1. I love how Sergio send this to staff and carries on with the party line about being open and transparent without mentioning that the plan in January is to give somewhere between 15-25% of them their walking papers. That would seem to be pretty important.
2. Anyone who thinks there is any interest or will to consider paus…
1. I love how Sergio send this to staff and carries on with the party line about being open and transparent without mentioning that the plan in January is to give somewhere between 15-25% of them their walking papers. That would seem to be pretty important.
2. Anyone who thinks there is any interest or will to consider pausing or canceling the project needs to be realistic about it. It may be awful financial practice, but they are going to plow ahead with it, so saying they should cancel it is an exercise in wishful thinking. Not gonna happen.
3. I agree with finishing the project. There have been millions of dollars spent and millions yet to be spent and we might as well get something out of it. Flip side is that millions of dollars set on fire and a giant empty hole where kids used to play would be a fitting endnote for Dr. Horton's time in our community.
4. If they are short dollars to actually complete the building, I don't know why issuing more lease certificates isn't an option. Clearly, actually having transportation savings wasn't the basis for issuing the original set. That was all bullshit from the word "go". If Raymond James didn't see right though that fraud during the underwriting process, they have the worst set of underwriters in the business. I had a Zoom call with Obafemi and Horton after I wrote my first letter to the editor, and they indicated from the standpoint of the bankers, what counted is the amount of taxes collected and since Evanston was close to 100%, we were considered a good risk. I of course recognize that both those gentlemen are liars of the highest order, so take that with a grain of salt.
5. The issue of what to do with the problem of the "soft costs" is a problem that I fear will be be solved by closing more schools faster. For all of Biz Ryan's talk about "making 50 year decisions" for the District, they are really making 2 year decisions to get out from under the effects of the necessary spending for the new building and the deficits brought about by poor management and total lack of oversight.
6. The real solution for this would be to have a referendum but that is an unrealistic option for a number of reasons starting with the fact that no one trusts the people on the Board to do the right thing and their demonstrated inability to manage the money they have already been given. Maybe it will be an option with a new Board, but that will be too late to save the day.
7. It continues to anger me that no one on the Board has had the courage to have a public discussion about Cordogan Clarks role in this mess. They knew that Horton was continuing to say that the new K-8 building would costs $40M when that was a total lie but never blew the whistle on it. The net result has been the trauma inflicted on the BR families and the generation of future D65 students who will have $3.25 million less in resources available to them because the District get neck deep in this project before the truth came out. The community deserves an explanation, but the Board doesn't have the courage to ask questions that would show their lack of diligence and common sense in approaching this project.
A few thoughts:
1. I love how Sergio send this to staff and carries on with the party line about being open and transparent without mentioning that the plan in January is to give somewhere between 15-25% of them their walking papers. That would seem to be pretty important.
2. Anyone who thinks there is any interest or will to consider pausing or canceling the project needs to be realistic about it. It may be awful financial practice, but they are going to plow ahead with it, so saying they should cancel it is an exercise in wishful thinking. Not gonna happen.
3. I agree with finishing the project. There have been millions of dollars spent and millions yet to be spent and we might as well get something out of it. Flip side is that millions of dollars set on fire and a giant empty hole where kids used to play would be a fitting endnote for Dr. Horton's time in our community.
4. If they are short dollars to actually complete the building, I don't know why issuing more lease certificates isn't an option. Clearly, actually having transportation savings wasn't the basis for issuing the original set. That was all bullshit from the word "go". If Raymond James didn't see right though that fraud during the underwriting process, they have the worst set of underwriters in the business. I had a Zoom call with Obafemi and Horton after I wrote my first letter to the editor, and they indicated from the standpoint of the bankers, what counted is the amount of taxes collected and since Evanston was close to 100%, we were considered a good risk. I of course recognize that both those gentlemen are liars of the highest order, so take that with a grain of salt.
5. The issue of what to do with the problem of the "soft costs" is a problem that I fear will be be solved by closing more schools faster. For all of Biz Ryan's talk about "making 50 year decisions" for the District, they are really making 2 year decisions to get out from under the effects of the necessary spending for the new building and the deficits brought about by poor management and total lack of oversight.
6. The real solution for this would be to have a referendum but that is an unrealistic option for a number of reasons starting with the fact that no one trusts the people on the Board to do the right thing and their demonstrated inability to manage the money they have already been given. Maybe it will be an option with a new Board, but that will be too late to save the day.
7. It continues to anger me that no one on the Board has had the courage to have a public discussion about Cordogan Clarks role in this mess. They knew that Horton was continuing to say that the new K-8 building would costs $40M when that was a total lie but never blew the whistle on it. The net result has been the trauma inflicted on the BR families and the generation of future D65 students who will have $3.25 million less in resources available to them because the District get neck deep in this project before the truth came out. The community deserves an explanation, but the Board doesn't have the courage to ask questions that would show their lack of diligence and common sense in approaching this project.