Board’s ‘No’ vote right: It’s too much

Four thumbs-down votes and two abstentions by the Muscogee County School Board last week doomed Superintendent David Lewis’ proposed contract with Atlanta-based Unified AV Systems for a major upgrade in the Muscogee County Public Education Center audio-video system.

It was the right call. There just isn’t enough justification, given budget realities and the school system’s needs, to spend more than $220,000 on a technology upgrade of that kind, at this time.

Board member Mark Cantrell, who cast one of the “Nay” votes, put the matter in an appropriate context: “$220,000 is the cost to build a home,” he said. “That seems like a lot of money for audio-visual equipment.”

As was noted in education writer Mark Rice’s analysis, some of the equipment is malfunctioning — a microphone in the meeting room that keeps skipping, a color problem with one of the video monitors, and no doubt some other annoying and inconvenient tech woes.

Pat Hugley Green, who voted in favor of the proposed contract, noted that tech-friendly infrastructure was cut out of the original budget for the Education Center. She’s right, but the notoriously bad choices made years ago about how money was spent on what came to be called the “Taj Mahal” can’t be set right now by spending upward of a quarter-million dollars on a new system, or what the school district’s chief information officer called a “package deal.”

Board member Frank Myers, who cast one of the votes in opposition, said teachers have to buy their own supplies — an all-too-common problem public school teachers everywhere have faced for years — and schools are short on, among other things, sports equipment.

There have to be repairs and improvements the school district can make in its communications systems that come a lot cheaper than this. The benefits, including live streaming of school board meetings, aren’t worth a hefty chunk of money that could be used in many other, better ways.

Good dog

From the other side of the state comes a delightful story we should all enjoy — one that, if it were made into a movie, could feature Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern in their “Home Alone” nitwit burglar roles.

Seems three of what appeared to be teenage males (their heads were covered, so their would-be victims couldn’t be sure) tried to stage a home invasion on a family in Athens.

As reported in the Athens Banner-Herald, the front door was open and blocked only by a baby gate, which the one of the intruders kicked down and, brandishing a pistol, said, “Give it up, I’m not (deleted) playing.”

Neither, apparently, was the family pug (that’s right — a pug). He, or she, reportedly charged barking at the intruders, who broke and ran.

Now we can all fervently hope these mini-minds of crime get caught; their version of the story should be entertaining. Especially the one they tell the other guys behind bars.

This story was originally published May 24, 2017 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Board’s ‘No’ vote right: It’s too much."