This Smells Funny, and We're Not Eating It

The school board is voting on the grand PC Purchase Plan of 2010 tomorrow evening.

Back in December, the plan (which smelled even funkier back then) called for purchasing 1375 NEW PCs for the combined new high school and upper middle school.

The PCs cost $497.34 each, so the amount of referendum funds budgeted for this action was $683,842.50. That's real money, folks. And keep your eyes on that figure, because as the numbers change, one has to wonder....if that much was budgeted for PCs and it isn't spent on PCs, where does it go???!

Asked for a breakdown of the purchases, we were told, 1100 for the new high school and 275 for the upper middle school. The audience was shocked, knowing that projections call for the high school to open with about 1400 kids. That's darn near ONE PC per kid!!!

High School Hijinx

The school board will tell you that administration revised it's plan and now plans to buy 884 PCs for the 1400 kids at the new high school and only 251 PCs (to go with the existing 528) for the upper middle school. That comes to a total of 1135 PCs to purchase for a total of $564,480.90.

Where's the $120K?

'member what we said? OK...since they budgeted like $680K and now plan to spend $560K....what happens to the $120,000 that will now be "surplus"? Hey! That's about the cost of a Steinway "D" concert grand!

Upper Middle School Madness

Funnier still is the Upper Middle School. The number of PCs currently at the high school is sufficient for the 1750 kids currently there. Next year there will be nearly 50% FEWER kids, yet they want to INCREASE the number of PCs by about 50%.

That's gotta be that new Math stuff we keep hearing about!

as great Aunt Gert says, "This smells funny, and I'm not eating it!"

PC Equity?

Look across the district, and you see PC inequity throughout.

As the graphic indicates, the elementary schools average 1 PC for every 2.7 kids.

The current middle school is at 1 PC per 2.5 kids, and the high school is at 3.3 kids for every PC.

The proposal calls for the Upper middle school to have a district low 1.2 kids per PC while even the new high school will be at 1.6 kids per PC?! What's up with that? How much sense does that make?

Ya know...we hear whispers that the plan is to buy all these PCs with revenue money and then spread them through the district like veritable Dell Santas. Hope that's just a vicious rumor....cuz that absolute reeks of shenanigans.

What the Board SHOULD (but Won't) Do
Logic would suggest that, rather than a building "plan", a goal for the number of kids per PC (or vice versa). And let's not be funny and suggest a goal of 1 PC per child. Then we might as well just buy a PC for every kind in the district every 5 years. Think of the software licensing issues!

At 1 PC for every 2.5 kids, that would be 800 maximum for a high school with its full capacity of 2000 kids.
For the upper middle school, with an expected maximum capacity of 1000 kids, the number of PCs would be 400....which means they wouldn't have to buy ANY for the upper middle school.

What say we cut the number down to a nice round 1000 PCs to purchase. That would make yet anouther...oh...hey $67,000 with which a class piano could be purchased.

As Aerosmith sang, Dream On!