Challenge issued to corporation

To the Editor:

I issue this challenge for the following reasons to wit:

* Certain school corporation employees have issued false statements to the school corporation board of trustees and the public in the pages of this newspaper and at meetings of the school board, and

* The school corporation board of trustees has acted upon recommendations of school corporation employees without publicly questioning why the recommendation should be adopted and what negative effects would result from adopting the recommendation, and decisions made by the school corporation board of trustees affect the public in an adverse manner when those decisions are the result of poor judgment, poor or lack of research, or blind acceptance of the advice of so-called experts, professionals or school corporation employees based upon the position held within the corporation or the length of time that the person has held the position.

If the challenge is accepted, please answer the following questions:

* What is the base curriculum required by Indiana Law to be taught at each grade level,

* What is the base cost required to deliver to each student enrolled at each grade level. These questions define the base requirements of the cost that the taxpayer must meet,

* Concerning the CPF, is not the first purpose listed for that fund in the Digest of Public Schools Digest (Indiana Department of Education), and the Indiana State Board of Accounts' Indiana Public School Corporation Manual "planned construction, repair, replacement, or remodeling" and isn't "construction" listed as one of the permitted uses of the CPF in the CPF Memorandum sent to all school superintendents every June by the Department of Local Government Finance?, and

* Did not two upper administration school corporation employees state that the CPF is not for construction or renovation in meetings of the school board on Aug. 23, 2007, and on Sept. 27, 2007, and hasn't this falsehood been repeated many times.

Do I expect the Clay Community Schools Corporation to accept my challenge? I do not, because in the time it would take to check the facts I have listed above, they would realize that they have no idea what we should be paying, the answer to the third and fourth questions are "yes" and therefore, someone is incompetent or deliberately trying to mislead the public and the school board. As a result, in my humble opinion, the credibility of everyone connected with the Clay Community Schools Corporation at the level of director or above is suspect. It is a sorry state of affairs when you cannot trust a group of people because of one or two.

I find myself mistrusting the entire upper tier of the corporation because of one or two people and the board of trustees because those members have either not found the facts or are oblivious to them in an effort to push their own personal agenda.

We have a major "people" problem in that we have the wrong people. We need people who can and will do the right thing the right way.

Leo Southworth,

Brazil