Chink in the School Board's Armor

An interesting letter from Kenn Gardner in today's N&O opinion section. As someone pointed out to me yesterday, if you state something publicly you'd better be right -- I'm sure Mr. Gardner had confidence in his remarks. Wake County citizens deserve an answer to Mr. Gardner's questions. The first approved installment payment on this bond is over $300M, so a 5 percent variance here and there add up to millions of dollars. The WCPSS's own figures project a 6.8% increase in students next year, not much greater than the 'contingency' they put into project plans. Stop MYR and WakeCARES have both raised valid questions over the validity of the school board's population projections, and neither organization has been given a lucid answer.
The current redistricting plan moves 11,000 students to different schools, affecting just under 10% of the school population. That number does not account for the additional students who are not being redistricted, but are having their school converted to MYR (hint: my kid is one of them).
Our county is in a sad state when the debate between the commissioners and school board must be conducted in the Opinion section of the N&O. In yesterday's WakePol section, Tony Gurley was quoted as saying he will no longer engage in private conversations with school board members, and will only speak with them with others present so that he is not misquoted or misunderstood.
The time has come for an independent audit. If the battle continues to be waged in the press, the real facts may never come out, and our children's needs will take a back seat. I'm not sure right now what government protocols are in place concerning internal audit, but researching that will be this evening's project.
As to the letter regarding Paul Coble, some good questions about county tax rates. My opinion is slightly different regarding Mr. Coble himself. The Wake County School Board has operated on its own agenda for years, and I think his actions are helping to shake up the 'good old boy/girl' network.
Update: I emailed Mr. Gardner this morning and he already responded with a copy of his letter to the WCPSS. I posted it here, back-dated to 1/10/07 -- Scroll down the right hand side under 'Postings' it is the last one listed. His email to me included the referenced spreadsheets, I'm not a webmaster and could not figure out how to post them (they are in .pdf).