Tonight the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors and the Pulaski County School Board will meet to discuss a host of important issues around both the new middle school as well other school related expenses. (Find the Agenda here.) I should note that the meeting will be at the IT Training Room at 89 Commerce Street S.W. (Maple […]
Today I read Andy McCready’s long opinion piece in the Pulaski Patriot. While Mr. McCready uses many true facts, I could write 10,000 words about how they are presented without sufficient context. However, I’ll focus on a few key points organized around his topic headings. Pulaski County Spending: While Pulaski County has increased its contribution […]
Schools Cannot be Fixed for only $9 million Recently, I noticed that Andy McCready gave an interview to WSLS in which he stated that the “Plan B” for the middle schools if the referendum fails is to enact a $9.3 million dollar plan. The Plan, seen in its entirety here, can best be described as […]
On July 13, we published a survey to collect feedback on the Pulaski County School Board’s proposal for a new middle school. In nine days, 749 people responded. Of course the responses are not representative of the entire county, for a variety of reasons. Since it was distributed via social media, respondents were likely a […]
If your news feed looks anything like ours right now, it is probably full of stories about Russia, the proposed new Pulaski County Middle School, and the Senate’s health care plan, in that order. We’re not going to touch the Russia story at this point, but we do want to take a look at how […]
The View from Peaks Knob convened a community organizing workshop on July 3, led by trainers from Virginia Organizing. Thirty-five Pulaski County residents got to know each other and learned a little bit about organizing principles and strategies. We used the struggle for a new middle school as a case study for applying these principles […]
Last night I spoke at the Board of Supervisors meeting, in order to make sure that both they and the public were aware of the options available to them in response to the consolidated middle school resolution passed from the School Board. Their options are as follows: Do nothing- The Board of Supervisors is not […]
While some of you were drafting letters to our Board of Supervisors on the subject of the middle school last week, I wrote a note to their boss who also happens to be an old friend. My dear P, We need to talk. Other than my parents, grandparents, and middle sister, I’ve known you for […]
Since the School Board has officially sent its funding request for a new consolidated middle school facility to the Board of Supervisors, spirited public debate on how to best service the estimated $45 million debt has become common. From workplace water coolers to traditional fast food breakfast groups and social media comments, local people are […]
So I’ve gotten a lot of comments and concerns about wrapped debt financing. After spending several years working on legal issues related to the Financial Crisis, I completely understand people having an aversion to financing arrangements that look too good to be true. To be clear, a “wrapped” debt service is not an unusual financing […]