I watched with interest the debate of Tuesday’s GCS Board of Education vote approving $16 million in bond funds from other projects to begin construction on Eastern Guilford High School.
The main issue was whether or not the school board trusted county commissioners to pay back those funds. The board went around and around with attorney Jill Wilson about whether or not the language in the agreement was binding enough. Wilson assured the board that it was, although she still couldn’t be exactly sure what the final language would be once commissioners sign off.
What struck me about the debate was the way the board pointed its collective finger at county commissioners for putting them in the situation of having to redirect bond funds. Again, that’s true, but by the same token, shifting bond funds is nothing new for the school board, either. The board appears to be upset because the shoe’s on the other foot. County commissioners have asked them to shift bond funds, instead of the other way around. That’s what board member Kris Cooke was trying to point out before she cast the lone dissenting vote:
We’ve been told that it’s our duty to watch the money that we have that we’ve promised. We’ve been crucified for what we’ve done to Ragsdale and Jamestown, and here we’re doing it again. It won’t come back to the commissioners. It’ll come back to us.”
Superintendent Terry Grier followed Cooke’s comments with some strong comments of his own:
“We’ve got to start establishing a different level of trust and a different working relationship, and it’s hard when you’re working with a group that has given you reasons not to trust them because of the way they’ve treated our children and our staff and all of us financially.
Never mind asking why commisioners should trust the school system when they’ve come before them time and again asking to shift bond funds from one project to the next. Never mind, either, that commissioners signed off on those requests time and again.
Board member Jeff Belton was right when he expressed disappointment that the Eastern Guilford community was “not packing that courthouse every time commissioners meet asking and demanding more credibility from that group.”
The same could be said for the group Belton hangs with, too. This deal’s messed up, man. Anybody with a direct concern in seeing a new Eastern Guilford any time soon should be very concerned.
