Ah, things get interesting.
Former school board candidate Rhonda Lennon plans to seek the CMS Board slot being vacated by Kit Cramer. Lennon just finished serving on the Martin Commission. There she dissented from the plan to spend $172 million on school construction and renovation now, and seek some $400 million in additional borrowing authority from voters in November 2007. Lennon did not approve of the Martin Commission’s 11th hour addition of some $13 million in renovation spending for Harding High, for example.
The CMS Board just voted to back that plan by a vote of 7-1 with the lone dissenter being Larry Gauvreau, who bested Lennon in the last election in District 1. Gauvreau also thought the plan spent too much on renovations and not enough on new school construction.
The fun bit is that the Uptown paper of record endorsed Lennon over Gauvreau as a supposed voice of reason on this very point. Now, with Lennon in the hunt for Cramer’s seat, the paper will have to explain why she was good enough to replace Gauvreau, but not fit to replace Cramer.
As a result, look for the Observer to punt and back another unsuccessful endorsee, Peter Sidebottom, the Wachovia exec who lost to Tom Tate in November.
This assumes, of course, that Wachovia wants someone on the school board. The bank seems to run things fine as is.
