The truth about John Milne Boardroom spending still secret.

It has been about two and a half months now, since APS COO Brad Winter promised to produce a candid, forthright and honest accounting of the tax dollars spent on the John Milne Boardroom, link.

I still haven't been told the truth.

You may wonder why I care about spending that took place almost six years ago.

Perhaps because the first time I asked, how much did you spend? was almost six years ago.

They (the leadership of the APS) have been hiding the truth
ever since. Although the amount of money they spent on the boardroom instead of on portables at Susie Rayos Marmon Elementary School is still important; now it's more about the cover up.

When I ask them,

Did you spend $800 a piece on the chairs the board
members sit in twice a month for a couple of hours?

they don't answer. Why would they not answer, if the answer is no? Perhaps because the truth is equally indefensible; maybe even higher.

Why will Brad Winter not tell the truth except that
the truth is an embarrassment they need to hide?
Incompetence? Corruption? What is he hiding?

The boardroom was built at the expense of students attending school in leaky portable classrooms being used to three times their design life. It is an important thing to know; most of the players in the administration and on the school board, are still there.

Back when the Journal was still reporting APS' darker side, link,

they let readers know that the boardroom was $500K over budget and brought the grand total for fixing up administrative digs in a building that was supposed to "save taxpayers money", to "about $5 million".

The money they wasted remodeling their apartments in the sky, was capital funds; they could have been used to build classrooms but not to staff them with teachers.

The money they are going to waste litigating an exception to the Inspection of Public Records Act for the truth about the money spent there, will come from operational funds; money which could be spend on teachers and teaching assistants in those classrooms, if we had built them instead of a new boardroom.




photos Mark Bralley