There Are No Secrets
For those who enjoy watching how some governmental identities try to control their message, July 8, 2010, was an interesting day.
Around 4 p.m. or so, KCBD/NewsChannel11 posted a story on its website reporting that the Lubbock Independent School District was going to propose a $220 million bond election for November (http://www.kcbd.com/global/story.asp?s=12776408) that would combine two elementary schools, Haynes and Murfee, into one top-of-the-line technological facility.
In addition, KCBD/NewsChannel11 also reported that projects in the bond proposal would “touch” virtually every school in the district and, because the district had been diligent in reducing its debt, there would be no need for a tax increase to underwrite the package.
With word of the enormous bond package racing through the internet and the Lubbock community, LISD swiftly called a news conference for 4 p.m. to talk in generalities about its plans, but said that it would not talk about how much it would cost!
Come on, guys and gals!
With a committee of 21 Lubbock citizens working on the proposal and following Wednesday and Thursday meetings with parents and other interested parties obviously being told the financial cost, you don’t feel it’s relevant to tell the rest of the 200,000 residents of the district how much you expect the projects to cost them?
School districts throughout Texas are notorious for withholding information from its citizens (projected bond proposals, changes in bond packages after passage, misbehaving employees, etc.) until they can control the situation.
Here’s a little unsolicited advice for the school district and others from an old newspaper editor about how to control your message:
Don’t tell some people in private your plans without telling the rest of your stakeholders (taxpayers) at the same time!
(P.S: The timing of the proposal also may have been to beat the City of Lubbock to the punch on its own bond package that will include a new or remodeled multi-million dollar Lubbock Police Department headquarters. Because of the potential “sticker shock” on the school’s proposal, the city will probably postpone its bond package until May or, most likely, November 2011.)
