Part 1. LCHS Report: The Political Agenda

Commissioners Try To Rebound From Lee County Senior High Debacle

Despite the pleas of parents, teachers, students, and supporters of the sales tax referendum, the commissioners turned a deaf ear to express an intent to use a portion of the proceeds of the sales tax revenue to fund the renovation plans for Lee County Senior High School. In fact, on orders from Commissioner Robert Reives, it was stripped out of a resolution on the use of the funds at the last minute. A review of entries of the e-Lee Dispatch provides documentation of weeks and weeks of the commissioners refusal to deal with the Lee County Senior High School issue. One post deals with Jerry Lemmond's complete silence on the issue. The commissioners, it seemed, thought the public would "trust them." As we shall see in a future posts, the commissioners had a plan to spend the money on a lot of other things besides education. After the defeat of the sales tax and chairman Bob Brown, Commissioners Lemmond and Paschal were panicking. The county manager made calls to several community leaders to test the waters for perhaps a second run at the tax in November. Lemmond and Paschal, however, were afraid the referendum would hurt more than help their chances. Commissioners hoped that the strong leadership of the Board of Education by Bill Tatum would come to an end in the election, but Tatum won and stayed in the chairman's seat despite efforts by their surrogates. Reportedly Reives and Kelly came up with a public relations approach to defuse the problem--a safety and health study to show that the commissioners did listen and did care about Lee County High School after all. Never mind that most of these issues were already addressed in the Hite report they had consistently ignored. And perhaps they could embarrass and discredit the school board because of the conditions found at the school. Then they rushed to implement their plan--that rush was there first mistake. They were interested in getting a document out as soon as possible that would be critical of the school, not an in-depth study. They picked a bully with a loud voice rather than a professional as project management--one not certified in project management, civil engineering, or health. No one apparently considered going to the Hite report for which the school board had already paid for had much of this information. No scope was written for the product. In the end it recommends hiring 4 kinds of experts to look at the site. The report had has no cost estimates. The shoddy manner in which the project was managed will the subject of Part 2 tomorrow. When voters find out what they have gotten for their money they will not be happy. Click here to download pdf file. You can get a copy of the report by emailing the Clerk to the Board "Gaynell Lee" . Her address is glee@leecountync.gov It is public information and should be sent in pdf form by email.