citizens for more money.

When it comes to government spending a person is either conservative or liberal, and it seems that much of Bradley County government conveniently forget that fact.

That's what I think. What do you think?

Tell the truth Bob

At a recent meeting, Bradley County Commissioner, Roy Smith held up a copy of the annual report distributed by the City of Cleveland school system and asked Bradley County Director of Schools, Bob Taylor why his office couldn't produce something similar? The booklet in question contains information on student demographics, administration demographics and operation budget allocations for all of Cleveland schools and is quite an impressive and useful document, as is their official website:
www.clevelandschools.org.
Taylor replied with his stock answer when his performance is questioned - if I have more funding I could do it.

The fact is, Taylor's administration operates on the principle of secrecy and silence, only divulging information which supports his agenda. The free flow of information is non-existent to the point of violation of the Tennessee Open Records Act. A tactic that ultimately does immeasurable damage to how his administration is perceived by the commission and the public, hence the continual conflict.

He was also asked by the commission to explain why Bradley County was educating 901 students from other systems. His answer again was for more funding. He said each student brings in additional state and federal funding which if lost would be detrimental to the system.  He said they bring into the school system in excess of $5 million annually but only cost 10 extra teachers.

This does not make sense if the system is overcrowded unless it means double funding.

By my rough calculations,  901 students divided by a class size of 20  would translate to 45 extra classrooms needed to house them and 45 extra teachers to instruct them, and all the support facilities like restrooms and gymnasium space and cafeteria room and extra administration and, well you get the idea. 901 students could translate to two whole schools full of children Bradley County taxpayers were not required to educate. The same number of schools Taylor says he needs to alleviate overcrowding at the cost of $39 million to taxpayers, plus extra staffing, heating and so-forth.

Also, because those living in the city pay county taxes, it is reasonable that Cleveland schools should receive a pro-rata portion of any money borrowed for education capital outlay projects.  Cleveland's portion has historically been one third to the county's two thirds. In this case a third of $39 million. But the way students are distributed, Cleveland has less than a third of the children in its system. In 2007 Cleveland had 4,683 to the county's 10,088, so the county system is losing here too, but not by Taylor's reckoning.

Unfortunately, Bob's answers to questions by commissioners cannot be relied on to reflect reality, and of course he can only distort reality if he withholds vital pieces of the puzzle, which he has been doing to commissioners.

Over the years, with the exception of the use of unreliable geothermal heating systems and the time taken to replace Mayfield School, it would be hard to fault the Cleveland School Board, or Director Dr. Rick Denning's performance. I wish that could be said of Bradley County's counterparts.

That's what I think. What do you think?
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