School System Report: Only 24% Of Current Construction On Schedule
BY BUDDY NEVINS
The Broward School system is doing a poor job on the $34.2 million in construction and renovations projects currently underway.
So how will it be able to manage another $800 million provided by the bonds if they are approved next week?
The lousy track record was made public this week in the quarterly report on project management authored by the URS Corporation, a firm Superintendent Robert Runcie hired to oversee construction.
Of the 38 projects, only seven are on schedule and two are ahead of schedule.
Three out of every four – 29 of the 38 – are delayed.
That’s right. I don’t make ‘em up, folks.
Of the 38 projects underway, 76 percent are delayed!
The reasons are mostly bureaucratic mistakes handling documents, like failing to issue purchase orders on time.
One curiosity: Readers of the URS report are left to guess how many projects the school system actually has underway.
The executive summary states there are 38. But if you count the projects listed in the report by school, you only come up with 37.
The delays and the poor math can’t leave voters with much confidence about the school system’s management skills.
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I have recently received letters at my home alleging all types of wrongdoing in the school system.
One wrote that they were scared to write me by e-mail because the word has been passed down that anyone contacting the media will be found and punished. This writer figured the mail was more secure than e-mail.
Some of this material is damning and some is clearly illegal, if true. I urge anyone with provable information of wrongdoing in the conduct of the bond campaign and/or the spending of public money in the school system to contact the State Attorney’s Office. There is a whistleblower law in the state which protects employees who report wrongdoing.
I will also try to follow up any legitimate information given to Browardbeat.com.
October 31st, 2014 at 7:16 pm
Nothing that this school superintendent and board says can be believed. They are worse than anything in the past.
October 31st, 2014 at 8:20 pm
Buddy,
the employees know exactly what happens if you blow the whistle. Whistleblower laws have not helped many in the past. Jon marlow still has his job, yetc many of the staff that spoke out no longer work for the district. How long can people stand to be abused? Like I filed and ADA complain that took 2 years for them to give me the go ahead and 90 days to file. But in the mean time chief golt had LIED and said I was using that student for money…so I could not proceed with the lawsuit. I could not let that student believe anything that was told to her. They will stop at nothing to silence people
October 31st, 2014 at 8:21 pm
I am now suggesting people can out united states senators and report this information
October 31st, 2014 at 11:08 pm
Please tell me Ms Hibbs didn’t teach English/Grammar.
October 31st, 2014 at 11:16 pm
Buddy,
From my own experience, by-pass the State Attorney’s office, either go to the Inspector General’s office here in Fort Lauderdale or contact the FBI in North Miami if you truly want something done. Telling the Truth by upper administrators and supervisors is not in their DNA plus there is no punishment if a school employee is found to lie about another employee. The lying employee keeps their job and the other person is usually fired. The BTU/TSP will only protect their own management’s interest.
Supposedly, there are 5 project managers still employed by the District – can’t they keep these projects on schedule?
They can’t be very large projects – no new schools. What is the largest amount of these projects – 34 million and 37/38 projects are relatively small construction projects. Who is supervising these project managers?
November 1st, 2014 at 7:53 pm
The intimidation and abuse has gone on for a long time, and this administration is just following the old pattern. New boss/old boss syndrome.
Whom to contact? If it’s federal money involved, then the FBI needs to hear about it.
The IG doesn’t have authority over the district. The state DOE is useless.
All of which gives one a clue as to why it’s gone on for so long. No one in authority other than the feds does anything about it.
The
November 1st, 2014 at 8:28 pm
dragging out the projects adds to the contractors monthly “General Conditions” which is hundreds of thousands or more a month to be staffing the job and on site.
Few will step up like Becky and Charlotte G as they want a paycheck, no blacklisting and know how futile it is to change ANYTHING at SBBC.
that said- not to worry.
I voted today – NO to bonds.
This thing is DOA come tuesday Nov.4
Then the real job bbegins down at Facilities with NO MONEY topay to keep URS, McGladrey,PM’s etc. gainfully employed.
To all who have not yet voted – NO to schoolbonds.
