Jeffco’s Flipbook (and here if Jeffco deletes or changes it) is declaring multiple schools are under their bond program budget when they clearly aren’t.
I will document two of the schools here, Fremont ES and Belmar, but there are many more, including Arvada K-8, Columbine Hills, West Jeff MS, Welchester, Eiber and Semper.
Why is this happening? There are only two answers, either complete incompetence on the part of staff or a desire to mislead the public into believing the management of the program is not as bad as it really is.
Belmar – tagged with a green arrow in the Flipbook
The Flipbook states that Belmar has a budget of $1,068,000.
The current CAAC report shows Belmar costs as:
| Efficiency & Future + Paving | $848,999 |
| Hazmat Costs | $85,281 |
| FF&E | $382,202 |
| Total | $1,316,482 |
This is nearly $250,000 over budget and does not include additional costs such as security glass, site lighting, IT cameras and network upgrades.
Fremont ES
The Flipbook states that Fremont has a budget of $1,289,000.
The current CAAC report shows Fremont costs as:
| Efficiency & Future Ready | $1,087,700 |
| FF&E Costs | $334,083 |
| Hazmat Costs | $102,186 |
| Total | $1,523,969 |
or more than $230,000 over budget, not including additional costs such as security glass, site lighting, IT cameras and network upgrades.
Jeffco is lying to the public to present a picture that they are good managers and stewards of our money, when the exact opposite is true. This is not a good look.
Jeffco should fix this immediately. In addition, Jeffco should show the total costs for each school project so that voters and taxpayers can see the truth.