Monday, May 23, 2011

Influential senator thinks CMS is hoarding money

During a meeting this morning with editors and reporters at the Observer, N.C. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bob Rucho offered an eye-opening observation about Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. CMS, the Matthews Republican proclaimed, is "sitting on" $26 million in federal stimulus money. If the district has such a dire budget problem, he said, why aren't CMS leaders spending the money?

School board members, who have said they intend to press for more money out of Raleigh to help overcome a $100 million budget shortfall, might want to get on the phone with Rucho. CMS has made no secret of the fact that it received $25.7 million in stimulus money in August, then decided to save most of it till this year's budget process to help offset an anticipated $66 million drop in federal support, due largely to the stimulus program's disappearance. Superintendent Peter Gorman and School Board Chair Eric Davis say as much in an open letter to the public on the very first page of the school system's official 2010-11 budget document. And the 2011-12 budget Gorman unveiled last month outlines plans to spend the money this year.

Those messages apparently haven't made it to Rucho. Asked who told him CMS was hoarding stimulus money, he cited "private" sources out of Raleigh.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are sitting on way more than that!!!!! "Creative Accounting" they call it!

Anonymous said...

1. Trust Rucho?-Right is right?
2. Trust Pete Fanboy Eric? Hurry and pass the script!
3. Trust Pete and Bill and Melinda and Eli and Measurement Inc. and PfP and Thinkgate and Coach Joe and Rhonda and Tim and Richard and Baxter and Cobitz and Avossa and so on. Creditbility and transparency surgically removed long ago; ask a Merchant.

Anonymous said...

Who's this Eric Gorman character and what's his opinion on the hoarding money issue?

Eric Frazier said...

Whoops, thanks Anon 7:27 -- That Eric Gorman is a figment of my imagination, of course. I meant to write Pete Gorman and had a brain blip there!

Anonymous said...

They both are the same, it didn't really matter!

Anonymous said...

https://ats4.searchsoft.net//ats/job_board_frame?softsort=NAME&APPLICANT_TYPE_ID=00000003&COMPANY_ID=00014342


Gormys wifes job?

Anonymous said...

Gorman can always find money for his projects...PfP, testing, accountability, teacher temps, biometric time clocks, but remember he is always transparent!!! He hides nothing, it is all smoke and mirrors.

therestofthestory said...

I think the point missed in this discussion is that CMS got $10 million more than the previous year which was $16 million more than that previous year. Meanwhile, CMS let hundreds of employees go each of those 2 years. Many more than the 250 needed to displace to bring in TFA's. It has already been reported that from the savings the previous year, Pete used money to pay for developing these PfP tests. Of course the whole issue of these tests is that there are too many reports of students not taking these tests seriously. I saw this years ago when I used to proctor the PSAT tests.

Anonymous said...

@ 9:27

Something's going down soon.