As I discussed in my posting on the post election analysis of 3A and 3B, I am more than happy to post opinions that anyone wishes to share – whether agreeing with me or not.  Simply use the Contact Us link in the menu on the left to send it my way.  There are a couple simple notes about this:

• You do not have to include your full name – a first name is fine. 
• Submissions must include a valid email address.  I won’t post them but this is to keep the site from becoming a wasteland of responses from a few that want to game the system and send me multiple comments pretending to be different people. 
• I will not disclose your full name or your email address – I am the only one that sees that.  I will use your first name in my response most likely but that is all. 
• I will not edit your messages – what visitors see will be exactly what was written.  I won’t even correct any spelling errors. 
• Submissions need to be respectful and on topic.  Obviously no profanity. 

As I mentioned previously, Adams County is still counting ballots and the results are still up in the air - particularly for 3A.  Click here for the latest election results.  Look near the top of the page for wording that indicates whether or not they are done counting.   

Latest response received and updated 11/7/08 at 6:00am. Click the read more link to see what folks are saying.

Email #4 – From Kyle @ 7:30pm, November 6, 2008

Kyle’s comments: First off, I would like to say that your site is well put together and a good place to discuss important issues. I was directed here by a neighbor that said some things to me that was very concerning. I hope that you would post my feedback below on 2 of the responses you made to message #1 from Doug regarding Adams 12. (see below)

Third, they need to think about how they do business.  For instance, why is purchasing not centralized?  Why does one school order one type of computer and another order a different one?  Economies of scale apply here and leveraging purchasing power and standardizing could result in significant savings.

Kyle’s comments: Purchasing in the Adams 12 School District is centralized and we do have a contract in place with Dell for a standard list of computers and peripherals, I would be more than happy to provide you this list if you’d like. You will find that our pricing is very competitive which we continuously negotiate with Dell on a constant basis. We also have numerous contracts in place for District standard products and we have made it a high priority to educate our schools on the required use of these contracts almost daily. I would welcome you to stop by the ESC and inquire about any of these contracts. I know you are concerned about spending tax payers (I am one of them) dollars wisely and I can assure you that the centralized purchasing policies established in the District would suffice your concerns with these expenditures. 

Fourth, get creative.  The district has said they are falling behind in technology in the schools and yet they refuse to accept donations of slightly used, perfectly usable computer equipment.  Heck, they even make teachers that obtain equipment on their own get rid of it.  Why?

Kyle’s comments:  I will have to challenge the following part of your comment: “slightly used, perfectly usable computer equipment”. I can tell you that a very high percentage of times, the donated equipment you mentioned is not usable. The biggest reason for this is because it is outdated, it is not meant to be connected to a network and/or the processor speeds can not handle the various software programs that are included in the District image to ensure network security and child internet safety. I would challenge you to answer the following question honestly: How many times does a individual or private corporation donate equipment that has not reached the end of life for their use? I will tell you it is very seldom. Because of this, the District’s stance has to be not to accept this type of donated equipment. I can ensure you from past experiences, that this equipment leads to a higher maintenance costs and increases service requests for the District. This is turn only costs the District more money in the long run to maintain these machines.

Tony’s response:  Kyle, thanks for taking the time to respond – whether we agree or disagree, I very much believe debate is part of the education process so residents – and the school district – can be more aware of what is important to the other and how things work.  I will just throw out two quick comments to what Kyle said…

First, the computer tie-in to purchasing was just the one example I chose to use – I am sure there are others.  But, I know most of the schools use Dell but I also know there are those out there that use Mac’s.  It is my understanding that each school’s tech person makes the decision on what to buy but those that aren’t on Dell’s may simply not have bought new computers under if a newer policy was implemented.  IMHO, while Mac’s are easier to use, it is a disservice to the students to use those instead of a PC.  The “real world” is dominated by PCs and it is better to prepare kids on what they will see outside of school. 

Second, regarding donations, and I speak from personal experience with the district / schools on this, a 4 year old computer is still very serviceable and has quite a good bit of life in it (assuming they weren’t cheap ones to begin with).  At the elementary school level in particular, minimal processing power is required – most of what the kids do at that level is on the Internet – and as such an older computer would work just fine for them and have a very long service life. 

Indeed, donations I provided via my employer directly to schools in the district in the past have been put to great use and the teachers were ecstatic to have them to say the least.  Of course these were done before policies prohibiting this were implemented or were done by teachers and in-school administrators that saw the value and chose to ignore the policy.  These computers were used a number of ways including being put to use in an existing computer lab to expand capability or installing them directly in a classroom.  One great example of how this worked was when I provided a donation of 15 computers.  Five were put in each classroom of a given grade level.  Students could then use them to complete assignments rather than taking up computer lab time.  The teachers were also able to create activities centered around the availability of the computers.  In another case, a teacher was able to provide her own in-classroom computer lab which was especially valuable as the school was in a lower income area where many students didn’t have a computer at home to do the work. 

Email #3 – From Doug @ 2:53pm, November 5, 2008 (note – this is from a different “Doug” than email # 1)

Tony: I came across your blog while searching for the election results, and I wish I had found this earlier.  My family is outraged over the waste by the district 12 schools, and we were looking for an opposition group to help but could find none.  I bet the district will start the usual threats of dropping academic programs and will not address the real problem of too many high paid administrators.  Sometimes I wonder if they even know that there are students in the classrooms.  I thought a good commercial would be to show the Lexuses and Range Rovers in the admin parking lot, and ask where your tax dollars are going.  Keep up the good work!

