Comments on: TACOMA: Contract with local nonprofits

By: olympicmtn

olympicmtn — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 16:09:34 +0000

cc: Suggest you read the audits of the Urban League in Tacoma over the years and then come back and chat…

By: ronniew

ronniew — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 07:00:36 +0000

cc — Right. It has to be a mixture. Only hiring firms owned by women or minorities is not a mixture.

By: cclngthr

cclngthr — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 06:12:41 +0000

olympicmtn,
First off, what the purpose of Urban League is about also involves education of those who are minority or does not match regular white mainstream society. Is the district meeting their needs? Same with other non-profits.

Whether you think about it or not, the issues in society do come up in the classroom. Involving other non-profit agencies and services within the education can make it easier for the district to do its job. If a kid has issues with mental health, having a contract with Greater Lakes Mental Healthcan free up the district from having to hire specialists in that area. Same with Catholic Community Services. The services of that agency can be better than what the district can provide, at a lower cost of hiring specialists to do that in house.

Ronniew,
The federal regulations on equal access/opportunity also involve contract services. Vendors have to be firms that are owned by and employ people that are a mixture of gender and ethnic backgrounds. They can’t be all male and white.

By: ronniew

ronniew — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:13:04 +0000

Judie — I agree if there is money to be spent it should be spent in our own community if possible, but I’m wondering why you are advocating the job be given to a business owned by a woman or minority. That is discrimination.

By: olympicmtn

olympicmtn — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:16:48 +0000

Judie says: Who recommended that our school district contract out this service? Was it put out to bid?

If it’s over $50,000 the school board should be voting on this – NO? If not, why is the Superintendent and his facility director passing this on for payment by the finance department?

I would go further and say why are our tax dollars paying for non-educational activities? Don’t we have people at TPS to work with children? We do not need to pay the Urban League after their previous “suspect audits” of not accounting for kids or lunches (sound familiar Seattle?), nor Safe Streets or small business associations, UB hubs with our educational tax dollars!!!

Frankly all these non-profits in the name of children, poor should be a questionable use of educational dollars altogether. Time to ask your school board members and superintendent to answer some hard pressed questions as to why our tax dollars are going to this non-profits.