Ms. Elia:

Tom Gonzalez complained about “those blogs” at the February board meeting. He said they were not accurate. I felt he implied we lied or exaggerated.

We of the blog phylum try to be accurate. But we have a heck of a time getting information from some of the school people. Tom, for example, has not sent us the information on how he got his job, how many competitors he had for the job, how much money his company made for the Doug Erwin case and the records of that case. Lord knows what else we asked him for that he has never produced. Then he has the nerve to say our blogs are inaccurate.

I asked Ms. Cobbe to find out how Tom got to keep all his own employment records, if there were some privilege in writing that one could see that gave school lawyers this right. I haven’t got that. You must have those data. May I have a copy of this special-privilege clause for Mr. Gonzalez? Is it common to other board-attorney positions in Florida? Is it in the school statutes?

You get a “bonus” for teachers’ work in raising student scores. May I see a copy of the logic for that exploitation for teachers’ work? Ms. Olson was supposed to have helped you as the board representative with your latest contract. Did Ms. Olson raise any objections to your exploiting teacher work for your financial gain? Did she observe that your $300,000 salary is excessive?

Whatever happened to the administrator who manufactured a job for a favorite in the health-care field? Did she get fired? Or under the mess-up-move-up shibboleth, did she get promoted? Did you sign off on that job for the favorite? Did any member of the board raise questions about the job, or did the job simply sail through on the consent agenda with no scrutiny from the board? How is the favorite filling her work day since the consensus was that the job was unneeded in an already overcrowded field? Have you had somebody check on her activities? Tom Gonzalez claimed you couldn't break the contract, but he didn't say you couldn't fire this supernumerary and save the taxpayers some money. Have you fired the favorite?Has any one of the board members bothered to ask you about this job's status, or is the board content to let this money drain from the taxpayers' subsidizing the school with the attitude of "it's only the citizens' money, after all."

Did Tom Gonzalez examine the contract that Ms. Valdes must have generated for the school that had parts of the school building fall down after completion? If so, did he put in writing a warning to the board of the need for catastrophic insurance? May I see that warning if it exists?

Your salary is the highest I have been able to find for the superintendent position in the country. All the other superintendents have PhDs. You don’t. Can you justify this bloated record salary since you lack a terminal degree and can’t handle basic grammar and punctuation? What is your target salary before you say it is enough? Do you think the board will rubberstamp whatever salary amount you put in front of them?

We bloggers are trying to be accurate about what we put in our blogs. Your providing information requested will assist us in that goal.

I have never received an answer from any email I have sent you. I have long suspected that this silence was due to your lack of confidence in your writing ability.

Will you continue this no-response policy or begin a new one of transparency for the sake of open government? How much more money would the board have to add to the whopping $300,000 you get now to insure that you answer emails?

Last question:Have you any plans to sign up for a remedial English course soon in the nearest high school to ROSSAC?

Blogger lee drury de cesare