Scott Hollowell, in response to your email of 7/26/12, I offer the following comments:
My entire family has already voted and we did not vote for you! Furthermore, I heartily agree with EVERYTHING Cal Beverly said in his article about you.
While I find you a very affable well-spoken individual, I don’t think you are qualified for a seat on the Board of Education.
You have repeatedly grossly overstated your financial background and are so closely aligned to Janet Smola, Terri Smith, Leonard Presberg, and Jeff Bearden, that I find it hard to figure out where you would stand on critical financial and operational issues facing the sinking ship called the Fayette County Board of Education.
Bearden will be in a tough fight to keep his job after a new board is seated next year. In my opinion, he should have been shown the door some time ago for his total lack of leadership and inability to deal with the financial nightmare that he has helped to bring about under his watch.
I will work tirelessly to ensure that Terri Smith is defeated in her re-election effort later this year. She and Janet Smola have made so many terrible decisions that have brought the school system to the brink of financial ruin.
On another subject, but one that we should not forget, Smola talked about her vast financial knowledge and experience when she ran for election some time ago. As we later learned, her education and financial experience were extremely limited. Furthermore, she has since clearly demonstrated that she doesn’t have a clue about finance or operational matters and, I for one, am delighted to see her go.
I can understand your desire to sit on the BoE but I really believe your opponent Dr. Barry Marchman along with Dr. Mary Kay Bacallao have the necessary qualifications the citizens of Fayette County desperately need to help Dr. Bob Todd and Marion Key get us out of the financial mess that Smith, Smola, Bearden, and, to a lesser degree only because he is relatively new, Presberg, have put the school board in.
The unbelievably bad financial forecasting and budgets prepared by the CFO, Laura Brock, have played a major role in bringing the school system to the edge of financial collapse. For Bearden, Smola, Smith and Presberg to sit there as if brain-dead and accept her incompetence is shocking to say the least.
Jim Richter
Peachtree City, Ga.
