Examiner: County on the hook for Promethean Board payment

The Examiner's Leah Fabel reports on the Promethean Boards now present in MCPS classrooms and MCPS' inability to make this year's lease payment.

...Though the interactive “smart boards” are already in the classrooms, members of the council say the schools acquired them without permission, leaving the county on the hook for the funds...

...“This is an ongoing problem,” Ervin said. “This is why [Montgomery County schools get] looked at sometimes with a jaundiced eye — they’d rather ask for forgiveness than permission.”...

Ongoing problem? Only because the County Council allows it to be an ongoing problem! When will former Board of Education member, and now Councilmember Ervin, Chair of the Council's Education Committee do something about this "ongoing problem"?

How long will Montgomery County taxpayers have to support a spendthrift Board of Education and Superintendent that shops without competitive bids, buys without contracts, and spends money without appropriation?

Note: The Promethean Boards are on a 4 year lease payment plan. If the lease payment cannot be made, the Promethean Boards can be returned and the county will be "off the hook".

Read all about the taxpayer paid for trip to London during a travel freeze here, see the hotel here, and see the video here.

WTOP is also running the story.