One voice should have new school leaders' ears
A Times EditorialPublished November 9, 2004
Today marks a key point in the transition period for the leadership of the Citrus County School District, the final School Board meeting for two board members and the schools superintendent before next week's official changing of the guard.
Outgoing leaders can be reluctant to make any significant changes in their final hours in power, preferring to leave those choices to the newcomers, who will have to live with the results of the decisions. They can, however, offer advice and suggestions.
Here is one suggestion that should be made, even though the departing administration is loathe to raise the matter. The incoming leaders should invite Lee Schroder to address the School Board immediately.
Who is Lee Schroder and what does he have to say that is so important?
Stop us if you have heard this before.
Schroder was the foreman of an electrical crew that was working on a school building. He complained to a school district construction official about shoddy work on the walls of the building site. He also raised his concerns with the builder's construction superintendent and with the architect's representative.
His concerns, calling into question the school's structural integrity, have not been addressed adequately.
No, he is not another Homosassa Elementary School whistleblower. The building Schroder was working on was the new cafeteria at Inverness Middle School, and the year was 1996. Apart from those changes, the story is much the same as the Homosassa debacle, including a district that seems more dismissive of Schroder's information than it is interested in pursuing his complaints.
District officials insist that they have addressed Schroder's concerns appropriately, pointing out that they have reviewed records of repairs of walls at IMS and have been assured by the architect, the builder and two district facilities workers that all is well.
One person whom the district officials did not deem it necessary to speak to was Lee Schroder.
Schroder raised his concerns back in May when the Homosassa situation first came to the public's attention and while his complaints about IMS may have been lost in the explosion that erupted about the Homosassa project, that does not make them any less relevant.
The district's review of Schroder's complaints has only recently been completed and school superintendent David Hickey has told the Times that the district has "responded appropriately" to the concerns.
That response mirrors what occurred after the district was first notified about problems at Homosassa Elementary. And it is obvious just how ineffective that has been.
The incoming district leadership should take Schroder up on his offer to point out the locations of the problems that he saw in the construction of the IMS cafeteria. It is their responsibility and duty to the district's children and employees to be absolutely certain that the building is safe.
Schroder put it best when he told the Times, "Maybe I'm wrong, but it wouldn't be that much for them to find out."