There's a Sucker Born........

Ahhhh back from a cruise and reading the stacked up papers (yes, I’m an old person who still likes the feel of newspaper in my hand!) Anyway it’s hard to decide which is the dumber story, the City and its fantom school closing, or Pittsylvania County and supervisors and their crossed fingers behind their back.


If it wasn’t so sad it would be funny. But I gotta admit the City story is much juicier! So let me get this straight , a superintendent makes up a fake story about closing a school to force council to give them more money. The weirdest part was that the council fell for it!

Lets dissect this conspiracy first. The superintendent, with the school board, conspired to announce that they were going to close Gibson. Why Gibson? Well that school has the heaviest minority population, is headed by a popular principal, is one of the last schools named after a black leader, and is located in a high minority neighborhood. Result, maximum pressure and disruption to the city council. Everyone saw this one coming…..except city council. They never realized they were set up. Some councilmen even ran on a platform of NOT giving the extra money to the schools. So much for their word…

So in the midst of this passion play they suddenly come up with a plan to LEND the schools the money they say they need. As every accountant in a grave starts rotating they develop a plan to lend the money to the schools and they pay in back over 5 years. Hmmm, so next year they will still be short the $2.1 million AND $500,000 for the first payment. Now what economics class was this taught in? Besides being financially ridiculous, it puts the schools in an even worse position next year.

Why has this crisis come about? Because despite numerous warnings and data provided to them years ago the school board has refused to address the issue of declining enrollment. DPS has been losing students at a steady rate since 2000 yet no plans were ever made to address this issue. Despite these warnings the board turned a blind eye to the issue. Instead they created a bloated central office, a flash in the pan high school, and wasted money on frivolous projects. A impeccable inside source has identified some major money debacles perpetrated by this administration. Those will be identified in later blogs.

Now let’s recap what happened. A manufactured crisis, creative posturing to bring pressure, and a swoop in for the financial kill. Have to give it to them, it worked. But next year the same problem will still be there. What’s next holding the GW eagle hostage? They better hurry, only ten months left to manufacture a crisis. And city council get ready to have your leg jerked….again.