November 3rd, 2014 at 12:46 pm
People like Miss Hibbs have been victimized by the School Board, the construction program is a mess, and the “power behind the throne” Sheela VanHoose is running around supporting Republican candidates in the election INSTEAD OF SPENDING HER TIME WORKING TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM! But, Mr. Nevins, Miss Greenblag, Miss Hibbs, WHOSE FAULT IS IT THAT RUNCIE BECAME SUPERINTENDENT? WHOSE FAULT, the PEOPLE WHO JUST RE-ELECTED THE SAME CLOWNS THAT HIRED AND SUPPORT HIM! The problem is not IN THE STARS BUT IN THE MISTAKES OF THE VOTING PUBLIC! Unless the public changes, all of us revolted by the School Board are whistling in the wind.
November 3rd, 2014 at 3:26 pm
Count LF…., the problem is that the people who run the county don’t allow the kind of people we need on the school board. The only thing that will fix it is a state oversight and an IG, and more FBI scrutiny.
That’s what those of us who care should be doing…contacting the Legislature and Governor and anyone you know on a federal level, including the FBI, again and again until we get what we want.
November 3rd, 2014 at 4:16 pm
@9 – Charlotte, who exactly are these “people who run the county” and what specific actions do you think they are taking in order to prevent qualified candidates from running for School Board positions?
November 3rd, 2014 at 11:06 pm
Must be nice RR, to have friends in high places making the calls that put you in that seat. I would like to know how to get in touch with the FBI. I wonder if they would cover up misspending and corruption the way Blackburn’s office does. I wonder if they have a moral compass or if they too go after the innocent people who trust and hand over evidence. It’s such a shame that Mr. Runcie plays dumb while the best people flee the district. A good leader surrounds himself with the best of the best. At this point, his entire Administrative staff is filled with incompetent idiots! Some of which are bullies out to destroy all hope of recovering this district. Get a REAL Superintendant! Get a REAL CAO! Get a REAL Chief Accountability Officer! I could go down the list…Chief of Staff, Facilities, HR! All NEED TO GO!
November 4th, 2014 at 7:45 am
Who investigates misspending of State Title 1 funds? It’s definitely not the district or its School Board “police,” AKA Witch Hunt investigators.
November 4th, 2014 at 1:42 pm
HaHaHa, actually it was a Federal judge who said the lobbyists are running the county.
Their name is legion. Just look at the sign-in sheets and who buys tables at events for pols and supporters to sit at.
And who sponsors the meetings, such as FSBA, etc.
FROM BUDDY:
The judge in 1999 was talking about Broward County government, but just as easily could have been talking about the School Board or any bond deal in Broward. Here is the story from the Sun-Sentinel:
“A federal administrative judge denounced the Broward County government for allowing lobbyists and influence-peddling to corrupt its bond deals, at a heavy cost to taxpayers.
Securities and Exchange Commission Judge Herbert Grossman ordered a municipal bond firm to pay $134,493 for illegally concealing the large lobbying fees it paid to win deals from Broward County. And in a harsh, 51-page decision, he criticized the county for tolerating a system in which ‘municipal contracts are surreptitiously awarded on the basis of influence, rather than merit, and fees paid by the county are inflated by lobbyists’ commissions.'”
November 4th, 2014 at 4:44 pm
@13 – you said @9 “the problem is that the people who run the county don’t allow the kind of people we need on the school board.” I asked “what specific actions do you think they are taking in order to prevent qualified candidates from running for School Board positions?” You didn’t answer the question.
We all know that lobbyists and influence-peddling and campaign finance lead to corruption problems, not just in Broward County but all over the country. But you are asserting that lobbyists actually decide who will or won’t be on the School Board, as opposed to Broward County voters. Prove it.
November 4th, 2014 at 6:40 pm
Exactly, Buddy. The lobbyists are the same in most of the jurisdictions.
And the pols go from one dais to another with the money the lobbyists raise for them.
November 4th, 2014 at 10:05 pm
I see the bond passed. They’ll be sorry because the waste and ineptitude will give the same results they always have.
I predicted what would happen when they created QSEC, and it did. This will be another fiasco.
November 5th, 2014 at 2:38 am
It is refreshing to see that only 1 in 4 Broward County Resident thinks like Ms. Greenbarg. Now she can predict the future too. I would like to set up an appointment for a Palm Reading Ms. Greenbarg.
November 5th, 2014 at 8:20 am
Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
G. Santayana
Buddy’s correct. It will provide a lot of material. I was right about the QSEC debacle even though the media didn’t get it. They called me after the arrest of Beverly Gallagher to tell me I called it and they didn’t.