Everybody’s pointing fingers today after it was learned that the Durham Public Schools had a much larger reserve fund than anyone claims to have known.
County commissioners say they never would have given the schools any extra money for this year if they had known the figure was actually $19.7 million and not $10-$12 million. School board members said they didn’t know they had so much money. They thought it was $4 million, which is what they told the commissioners. They’re trying to blame the Supt. Eric Becoats, who is on the hot seat for various reasons.
No matter how you look at it, this shows mass incompetence by all involved, including the media, which, in the past eras, would have been the ones to notify everyone of the incompetence long before the county manager could spill the beans publicly.
Board of Commissioners member Ellen Reckhow said, “Now we may have to do more due diligence in the future and require more verification.” Uh, yeah. Too bad that wasn’t done before now.
Every party has expressed concern for a loss of credibility and trust with the others involved. I haven’t heard anyone worry about a loss of credibility and trust on the part of taxpayers.
