Frozen

Popsicles are meant to be frozen, not kids.

Since the passage of the 2016 $98M school bond, the new construction is popping up all over the district, but what about the repairs that were needed to existing schools? The taxpayers were told over and over again what bad shape our schools were in after 50 plus years of insufficient maintenance. The district’s sales job for securing election success included endless pictures of broken pipes, toilets that didn’t work, octopus electrical conditions, and boilers that looked like they came up the Missouri on river boats.

I have maintained that the district administration was much more interested in showy new construction, much of it in my opinion demonstrating poor planning and architectural design, than in keeping students warm, safe and well ventilated. With the blessings of the current school board, the administration destroyed trees that they didn’t own, constructed new school facilities on property that was too small and couldn’t accommodate sufficient parking for staff, bought neighborhood properties without the consent of the voters and said NO to life-saving fire sprinkler systems.

E-City Beat doesn’t make a practice of publishing anonymously written pieces, but has in the past done so when warranted, as in the case from May of this year when we published a powerful piece by an anonymous mother concerning child safety issues. Following are excerpts from a confirmed and very reliable source who fears retribution if credited.

Received by E-City Beat – 11-27-1:

“I am tired of the bullshit the school district is putting our kids, community and employees through…”

“There are currently several schools that do not have heat in them due to the boiler systems being broken. One school has been like this since the beginning of the year!”

“Is this even legal to allow our kids to be in a learning environment where they cannot provide adequate heating for them??? My concern is what about when it gets even colder outside, if for instance this one schools boiler has been broken for over 2 months now!!”

“…what does the administration care for, they have there nice cozy warm offices at “the hill” and their ridiculous paychecks…”

“They have run this school district into the ground and it keeps getting worse. I just hope the new superintendent can clean this mess up and fix this. I was under the impression that the bond that passed was for fixing up these schools and for the new ones. Then why do some have no heat??? I would think the district would invest in adequate heating and cooling systems before building new schools, but they aren’t concerned with that.”

“It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t have the money to fix the existing schools because they are more concerned with making sure these new schools have the newest most expensive and greatest stuff out there, so they probably have no money.”

“…they waste a lot of money on unnecessary stuff that does not help the kids at all with there learning experience in these schools.”

E-City Beat encourages readers and other citizens of Great Falls to submit information that is timely and of interest to the public, even if it requires that the reporting authors request anonymity.

• Category: GFPS