(The following testimony was presented to the Board of
Education at its January 21, 2004 meeting)
WILL IT NEVER END?
January 21, 2004
Good evening my fellow DC residents. I'm Ron Drake. I
live in DC.
More than three years ago I objected and spoke out when
Tony Williams' search committee recommended Paul Vance for DCPS school
superintendent. Since that time I have testified before you repeatedly
about the many shortcomings of the Vance/Bryant Administration. My
objections have been amply validated.
In my testimony I told you how the Vance/Bryant
Administration decimated parents' rights to fair and impartial treatment
and hearings. I told you how the Vance/Bryant Administration
sole-sourced a contract to their attorney friend from Maryland, for
$6,250.00 a day.
I told you how the Vance/Bryant Administration kept on
contracting with their Montgomery County friends. I told you the
Vance/Bryant Administration was simply a retirement home for former
Montgomery County employees. I told you the Vance/Bryant Administration
is characterized with cronyism, incompetence, apparent contract
steering, waste and deceit,
I told you how such conduct had demoralized DCPS teachers
and administrators alike, many of whom I hold in high regard. I told you
that when the Vance/Bryant Administration departed, we would be left to
clean up the detritus of their time in our midst- How little we then
knew of the harm they would inflict.
Now we learn from the attached Washington Post article
that they treated their friends like professional ballplayers,
entitled to signing and performance bonuses. Now we know how little
they cared for our city, our people and the most vulnerable among us.
DCPS coffers became their slush fund, to reward their
Montgomery County friends.
And now we hear about yet another contract given to a
politically well-connected public relations/lobbying firm. Why? Now we
also learn about yet another signing bonus of $20,000,00 for a
position we were told had been abolished.
Will it never end? It really should end. It's time for them all
to go.
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