During discussions on the school playground at the Northumberland County Board of Supervisors meeting held Nov 14th Holly Wargo, Tara Booth, and Dana Obier via Zoom, all demonstrated a fundamental lack of mathematical understanding. Or did they?
While discussing the fate of the NES playground, each argued that since reimbursements for previous projects have come in that those amounts are available to spend AGAIN. This is either jaw-dropping ignorance that should not exist in an educational institution at any level OR it’s a social manipulation born of the arrogant assumption that the tax payers are equally ignorant.
Before we get too far down the road, lets make sure everyone understands the basics of how grants work.
When the schools or any other department of government has a project that is outside the economic capabilities of, in this case the county’s, budget to just pay for outright, that department, in this case NUCPS, seeks a grant.
With an approved grant in hand, the financial risk to the county is mitigated. The county then is able and required to provide initial funding for the project – the grant money is not available for reimbursement until AFTER the project is completed. When the project is completed, the department files for reimbursement from the grant source providing evidence of completion. When the reimbursement arrives, the “Loan” made to the project by the county is paid off. Like a bank on a car loan, when you pay it off, they don’t just give you more money to go spend on what ever you want. You would need to apply for another loan to buy your next purchase.
More simply put, you can’t spend grant money twice.
This basic mathematical principal should be universally understood by school children and unquestioned by adults. Yet, here in Northumberland County, we have members of the School Board as well as the schools Administration who will tell you that reimbursement money is available for spending – seemingly indefinitely. And it isn’t. These are the people responsible for more than half of county revenue. Failing to understand basic finance math is unforgivable.
But is that all there is?
During the Board of supervisors meeting, Chip Williams had prearranged a presentation of sorts to be reviewed by Luttrel Tadlock. The history of issues with the playground go back at least to 2014. In the intervening years, there have been several imprudent missteps.
Most recently, there were a series of construction projects that were to be funded using an ESSER grant moneys. Only one project was child safety critical – the playground. In spite of Holly Wargo’s vehement declaration on June 15 of 2023 that the playground would be the priority, it wasn’t. It was put on the back burner in favor of less critical school infrastructure such as resurfacing of the track in support of state level sporting events – arguably nowhere near as critical as a rundown playground.
At the end of the day, NUCPS had the funds to repair and replace the playground and it didn’t happen. NOW, Dana Obier claims it’s on the county to pay for it, raising property taxes and erasing good efforts made on gaining control of the budget process. The School Board couldn’t do the right thing when they had the money. They made bad choices and now want the people of Northumberland County to pay to clean up the mess that they’ve made through gross neglect.
So, is the School Board this ignorant or are they playing politics relying on the people of Northumberland County to be ignorant?
To be fair, only one member of the School Board has been brazenly toxic on the topic – as is consistent with that member’s personality. There have been no public discussions on the playground by the School Board and no motions or votes providing direction from the School Board. Yet, it is School Board policy that in such cases, School Board action is required. To think that All School Board members are on the same page as Ms. Obier would be unreasonable. Surely the other members are aware of their own policies as would normally be the case for Administration and staff members. And yet we are faced with this conundrum; Are members of the School Board and Administration ignorant? It appears so.
They’ve spoken ignorantly to the topic of grant reimbursements while at the same time relying on the public to be ignorant enough to buy their story.
It’s a long road to gaining credibility on this topic for the Schools. With a long history of financial obfuscation, the people should be wary of how the schools move forward.