VoteNoBonds.com

By BRIAN GOTT - STAFF WRITER

In the wake of voters rejecting the $427 million school bonds package, there has been a general call from politicians for consensus building and cooperation. The general theme: Let’s all get along and move forward in a positive direction.
The reality hasn’t been so positive, and if local politicos are trying to lead by example, we’re all in for a rough ride. Consider the consensus building comments of Commissioner Norman Mitchell, delivered at last week’s Board of Commissioners meeting when the board voted down a proposal to fund $254 million in school construction to relieve overcrowding in the suburbs using Certificates of Participation (COPs).
Mitchell, a Democrat, went on a tirade, blaming the school bonds’ defeat on everything from the media to a vast right-wing conspiracy hatched by Republican commissioners and school board members.
“To the citizens of Mecklenburg County who supported my colleagues, my Republican colleagues, in that if you go out and vote against these bonds that COPs will placed, we will use COPs instead – you were either hoodwinked, lied to, bamboozled, any other thing,” Mitchell said. “But you were misled; you were misled.”
Mitchell went on to blast residents who campaigned against the school bonds, along with the media, after imploring “some of us who continue to try to work to hold this community together, we’re trying to make this a livable place.”
“And it is just so hurtful,” Mitchell said, “that all this rhetoric that is moving throughout Mecklenburg County, by some citizens, some of our elected officials, even some talk show hosts, particularly WBT. I guess we’ll call some of them Rush Limbaugh wannabes. They reek a foul odor of separatism, classism and racism.”
So much for consensus building, but Mitchell wasn’t alone. Take this exchange between school board members Kaye McGarry, a Republican who backed the COPs school construction plan, and George Dunlap, a Democrat bond supporter.
“Kaye, you just don’t get it,” Dunlap wrote in an email to McGarry last week. “You supported candidates to run against each of us in hopes that you would get the change that you wanted in hopes of becoming board chair. You knocked on 400 doors I,m (sic) told, to ask people not to support the bonds.
“You gave financially to some candidates and worked all day at the polls for a losing candidate. You gambled and you lost,” Dunlap continued. “You don’t have any social capital. You don’t have the power to negotiate anything.”
Dunlap also told McGarry in the email to just stop talking to him.
“Don’t waste you (sic) time with me unless you say something that makes sense and it’s been a long time since you’ve done that, so I won’t hold my breath,” Dunlap wrote.
“Thank you for sharing your opinions with me,” McGarry replied, somewhat sarcastically, in a return email. “I appreciate. On November 9th, 2005, I congratulated you on your victory in District 3. I plan to again work with the people God gave me on this board, and try to bring this board together.”

Rhino Times Article

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In 2002, the bonds passed 63-to-37 percent, a substantial change from the previous two margins. Yet again, those on the winning side expressed no concern for those on the losing side. They had won and that’s all they cared about. If they cared about consensus and those who had voted against the bonds they would have gone into Coulwood, Oakdale, Mint Hill, Berryhill and the other precincts where a majority of the voters had said “no” and asked about their concerns. They did not.

Which leads us to November of this year, when the “no” voters gained 20 percent in the polls and defeated the school bonds. This is extraordinary and cries out about the problems the voters have with CMS.

The bond supporters are stunned. Having never cared about those who expressed concern about issues personal to themselves, because all they wanted was 51 percent of the vote, they are surprised their arrogance has caused such wreckage.

Suddenly, bond supporters, on the losing side for a change, say they care about those opposing the bonds, who are on the winning side for a change. The supporters want consensus, compromise, yet the naysayers can leave the county if they don’t like the higher taxes. There is consensus only in their arrogance.

Let me assure you all. Board of Education Chairman Joe White does not care about consensus or resolving the issues, his is a mantra from coaching that has only to do with winning. His words upon learning of the failed bond vote indicate his position. White, and others of the same ilk, only care about winning. They are only interested in 51 percent; when they get it, talk of consensus and compromise disappear.

There is a similar attitude in the people who support the bonds and the losers on the arena vote, because they are the same people. They don’t really care what the voters say; they care only about taking the voters’ money.

My prediction is there will be much talk and nothing will change, which has been the history of CMS since 1970. In no uncertain terms, education is not the purpose of the CMS bureaucracy, as the culture of bureaucracy in control there is concerned only with self-preservation. As this culture is perpetuated through quiet approval by the Board of Education and the Board of County Commissioners, there is no reason to change.

A “no” vote is only a bump in the road to them – much as the arena vote was. Expect higher taxes and no real change in policy.

Rhino Times

Ex-governor Martin to seek schools solution
Will lead unity-building panel
CARRIE LEVINE
clevine@charlotteobserver.com

Former N.C. Gov. Jim Martin has agreed to chair a citizens committee that would design a school-construction package for voters to consider in November.

If Mecklenburg commissioners approve, Martin, a Republican who once chaired the county board, will head a 35-member group and appoint nine seats. The group could begin meeting by March.
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School board members immediately split over the need for the committee.

