Dude, please tell tell that to homeowners near Silver Street, Pine View …

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I’m still playing catch-up, not to mention ketsup, after abundant down time during the holidaze.

After reading Jerod Clapp’s Tribune story, I’m puzzled anew at the school corporation’s failure to grasp elementary (pun intended) public relations. Are their feet ever removed from mouths? Was the PR guy imported from Libya after Colonel Gaddafi downsized? Is this a good time to talk about a raise for the superintendent? Why do we need portable classrooms when neighborhood schools were given the mountain oyster treatment?

Here’s a helpful hint: Keep this McWhorter fellow away from the microphone unless you really think an inadvertent comedy routine helps sell the notion of a referendum.

NA-FC Schools could bring referendum to vote; 2012’s budget could be in bad shape without it

… (Chief business officer Fred) McWhorter said the school corporation has made efforts to show the community how it’s worked to make the school system better.

“If we move forward with a referendum,” McWhorter said, “now we can say with a straight face, ‘we’ve become more efficient.’”

He said even though four schools were closed last spring, the facilities left are being used more efficiently than they had been. Without any empty classrooms and class sizes still staying in reasonable levels, he said he thinks the school corporation has demonstrated its efforts at increasing efficiency …

… McWhorter said community members without children in local schools need to consider some of the benefits of having a good school system in their area, including the increase of property values.

He said studies show how a more educated populous generally has less crime.

“All you have to do is look at places like Detroit [Mich.] where the schools have been run down and what’s happened to their property values,” McWhorter said. “We don’t want that to happen here.”

Photo credit: My esteemed colleague M. Nash.

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