Remember when Superintendent Pratt Dannals traveled the district holding budget meetings? You know the ones where he said the district was broke justifying his firing of people (mostly bottom of the ladder employees), stopping teachers from getting there step raises, privatizing maintenance and custodian services and stopping programs like magnet school transportation and middle school sports. It was only later when we found 125 million in the couch cushions that we realized that he had kind of lied to us the whole time.
I don’t think any of the old board members will admit it but it was shortly after this revelation came out that they decided to head in another direction, a direction that brought superintendent Vitti to town.
I have to tell you I like some of the things he has and haven’t care for others but high on the positive list is his willingness to engage the public, even rabble rousers like me. I get the sincere impression that he might not agree with what I or what others are saying but he is at the very least going to give us the opportunity to say it. Furthermore he’s not going to keep us in the dark and mislead us, which was something, the last administration with their “all is well” message frequently did. Everybody knew we were in trouble and that light at the end of the tunnel was another train heading back at us.
