Your tax dollars at work (Denver, Colorado Springs: hotel, middle school, law)

[bhcompy]

Denver School Board Hires Marriage Counselor - Denver News Story - KMGH Denver

DENVER -- The Denver school board has hired a marriage counselor to deal with rifts exposed after the election of new members. The decision follows a rancorous meeting Monday during which new board member Andrea Merida voted against reforms at a troubled middle school. She and other opponents question whether the reforms, which were approved, are legal. The board will meet privately with a counselor Thursday at the five-star Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs to sort through the disputes. Jeannie Kaplan says she and other board members need time to talk to each other privately.

Board members believe the closed therapy session is allowed under parts of the state open meetings law that allow private discussions of personnel matters and contracts.

Maybe it isn't the schools dragging down DPS and instead the leadership. Paying for the board the travel to Colorado Springs and stay at a 5 star hotel while seeing an expensive therapist sounds like a great way to bring test scores up.

[mczabe]

Perhaps working out their issues is a good thing, but the 5 star hotel out of town is just a bad, bad PR move in this economy for a public school board spending tax payer $$$ (even though I'm sure it helps the hotel's economy...). I wonder if this idea was a unanimous vote?

[newhandle]

Oh, so they are going to the Colorado Assn. of School Boards (CASB) convention and have their thearpy there. Two thoughts:

1) Why is CASB meeting at the Broadmoor? This is a total waste of money while students go without.
2) They mean to say the City has no counselors they can use and no meeting rooms?

This is a disgrace and a total waste of $. Makes me reconsider my signing up for a volunteer job with the City Schools.