Republican Ken Gjertsen, newly elected to represent the south suburban District 6, said CMS needs to revamp student assignment to send students to their closest schools before his constituents will back bonds.

Republicans Larry Gauvreau and Kaye McGarry, who have both introduced alternative plans for building new schools, said CMS needs to act quickly on those plans.

Republican commissioner Jim Puckett, who opposed November’s bond package, said Martin is a good choice to chair the process. Allowing mayors of the suburban towns to make appointments, he said, will help balance the committee. “I think the fact of the matter is, the biggest distrust and disconnect lies in the suburban areas.”

Democrats Molly Griffin and Tom Tate voiced support for the proces

Charlotte Observer Article...

Last week’s defeat of the $427 million Charlotte-Mecklenburg School bonds moves the district one step closer to a meltdown of epic proportions.

As a show of frustration with how the Board of Education handles spending, management and pupil assignment, voters overwhelmingly turned back the package, which would have built new schools that would relieve overcrowding while renovating inner city campuses that have fallen behind on maintenance. A strong push by conservatives helped fan the flames, but the school board’s ineptitude and a massive case of sticker shock were likely enough to sink the referendum. The fallout, however, could portend serious ramifications for the county, CMS and students alike.

For the county, Republican commissioners Bill James and Dan Bishop argue that Mecklenburg can alleviate overcrowding by issuing Certificates of Participation, or COPs, to build schools in the suburbs. The Republicans, who demanded CMS hold the line on spending when they were in the majority two years ago, should be applauded for their change of heart. But issuing COPs is riskier for the county financially and doesn’t address renovation issues in areas that sorely need them.
Democratic commissioners, on the other hand, pledged to help public schools find the money to ease overcrowding and maintain equity. Although the referendum went down in flames, they’ve been painted into a corner: issue COPs or face criticism for doing nothing. Democrats, most notably Dumont Clarke and Norman Mitchell, have publicly opposed COPs after a resounding public decision on the bonds, using Charlotte City Council’s reversal of the failed arts and entertainment referendum of 2001 as a cautionary tale of abiding by voters’ wishes. The Democrats won that skirmish Tuesday by defeating the COPs proposal.
So what will happen next? We suggest that public input be allowed to go forward with the new school board, which returns many of the same characters that put the district into this mess. They should hammer out a new proposal that takes into account Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s overall needs, which requires a centrist, mature study of issues facing the district. Then offer it to commissioners for a referendum.
One thing is sure: Suburban schools will continue to overflow without new construction. Older campuses will continue to deteriorate without renovation and upgrades. And communities will continue to balkanize based on geography, economics and politics. If Mecklenburg citizens are determined to send a message to the school district and elect representatives who share that view, it should be consistent. If it’s fiscal restraint, so be it. If it’s aggressive spending, we should be ready to live with it. Staying this confusing course only leaves everyone railing for top-flight education without the assets - or courage - to make anything of consequence happen.

Volume 31, No. 09

http://www.thecharlottepost.com/editorials.html

Nine Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools are still waiting for renovations voters approved over the past eight years.

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This time, 57 percent of voters — and three out of four who voted at Northeast Middle — said no to CMS bonds.

Beverly Cannaday, a Northeast parent, says she wasn’t going to keep voting yes when her school’s renovations haven’t materialized, and when CMS failed to plan for inflation. Rising costs jacked up the price of projects higher on the priority list, so projects waiting in line have smaller budgets.

“If they’re not going to spend it wisely, why keep throwing money at it?” Cannaday said.

But David McAlexander, a parent leader at Long Creek Elementary, voted yes, even though no one can say when his school will get promised improvements. In 2002, voters approved money to design a replacement for the aging, crowded Huntersville school. This month they denied money to build it.

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As it became clear that federal judges would demand a new assignment plan, the school board voted to spend millions to bring old schools up to modern standards. Some already had minor projects authorized in 1997 bonds. The board decided to fold them into more sweeping and costly renovations.

Norm Gundel, a Cornelius lawyer who chairs the citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee, says that approach made sense.

He and Chamberlain say that if CMS had gone ahead with the smaller projects, CMS would have wasted money if it had done the work, then torn it down a few years later as part of a sweeping rehab.

But the decision, they say, created a problem: People with a stake in those schools complain about waiting eight years for CMS to deliver.

“In hindsight,” says Chamberlain, “we probably should have just gotten on with the (1997) renovations.”

Cannaday, the Northeast parent, says it’s not just the timing that irks her. As construction costs soared, higher-priority projects have eaten into the money left for other schools.
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School board member Kaye McGarry says the GOP plan to borrow a smaller amount would have brought quicker results.

But for schools waiting to see their blueprints turned into bricks, those results would have been mixed. Wings would have been added, but renovations would have been shelved.

And McGarry says in the long run, she thinks well-planned bond requests every four years — the way Central Piedmont Community College does it — make more sense than frequent votes.

Gundel, whose citizens’ advisory panel unanimously endorsed the 2005 bonds, says CMS has honored its promises. But big projects take time, especially when they involve work on an occupied school.

Helping voters understand that, Gundel says, is one of the many challenges ahead.

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