Background from the Daily News story:
“Challenge Day” at West Bend High Schools will not be taking place... But because a nonrefundable deposit of $12,800 was been invested in the program...The district is obligated to reimburse the grant. “We are working with attorneys determining how to recapture our funds,” Neitzke said. “They are reviewing the contracts to see what our fiscal obligation is. Our goal is to limit the cost to taxpayers.” The experience has resulted in changes to internal protocol, Neitzke said.
OK, so the first obvious fact is that the taxpayers have been exposed to a liability for which we received nothing in return. This occurred because administrators assumed since it wasn't local tax money (it was the magic "grant" form of tax money), they didn't need to run it by the Board, even as a courtesy. At least this incident has reportedly prompted changes in the protocols that led us to this point. But then again, it could be that the administration didn't bother because they knew it would have been approved on a 7-0 vote anyway!
The bigger question I have is, "Who thought this was a good idea in the first place?" Who researched this Challenge Day outfit, read about their program and said, "We need to apply for a grant to run this at our high school!" Is our community so devoid of psychologists and counselors that our school administrators felt they needed to find a way to provide these services themselves? Or, is it a case of certain people with their own agendas trying to use the schools to change what they see as improper social views and norms? It was stated here that a former district administrator was involved...yet the Board was not. Does that raise any questions in terms of who is in charge?
This is why David Weigand and I believe we need a change on the Board and need to restore the proper "separation of powers" at the top. This is also why we are advocating a focus on our basic mission of education - something this program had nothing to do with. As a school district, we had no good reason to: 1) consider hosting a program like this, 2) waste administator's time and effort applying for a grant, or 3) involve former employees in current school business. Everyone wants to look at grant money as "free", but there are always strings attached. If our administrators have too much time on their hands, maybe we could just eliminate a position and skip the grant processing - rather than searching for more revenue, we could lower spending (and even reduce legacy costs!).
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