School Superintendent John Sanville wants taxpayers to foot the bill for a new, $120 million middle school. District residents, with decades of experience in finance, have questioned whether the financial analysis underlying Sanville’s recommendation is “incomplete and misleading.” Based on my experience, as a lawyer with more than 20 years of experience and a parent who has been engaged in a multi-year battle with the school district, it is more than fair to question whether Sanville and his lockstep school board are acting in good faith.
Last year, I filed complaints with the Pennsylvania and United States Departments of Education alleging that Sanville, the district, and its solicitor engaged in dishonest conduct, destruction of public records and violations of state and federal law. Rather than exercise appropriate oversight, the school board has already unanimously approved the expenditure of tens of thousands of dollars to shield Sanville from accountability, and those investigations are ongoing. Then, in November, the school board unanimously approved the payment of $73,250 to a district family who claimed that the district violated their son’s civil rights. This conduct is fiscally irresponsible and legally indefensible.
Sanville and the school board are responsible to the public. When citizens who have decades of experience in finance and law raise legitimate questions about the quality of financial analysis underlying a recommendation to spend tens of millions of dollars, or about whether school officials are complying with their legal duties, we deserve transparency, accountability and respect.
Instead, we are patronized, maligned and dismissed. Something has to change.
Chad Williams
Birmingham Township
(11 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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