Week Three

This past week I wasn’t able to find out too terribly much about the school budget. It was frustrating at times because the people I talked to didn’t seem to know much about how the budget is set up. The bills are paid, and that is all that seems to matter. I did find out that the budget is somewhat oriented around the reconstruction of the high school. A bond issue was recently passed, and this has allowed for the remodeling. I’ve lived in Neosho for my entire life, and I know that it took a lot of work for the bond issue to be passed. We have tried to pass bond issues before, but it was nearly impossible to accomplish. Neosho doesn’t seem to want a brand new high school; its’ citizens seem content with dressing up the old high school. Anyway, I worked a little with Mr. Brazeale, the assistant superintendent, and he was very involved in the construction project. There are a lot of things to look at when reconstructing a building, and Mr. Brazeale has to deal with many of those things. He has to compare building designs and prices, as well as organize the construction. Next week, I will try to find out if those working in the office think that the construction is a good thing.
Personally, I think that the remodeling of the high school is a good thing. Having attended the high school, I know that there is a large area for improvement. I am glad that a bond issue was finally able to pass. Like I said earlier, there had been two or three bond issues that have tried to pass through the system previously. The first bond issue included plans for an entirely new high school which would have been wonderful. It didn’t pass though, and each bond issue since then has decreased in value since then.
Anyway, when I was working with Mr. Brazeale, we did not really carry on much of a conversation. He was typing away at his computer, and I really didn’t need to talk to him unless I had a question about which pile he wanted a certain company’s bill/plan/whatever it was. There was a large stack of papers he wanted me to sort through, and I have no idea how these papers were supposed to help with the high school. I saw a subscription to a newspaper among them, and I am not sure if that was for his use or the office’s use. I didn’t want to ask him about it and have him get mad at me or something. I didn’t really like working in his office because I felt like I wasn’t doing too much of anything besides shuffling papers around. I did ask my mom what Mr. Brazeale’s job was exactly, and she said is supposed to be in charge of taking bids from different companies. Whether or not he actually does this consistently she was reluctant to say when I asked her about it.