Sunday, February 12, 2012

Sup. Starr's confusing request to double pay on Promethean lease

Remember how we told you that $1.3 million is up for grabs at the County Council this week?   


Superintendent Joshua Starr has told the County Council that he wants the $1.3 million in rebate funds for the 4th payment on the 4 year Promethean Board lease. 


There's just a little problem with that request. The "4th payment" on the Promethean Board lease was already made.  


The annual lease payment on the 2,600 Promethean Boards purchased in 2008 was made each year to Dell Financial Services in the amount of $3,355,400. The 4th lease payment was due in September 2011 and the payment is shown on the MCPS Funding Accountability and Transparency Database for Fiscal Year 2012 as having been made.  


The 4th and final payment was slightly higher than the previous annual
 payments and is shown in the image above from the MCPS website. 
Promethean Board lease payments were due in September of each year.

The first payment was September 2008, the second payment was September 2009, the third payment was September 2010, and fourth payment was due September 2011.


It's now February of 2012.  The thousands of Promethean Boards that were purchased without Board of Education discussion or vote in 2008 by MCPS Chief Operating Officer Larry Bowers signing a 4 year lease with Dell Financial Services have been paid for, in full. 

Yes, it's confusing when MCPS staff go out and spend $13.4 MILLION without any public Board of Education discussion or vote.  But that doesn't mean that the 4th payment of a lease should be made twice.

Isn't it time for MCPS to make their check register public?

1 comment:

  1. promethean boards suck. They aren't even good paper. it would take a score of graphic design people to create the content for these piles of crap. Does Larry work for Dell now? Or maybe another relative does.

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