Grand Island School District�s Capital Project � the Debacle Continues
Jim Mulcahy
Posted June 5, 2006

There was a lot of glad-handing and high fives that the District gave itself after it won the budget vote last month. Because of the �echo� you may have missed the request at the following board meeting to replace All-Weather Roofing as the contractor of record on the roofing portion of the capital project. Big deal, you may say. Well, in fact, it is.

The capital project, phase II, contracts were awarded in August, 2002. The roof should have been in place in 2003. Here we are in 2006 and it still has problems. Why? It�s a new roof. We were told that �we are on top of this project.� That�s so no one can get a look at it. Anyone who owns or lives in a house, or a tent, for that matter, knows that if there are problems with the roof, eventually, sooner rather than later, there will be all sorts of interior problems. What management process allowed this to fester this long?

This summer, presumably, the problem(s) will be fixed. At what cost, though, and who pays? It would be interesting to know if All-Weather was bonded. If not, why not? If they weren�t, the District, aka the taxpayers, will have to pay for it. Why shouldn�t those in charge pay for it? Why should we, the taxpayers, have to? They didn�t manage the project properly. The acoustics in the music room were atrocious. They need(ed) to be redone. The gym is only for the �elect�, I�m told. Shouldn�t they be held responsible for their actions?

As I have written before, this project was a scandal from the very beginning. We were asked to vote on one set plans, but the board saw fit to change them substantially: adding a gym and eliminating science labs to name the most obvious. Eliminating the science labs was the easy choice. It would have been difficult to come back to the taxpayers and ask for a third gym, but who could turn down science labs? This is a classic bait and switch operation. (Where is Eliot Spitzer when you really need him?)

Please read the rest here.
This stuff goes on right under our noses and it must stop!