This comment says it all. I wanted to cross post it.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker":
9:07, hopefully you are on the verge of an ‘ah ha’ moment. At least I hope so, if you’ll stop for a moment and think about what people are upset about instead of looking at them as obstructionists.
I don’t believe, at lest I hope, that people aren’t upset if someone wants to donate ‘their’ money to some initiative— be it a weight room, library room, computers, showcases, murals or whatever. God bless them for doing so.
There’s nothing wrong with the fundraiser if that is how it works.
Trouble is though that it hasn’t. The district put $923,520.02 of cash IT ALREADY HAD from its General Funds into the campaign and now because of the overhead and expenses they have less than that left. If you read the financial statements, which seem to change monthly, expenses outpace revenue from donations! Plus you can’t spend pledges since there is no guarantee those pledges will ever come in.
So, to be clear, I don’t believe anyone is opposed to people donating. Had the board put in just $50,000 seed money as originally intended and said if they burn through the $50,000 the campaign shuts down and we rethink. No they pumped almost $1 million into it and while the revenue was mere fractions of their goal kept lying to taxpayers that everything was going as planned.
As for the Foundation, why would one charity that was doing good deeds close to teachers and their classrooms and is always looking for donations itself pledge money to another that has a different set of goals like the renovations, athletics and fine arts.
Some districts from my research actually set up their “Foundations” originally to do what we have two - the foundation and the campaign - to do.
From my little bit of reading it seems that those districts put out a disclaimer that while they’ll gladly accept donations specifying a specific initiative in the end it would be up to the board/administration if it fit into the district’s prime objective of educating students.
I don’t know if other people concur with my opinion. That’s what makes this blog so great, people can or should be able to exchange thoughts, ideas and hopefully arrive at some good ideas.
1 comment:
The analysis is absolutely correct. I can’t imagine anybody disputing it. The bottom line is that every single cent donated to the campaign went to administrative expenses charged by the District Administration and Capital Campaign Cabinent. No money has been raised net of expenses and these folks desperately attempted to conceal this fact from the public for years. It’s truly a scandal. Absolutely shameful.
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