LCPS Budget comments
Sarah Stinger
Dear Scott and Geary,
I am supportive of education but before you consider approving LCPS' budget request, please ask the School Board to assure you that they will insist Dr. Hatrick cooperate with the Reform Commission. Please don't be shy to incentivize LCPS to get the funding they seek. PLEASE tell them that if they refuse to fully cooperate during the coming year that you can't in good faith ask taxpayers to pay more.
There are many other potential cost-saving measures that LCPS administrators dismiss, like competitive bidding on contracts or getting the School Board's approval for certain types of expenditures. Examples of expenditures for which School Board approval is not required include consultants with $400,000 budgets doing site studies for the Planning Department, outside attorneys, hiring retired employee consultants for over $80,000/year, the list goes on. I'm happy to give you these details if you are interested.
Furthermore, Dr. Adamo reported to the School Board on January 2 that he had spent $1.7M-$2M on western Loudoun school site acquisition with "nothing to show for it". But if you review his budgets and combine them over the last several years, you still do not come close to that amount. That evening he admitted that he spends funds transferred from other LCPS departments. So taxpayers ask, if the budget LCPS submits falsely reports how funds were spent in prior years, how can Supervisors in good faith approve LCPS' current funding request on behalf of their constituents?
Please do not enable LCPS to continue being funded without holding them accountable.
And with respect to the upcoming discussion of the CIP budget, I ask why is it that Dr. Adamo's 2007-2009 projections for western Loudoun students justified the purchase of Wheatland Farms but now, low and behold, western Loudoun schools ES-25, MS-10 and HS-10 don't even show up on the current CIP? The stark contrast in the CIP before and after Wheatland suggests that LCPS' CIP is being manipulated. My neighbors and I were assured that our support of the 2007 school bond referendum would provide funding for the purchase of land for HS-10, but now that Mr. Cangiano's land is no longer in play, LCPS appears indifferent with respect to this land acquisition effort as evidenced by it being removed from their CIP. Documents prove Adamo could have purchased the Miller's 155-acre Lovettsville property for $4.6M in 2006 (see attachm). Instead of acting on that wonderful opportunity, our community was manipulated, ~$2M was squandered without any consequence. What is particularly worrisome to me is that all this may be the tip of the iceberg because LCPS staff have been enabled to intentionally hide their activities from the public (see attachm).
Thank you for your service and consideration.
Sincerely,
Sarah Stinger
Lovettsville