Doug, glad you found my site – it would appear I am hitting on a bit of a hot button for sure.  Defiinitely appears that the District 12 administration is one of the biggest reasons behind the measures’ failure.  Hopefully they will take notice.  Love the comment about the Lexuses and Range Rovers!!! 

To my knowledge, there were no real opposition groups out there.  I was very surprised to actually see “No on 3A / 3B” signs around – I have never seen that happen with a District 12 issue.  I don’t know who was buying all those and putting them up but it appears we weren’t the only ones opposed to the measure. 

Email #2 – From Janet @ 2:34pm, November 5, 2008

Great blog on Adams 12 fraud! The truth about their spending and wastefulness needs to get out to the taxpayers.  I know 1st hand that 90% of the past tax monies has gone to creating new titles for retired administrators who are rehired by the district. Of course they need another new admin bldg – the administrators are multiplying like rabbits! The teachers and paras who are cut, leave behind educators who MUST of course be bossed and monitored by administrators. Who is there to enlighten the taxpayers? Thanks for doing your part!

Thank you for writing, Janet.  I guess there is at least one other person out there that agrees with me.    Janet pretty well sums up what I have been saying all along about the district’s administration.  I know firsthand of a number of positions there that could go away and no one would shed a tear.  A very long hard look needs to be taken.  The bigger an organization gets the harder it is to pick out those weak and uneeded links but they are definitely there – just a bit more hidden. 

Email # 1 – From Doug @ 10:10am, November 5, 2008

Tony,
I did read the comments you just posted with your replies and I admit I just relocated my family to the area – but – We just moved here from a suburb of Chicago which is booming.  They are building schools constantly to keep up with the influx of families.  They do this so that the school district keeps a high rating and does not fall behind the surrrounding areas thus causing a downturn to the suburb and ultimately home prices which are already being impacted.  We just moved to Anthem Highlands and are in desperate need for an elemntary school there.  Coming from the area I mentioned above, I had completely assumed that this would pass and I am quite frankly shocked and saddened by the vote against this measure.  While their may in fact be mismanagement of funds and a bloated administration, we need to seperate the two and call for an audit, not deprive our kids of things like a decent classroom size and air conditioning.  I’m also not sure of this website’s influence on the outcome but the fact that you’re spreading this and had any influence on bringing our children’s education even further behind is just plain wrong.
-Doug.

A well reasoned argument, Doug, and I appreciate your taking the time to write.  Education is certainly always a hot button topic and evokes strong feelings for sure. 

I am going to start my response somewhat backward by looking at your last sentence.  Certainly things sent via email or written can come across harsher that what they may be intended (or not) and that may be the case here.  What I have written was clearly opinion and the statements I made were truthful.  That sentence does come across as more or less saying that my excercising my rights and voicing a dissenting opinion from your view is “plain wrong.”  Debate is a great part of our Democratic society and should be encouraged – which is why I have offered to provide this forum.  Are we to stifle debate or never voice our opinions?  Just because one disagrees with an opinion does not make that opinion any less valid or wrong.  In fact, obviously a majority of residents agree with it. 

As a new resident, you may not be entirely aware of the background on just how often Adams 12 has “come to the well” for money from voters.  The same opinions I voice here and my concerns about the district’s finances have been voiced by others in the past elections and the district has had ample opportunity to get their house in order and they have chosen not to.  The recent gaffe in trying to buy / construct a new transportation building highlights the issues still going on.  They instead seem to view residents as a bank account that they can withdraw from at will. 

Did the district make cuts recently?  Yes.  They made some pretty tough choices last year and I commend them on that but I believe further work needs to be done.  I was going to post this separately but I will include my thoughts on where to start here: 

• First, as I have argued previously, any cuts need to come from the right places – the upper hierarchy at the district offices.  The district administration has grown in the last 10 years disproportionately to the number of teachers and that needs to be corrected. 
• Second, they need to be responsible citizens in the community and exercise good judgment with expenditures.  The failed Auto-Trol deal is the most recent example that comes to mind when pointing this out. 
• Third, they need to think about how they do business.  For instance, why is purchasing not centralized?  Why does one school order one type of computer and another order a different one?  Economies of scale apply here and leveraging purchasing power and standardizing could result in significant savings. 
• Fourth, get creative.  The district has said they are falling behind in technology in the schools and yet they refuse to accept donations of slightly used, perfectly usable computer equipment.  Heck, they even make teachers that obtain equipment on their own get rid of it.  Why? 
• Fifth, stop and think about what you are doing.  The district repeatedly invests in a given education program / system, spends tens of thousands of dollars to train staff and adopt it, uses it for a brief while then dumps it and spends more money on a replacement.  The expense in doing this is tremendous, teachers are forever having to learn new systems, and students are impacted. 

The measures District 12 put forth in 2000 passed but with roughly 42% opposed.   The 2004 measures passed with a slimmer margin – approximately 46% of voters opposed.  Opposition to the district has been growing and it obviously isn’t me that pushed this one over the edge.  I for one would gladly advocate FOR a measure if I felt it was the right one and the district had taken adequate steps to address the issues at hand.

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