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This is just the beginning
EDITORIAL
It’s no coincidence that Dr. Phil Wright, former Liberty school district superintendent, picked July 9 to break a three-month silence to put the school board on notice that there’s much more dirty laundry to air and it won’t be pretty.
An outside audit report by Westbrook & Co. — already in the hands of the school board and a citizens oversight committee — was released to the public on Monday, July 14, and state auditors are reportedly expected to arrive next month. At the top of the former administrative chain, the audits are certain to paint a picture of widespread financial mismanagement, possible criminal corruption and certainly a lack of oversight and possible complicity on the part of elected school board members who appeared for a time to forget that they were the representatives of the patrons, not the lapdogs of an administration gone wild.
We’ve said it many times before, and we’re repeating it: The school board was often more of a rubber stamp for out-of-control administrators than a watchdog for the taxpayers that they purportedly vowed to represent. We understand that school board members, who are unpaid volunteers, rely on highly paid professionals to run the day-to-day business of educating children. But it is up to those school board members to make sure that policies and procedures are in place so that tax money is used appropriately for students and teachers, not for booze and partying.
“This is just the beginning,” Wright said at the end of a six-page statement in which he accused the school board of forcing him to resign for allegedly refusing to provide fraudulent documentation concerning the retirement benefits of his former boss, Dr. Scott Taveau.
As a former insider, Wright is certain to know just where all the skeletons are buried, and he appears ready to spill the bones. Who knows what damaging information he had in a stack of notebooks he carried to the federal courthouse in Kansas City where he made his statement.
Was it all a ruse to convince the school board to settle out of court and pay him the two years remaining of a three-year contact? Or does he really intend to file a wrongful termination lawsuit against the school board? Only time will tell.
Wright claims he told some school board members and the district’s attorney of wrongdoing but they ignored the information. If that is true, then those board members need to resign now, as does the lawyer.
With school set to start in less than a month, a $110 million budget to be finalized, new school buildings to be constructed and attendance boundaries to be decided, current administrators and the board need to be able to focus on the kids and teachers. After all, it’s all about the kids, right?
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It’s no coincidence that Dr. Phil Wright, former Liberty school district superintendent, picked July 9 to break a three-month silence to put the school board on notice that there’s much more dirty laundry to air and it won’t be pretty.
An outside audit report by Westbrook & Co. — already in the hands of the school board and a citizens oversight committee — was released to the public on Monday, July 14, and state auditors are reportedly expected to arrive next month. At the top of the former administrative chain, the audits are certain to paint a picture of widespread financial mismanagement, possible criminal corruption and certainly a lack of oversight and possible complicity on the part of elected school board members who appeared for a time to forget that they were the representatives of the patrons, not the lapdogs of an administration gone wild.
We’ve said it many times before, and we’re repeating it: The school board was often more of a rubber stamp for out-of-control administrators than a watchdog for the taxpayers that they purportedly vowed to represent. We understand that school board members, who are unpaid volunteers, rely on highly paid professionals to run the day-to-day business of educating children. But it is up to those school board members to make sure that policies and procedures are in place so that tax money is used appropriately for students and teachers, not for booze and partying.
“This is just the beginning,” Wright said at the end of a six-page statement in which he accused the school board of forcing him to resign for allegedly refusing to provide fraudulent documentation concerning the retirement benefits of his former boss, Dr. Scott Taveau.
As a former insider, Wright is certain to know just where all the skeletons are buried, and he appears ready to spill the bones. Who knows what damaging information he had in a stack of notebooks he carried to the federal courthouse in Kansas City where he made his statement.
Was it all a ruse to convince the school board to settle out of court and pay him the two years remaining of a three-year contact? Or does he really intend to file a wrongful termination lawsuit against the school board? Only time will tell.
Wright claims he told some school board members and the district’s attorney of wrongdoing but they ignored the information. If that is true, then those board members need to resign now, as does the lawyer.
With school set to start in less than a month, a $110 million budget to be finalized, new school buildings to be constructed and attendance boundaries to be decided, current administrators and the board need to be able to focus on the kids and teachers. After all, it’s all about the kids, right?