It's My Way or the Highway !!!

Yesterday I sent an email to Patti Head, begging her and the board to set ego aside, act in the best interests of our children, and work with the county commissioners to find a non-MYR solution to school over-crowding. The commissioners admitted they made a mistake in deferring funds to rennovate schools, and fixed it -- knowing they would endure comments from the school board about "back-tracking" and that they would use this as 'proof' that they have been right all along. Translation: "I want my MYR and I'm going to scream until I get it!" Here's Ms. Head's non-response to my email:

Joe, over a period of 18 months we met with, discussed with, shared with, compromised with the County Commissioners on the CIP that was the basis of the Bond that was brought to the public for their vote ...and approved in Nov....the reordering of the request by the BofE at their Monday meeting and the subsequent reversal was, according to Mr Gurley, based not on listening to the public, but on "doing the math" ...they found that their rash decision would cost the county and the taxpayers more money and would not be a wise financial step for our bankers to take....I do appreciate their change of mind and financing the renovations as requested in our first quarterly request following the bond.

The "cross-over" to engaging in educational policy-making by withholding our request for the year round conversion dollars and for the modular units we need for 2007-08 (and which was included in months of documents shared by both boards and included in the Bond which most of the CC endorsed) is not legal and is disingenuous with their support of the CIP and bond....I do fully realize that Mr. Coble was not a part of our meetings or the final approval, but the others were.

I would be happy to discuss this further with you if you'd care to call me at my office

518-0171...I continue to be very committed to working with our CC and all the citizens of Wake County to come up with solutions to address the consequences of the tremendous growth in WC and the direct impact that growth has on our public schools.....as you are aware, we had 7500+ new students this year and are expecting another 8,000 next...Sincerely, Patti Head

Patti Head
Wake County Board of Education

Patti Head has been in love with Year-Round schooling for years -- long before growth became an issue. In a way, the shortage of classrooms is a convenient way for her to do what she has wanted to all along.