Pages

Friday, June 22, 2018

**BOE Finds $562,721 for Plastic Grass at RM High School.** Not Money for Teachers, Classrooms, Lead Remediation, Mold Remediation, Repairs, Grass Seed... BOE Intentionally Let Warranty EXPIRE! Did Council Appropriate these Funds for this Purpose?

The Montgomery County Board of Education intentionally let the warranty on the defective Richard Montgomery High School artificial turf field expire and now they are going to use $562,721 of Operating Budget funds to replace this one plastic football field. 

The MCPS Real Estate department has been squirreling aways cash.  This money will be used to buy a new plastic field for Richard Montgomery High School.  Those funds are not listed in the MCPS Operating Budget documents in any discoverable location.  The image to the left shows the only mention of this fund in the FY19 MCPS Operating Budget.

Note that the Resolution (below) before the Board of Education on June 25, 2018, does not mention any approriation of these funds by the County Council.

The money in this "fund" has allegedly come in to MCPS through outside sources and is being immediately diverted to pay for plastic football fields without any discussion of the best use of these public school dollars. 

Probably the biggest source of cash for this fund is coming from Cell Tower revenue

That means that the high FARMS rate schools that have cell towers on their playgrounds and fields are paying for the plastic grass purchase at Richard Montgomery High School.  

In addition, MCPS has used Field Trip fees to fund Artificial Turf purchases

Remember that the actual Artificial Turf PLAN was that these fields would pay for themselves through field rental fees.  That has not happened. 

The Board of Education has not provided the public with an accounting for the funds being used to pay for the Richard Montgomery High School artificial turf field replacement nor are they bringing these outside funds before the County Council for appropriation. 

The failure to present a transparent budget Resolution to the public is on the Board of Education members four of whom are candidates in this year's elections. 

1 comment:

  1. Wednesday, February 25, 2009
    Andrews: "This is a serious mistake...the law is clear...crystal clear..."
    The County Council Education Committee's February 23, 2009 meeting on Promethean Boards and E-Rate rebates was captured on video. The video is in two parts. See quotes from each video below and click on the videos to watch the meeting.
    Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County uploaded a new video.
    Hear Councilmember Ervin, "...The issue is that the Council has appropriation authority. Going forward we need a reporting mechanism by MCPS to capture these E-Rate dollars and rebate dollars for all funds. So we need to know what we are getting for our dollars. We need all the data that staff requested prior to budget disclosure. And in this case, there are many that believe that MCPS is taking on ongoing expenses that we are going to have to fund over the long term...."
    Councilmember Andrews, "...it's about openness, accountability and authority...we weren't notified about the commitment to contract for this additional expenditure and so we didn't have any opportunity to approve it...This is a serious mistake in my view..."Councilmember Knapp, "When I look back...the magnitude of the purchase of this size never came up..."

    http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2009/02/andrews-this-is-serious-mistakethe-law.html

    ReplyDelete

If your comment does not appear in 24 hours, please send your comment directly to our e-mail address:
parentscoalitionmc AT outlook.com