Who's in charge: School board should stand its ground on building projects

There is a reason that decades ago, someone in Raleigh decided that the state's boards of county commissioners could not tell school boards how to build schools.

In a nutshell, the idea was that those elected to take care of the county schools were the ones most qualified to make such decisions -- and the ones answerable to the public for those decisions.

The commissioners, in turn, were given control of the funding. So, if they vehemently disagreed, they could express their opinion, but that, in the end, both parties would have equal say.

If they could not reach a decision, then a third party could be called in to make it for them.

There is this funny little quirk that seems to be developing in the relationship between the county board of education and the county commission.

And it was expressed by Commissioner Steve Keen as he and his fellow commissioners decided by a 4-3 vote to fly in the face of the school board's decision on how to build two new schools in Wayne County and to demand that they choose the method approved by the county commission.

"I'm telling the people right now the best way we can move forward in education is to trust the school board, but I want them to trust us, because it works both ways. But the school board has got to trust us in funding," Keen said to the rest of the board and the school officials who attended the commission's meeting Tuesday.

Interesting -- and an itty bit condescending.

The board of education hired a consultant to review the options for the two new middle schools. Its members and school officials reviewed the findings and decided which option would allow them to build the best schools for the best price.

And they made a decision accordingly.

The commissioners were also advised by the consultant hired by the schools, a company that has used both techniques for school building, that in their experience, design/build is not practical for schools and would not save them any money and would significantly delay the project.

But that was not good enough.

The commissioners know better.

Here is the bottom line. Gentlemen, the school board is not a group of incompetents who are incapable of making a decision on anything involving money.

You are no more qualified than many of its members to make such a decision -- as evidenced by some of your less-than-perfect decision-making so far.

And, more importantly, you have no more experience in the funding of large scale government projects. In fact, many members of the school board have already been involved in such decisions, long before any of you even considered running for office.

The need for the call for someone to respect someone else is on the side of the school board, not you.

The school board should be trusted to make decisions on items that involve the best interests of county students. That is their charge and the people obviously trust them to do so.

And if they make decisions that are not in such interest, or the public disagrees with them, then they can make a change at the ballot box -- just like they can if they disagree with the decisions made by the county commission.

This county has diddled around with fixing the infrastructure in the county schools for far too long.

There is no more need for second guessing and patronizing comments.

Build the schools.

Quit hiring dueling consultants -- how is that not a gross waste of county money?

Show that you really do understand you cannot possibly be experts on everything and listen to someone else for a change -- even if it is not the school board, how about the architect who does this for a living?

This argument needs to be ended now, before it stretches into a months-long debate, again, that makes county children wait even longer for the schools they need.

They deserve better.

Published in Editorials on February 20, 2014 1:33 PM