Natomas School Board, are you nuts?

Dear Natomas Unified School Board:

Have you lost your minds? Did all that "no child left behind" stuff confuse you so badly that paying $24 million for land you don't need seemed like a good plan? Perhaps there is campaign cash falling into pockets that we won't know about for weeks or months to come. Perhaps there is a recall heading your way. We're tired of failing schools, failing students, security concerns and a board that can't count it's own cash. See you at the polls.
Sincerely,
Concerned Natomas resident


For those of you just catching up, the Natomas Unified School Board just purchased farmland for $24.7 million based on a hypothetical appraisal of land value. The lawyer on the deal double ended the purchase, representing the district and the seller (who happens to be Tsakopoulos). Somehow none of this information ended up in front of the school board before it made the decision to purchase the land at the outrageous price of 3 times the going rate for land in the immediate area. The appraiser instead, used numbers based on the land being annexed into the city, which is not on the long or short-range plan. Basically, he made the whole thing up. Nice work.- how do I get that job?

Dr. Ferrar, you are the superintendent of the district and supposed to be the one asking questions. How did you not realize that the lawyer and law firm on both sides were the same? Did it somehow sneak by you on the paperwork? Did you not have district employees do their own due diligence before signing off on the deal? What is going on over at that huge district office that a land deal somehow didn't get checked and double-checked?

This is not the first time the district has suffered a major oops. The district continues to state that enrollment is "falling" in the area. In numerous rumors throughout teachers and those "in the know" in the district, this is simply a spin to leave out the fact that the enrollment projections were miscalculated in the first place. A portion of the active-adult community of Heritage Park is in the Natomas Unified boundaries. No children are allowed to reside in these houses and therefore, there are no students. However, rumors persist that the district didn't count this in the enrollment projections and is now short about 2500 students. Many believe this is the reason for the delay in Heron Elementary opening, as well as the lack of need for this new land.

What a mess. Thank you to the Bee for picking up the story and realizing that the Natomas Unified board has some serious questions to answer. They'd better move fast, elections are coming soon.