Joseph Butson

Much media and activist “hay” will be made of a recent special report on a very narrow review of the Des Moines Independent Community School District’s activities in past fiscal periods.

The summary of the audit is very easy to follow and reveals enough mediocre bumbling by former district officers, and Board Members, who might be be mildly contrite about the report, but they will hardly be chastened.

I thought the “responses” of the district were more telling than the report’s statements of fact. Time and again, the responses leaned into the wind and contested the facts with legalistic parsing, posturing and attempts to reduce facts with the meaningless phrase”without merit.”

It doesn’t surprise me that a small but determined group of activists continue to hound the present Board because they were right about the mediocre to poor administration and governance in years gone by. I congratulate them for shining the light of day on and humbling the former administration.

All the obfuscation and “lawyering up” by the Board is just grist for the mill. Their past decisions are suspect, their practices found to be dubious and what little potential they had is now certainly diminished.

I’ll end this with my favorite “response” from the district which excused the lack of minutes and recorded votes by an elected body to staff turnover and lack of training.

Damn your lousy excuses!

Wow. Exactly 0 posts in one month. I’ve been busy though at our neighborhood’s new blog. It is catching on so it will be a good investment.

I found this perspective interesting.

I’ve read a couple of good books [not quite finished exactly but still revisionist history in good way.]

Here is the original “Forgotten Man” speech from FDR. Here is a review of the book from a pretty slanted point of view, yet still effective. I like Amity Schlaes integrity.
More later!