You really couldn’t make this stuff up unless you were writing for the Onion;
The same company credited with a $1 million donation to buy land for the new Sioux Falls high school will oversee its construction.
Journey Group was awarded a $3.67 million contract with the Sioux Falls School District Monday night during a regular school board meeting. The contract authorizes Journey to serve as the district’s construction manager at risk as it designs and constructs a planned $84 million high school.
Superintendent Brian Maher said the decision to buy the northwest Sioux Falls land that came with Journey’s $1 million donation was completely separate from the decision to hire the company to oversee construction.
“One of the things that we said very early on is Journey should not get this job because of the land acquisition of the school district,” Maher said. “The other piece of that is they should not be precluded from getting this job.”
I literally had to read Brian’s statement 3 times before I busted up laughing. Do you think the citizens are that naive? I just assumed the land donation was tied into a lucrative contract to build the school. I even stated on Lalley’s show that Journey is a good company that has a proven track record, I don’t think citizens would balk at the decision. Are we supposed to be surprised? I said all along that most of these decisions were probably made before the task force even met.
But it doesn’t stop board members from adding an extra layer of frosting;
“I was very pleased with all four, but Journey really was impressive,” board member Todd Thoelke said Monday ahead of the board vote. “And it’s the one I’m most comfortable with.”
He should of just said, “While the Walmart and Dollar Store cola’s are a good value, we had to go with Coca-Cola at my kid’s birthday party.”
As I said to a friend the other day, we all know they are going to pick Jefferson for the name of the new HS, heck the Super has even hinted at it. So why waste time and resources on a naming committee? I said Maher should just say on December 1st, “We have decided to name the new school Jefferson. If anybody or any group in Sioux Falls has an issue with that, fill out a petition supporting a different specific name and we will take it up for consideration on January 1st. Good luck.”
Just like the special school bond election, this naming process will be tightly controlled, and there will be zero wiggle room when they announce their pre-determined name of Jefferson. We will all be as shocked just like when they told us they were naming the EC after T Denny.
Local government is turning into open mic night.
Thomas Jefferson was my hero. I doubt he’d approve of his name used in vain. The school board accepting a land donation then awarding the contract to same as developer. Sounds like a Mafia maneuver to me. It’s not like the Louisiana Purchase negotiated by Jefferson. More like cornering the concrete and fish markets in New York.