How many times have we heard from school district administrators that the problems in the public education system are the result of inadequate funding? 

Yet as a parent or community member, you’ve seen the superintendent and administrators waste money. 

•  They hire their friends or family for newly created and unecessary positions. 
•  They redecorate their offices. 
• They carry fancy gadgets that they don’t know how to use. 
• They sell surplus toilet paper because they claim it doesn’t fit their new toilet paper holders.
• They even return unused federal dollars intended to be spent on poor kids 

Wasted will be an ongoing discussion topic on this site intended to help school district administrators  make better budgeting decisions.  

We’ll do this by exposing school system financial waste (your tax dollars).  Hopefully, district staff will take note and make the changes necessary to eliminate the waste. 

That way, the money saved can be spent where it has the most impact. 

Who knows maybe we could help Portland Public Schools save enough money to provide working fire safety systems in all of its schools (not just the ones in good neighborhoods). 

Here’s one example of waste:  Recently KATU news  pointed out that PPS spent $79,247.56 renting hotel space for Administrator Meetings while some PPS buildings sat empty.  The Portland school district could have held their administrator meetings in the empty buildings.   

PPS spokesman Matt Shelby defended the use of hotels for the meetings saying that the cost was just a small part of the district’s overall budget.   

What do you think?  Was that a good use of your tax dollars? 

What kinds of waste have you seen in the public school system?

December 2009

Dishonor Roll

Jerry Lively - Get some balls

May 2001 – Shortly after the Willamette Week story,  The Poisoning of Whitaker , the PPS Facilities Director instructed Jerry Lively (Maintenance Manager) to have his staff increase ventilation in the buildings while they were being tested for Radon gas.  This had the effect of skewing the Radon testing results.  Jerry complied.

May 2008 –  The Oregonian reported in Portland Lets School Building Maintenance Slide  that PPS let its maintenance program sink into chaos.  There were numerous examples of screwed up priorities.  Requests to repair safety hazards in buildings full of children were ignored while district administrators received rapid service for tasks such as interior redecorating. 

The Oregonian’s analysis showed that repairs at schools in the poorest shape received $1 less per square foot than the district’s newer and more affluent schools.

According to the Oregonian, the PPS electronics shop was fixing cheap VCRs while fire alarm systems languished in schools.  The PPS Facilities Director at the time, Bryan Winchester, ordered it stopped but it continued.  “To prevent principals from lobbying to move their chores higher on the ‘to do’ list, Winchester considered yanking the phone out of his maintenance manager’s office.”  That would be Jerry Lively’s office.

November 2009 – Marysville, a high poverty school in SE Portland was destroyed by fire.  Fortunately everyone got out of the building safely.  District records showed that the PPS maintenance department was 6 months behind schedule in their fire inspections. 

In Fire Drilled , Willamette Week reported that a veteran PPS employee who worked with the district’s fire detection systems retired in frustration because he couldn’t certify that the the district was sending children into safe buildings.  The former employee said that PPS administrators prevented maintenance workers from documenting the hazards.  Jerry Lively is the administrator over that department. 

What was Jerry doing during the fall of  2009 shortly before the Marysville fire? 

Jerry and his department were helping with the PPS central office redecoration.  Once again, the priority was on making overpaid, self-indulgent central office staff feel more important by prettying up their surroundings.     

Jerry has repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to overlook the health and safety of children in order kiss the asses of PPS senior staff. 

It’s true that Jerry is just a little fish (very little) in a sea full of sharks but he is a constant in the district’s ugly history of risking the health and safety of Portland’s children.

Please email Jerry at jlively@pps.k12.or.us to let him know that you expect him to put your child’s health and safety first!