River of Greed, Part 2

When it comes to the Broward School Board, bad plans never really die

Comments (0) By Bob Norman Thursday, May 3 2007

Let's recap. The vertical-high-school plan entails no land costs, no sprawl, and the construction of an efficient campus of classrooms. Who could argue?

Kraft, of course. She says that if the Bergeron site isn't used, she wants Weston to "step up to the plate" by offering Tequesta Trace Park, where children play little league, as the site for the high school.

Mike Gorman

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Plunder the parks. Brilliant. Sounds like a ploy to bring popular sentiment back to the Bergeron site. I asked Kraft why she's already set against the vertical high school idea.

"I want a whole big area to build a big high school," she said. "Nice and spread out. But I want to hear from residents."

When I pointed out that the vertical plan would save up to $50 million on land and road costs alone, Kraft responded, "We have the money in our budget."

Actually, there's only $25 million budgeted for land. I said that hers was exactly the mindset that has led to hundreds of millions of dollars being wasted by the School Board over the past few decades. Unethical lobbyists and building officials have run rampant, grand juries have convened, investigations have revealed corruption at every turn. Yet nothing has changed.

Kraft, who has actually done some good things in her nine years in office, let out a rueful laugh. "Welcome to Broward County," she said.

Indeed.