incompetents we call a “board of education” in Lauderdale County:

$36,000+ for consultants to help the district transition to a new CFO, because the Board didn’t want to hear the truths the former CFO was giving them.

$610,000 to purchase land for an unneeded expansion of the the Board’s central office campus.

$250,000 annual and ongoing forfeiture of TVA In Lieu of Taxes revenues to the ill-conceived AG Center Consortium.

And tens of thousands of dollars in ongoing legal fees to stubbornly defend against an EEOC “equal pay” lawsuit that the Board is too obtuse to realize it is going to lose, not to mention the back-pay and penalties the school district will have to pay to the plaintiffs, which could easily top $1,000,000.

But alas, this is what the good people of Lauderdale County deserve, unless and until they decide to elect a higher caliber of leaders.

We trust everyone is happy with the school board, knowledgeable individuals that they are. Each elected because of the "R" after their name; as we all know that letter trumps an "I" or a "D" any day no matter how little education and expertise the person behind the "R" may actually have.

We urge all interested Lauderdale County citizens to attend the next school board meeting and ask questions. You elected these yahoos - let them know they can be unelected.

Life with the Canalers - Nick Winn