From the first link:
9) In a meeting with Runcie & officials, I was told the system wasn't invented when the money was allocated and that it wasn't suggested until last year. However, the tech has existed since the 80s, and the Fmr Dir. of School Safety recommended a similar system years ago.
Sadly, this is sooooo typical. In a more mundane example, a number of years ago my town was discussing a massive alteration and addition project involving the senior and junior high schools. At the time, the junior high handled grades 7, 8, and 9 and the senior high took grades 10, 11, and 12. When the junior high was built, however, it was only for grades 7 and 8, and the 9th graders were in the senior high. The change came maybe ten years after the junior high was built, and all they did was put the 9th graders on different buses so they went to the junior high.
Fast forward to a public meeting discussing the proposed construction project. The new game plan called for pulling the 9th graders out of the junior high and putting them back into the senior high. A big chunk of the project was building a new wing to accommodate the 9th grade. However, another big chunk (like, $30 million big) was "reconfiguring" the junior high from a 7-8-9 school into a 7-8 school. Me being the asshat that I am, I raised my hand and, when recognized, I asked why we now needed to spend $30 million to "convert" the junior high to grades 7 and 8 when it was originally
built for grades 7 and 8, and they hadn't made any physical changes to it when they stuck the 9th grade in it.
There were a lot of "Um, er, ah, well ..." types of comments from the school board and the architect, until the president of the Board of Education finally shut it down by saying, 'We really don't have time to go into the details of that tonight. We'll get back to you on that."
That was about twenty years ago. I'm still waiting for that phone call.
School boards lie. They do what they want to do and, if questioned, they just make up answers on the spot.
