Today we finally read in the Orlando Sentinel that some packages of beef from the latest recall were found in a freezer at couple of Osceola County Schools. This after we were told that Osceola County Schools do not get their beef from the same company that was involved with the recall. The press release on not having any tainted beef must have been sent out before any inventories were actually investigated, which is probably what led to the confusion. From the article we know that two schools are involved, but of course the school board will not say which schools had the recalled beef that was found, or if all the schools had the recalled beef and it just happened to get used up at the other schools.This is just the latest misstep from the Osceola County School System in just the past few weeks. Channel 9 exposed serious fire-safety risks that have been on the books for many years. Many of the schools were found not to meet the minimum requirements of federal "No Child Left Behind" law. Now recalled beef shows up quite some time after the initial recall. We did not even mention the on going battle of voter mandated districts that now the school board is trying to water down to ensure the the "right people" stay in control of the great empire of construction contracts. Should we venture a guess at what is next?
The one issue that the WayneWho staff has been after are the enrollment numbers for this year. Most other counties have published their numbers and they have all been down. They have been down to the point of districts being forced to move students and teachers around so they can downsize their services to handle the budget crisis created from low enrollment numbers. Basically the schools make money from the state for every student, this year there are not as many students, so the schools are brining in less money. But what are the numbers for Osceola County?
This is an important issue because if enrollment is down, the number of teachers we need would also be dropping. This means that we would not need teacher welfare housing and the number of schools that we would need to build would be less. We also wonder how much money is coming in from impact fees charged for new homes? The City of Kissimmee numbers last week showed a very serious drop in impact fee revenue so we can assume that it is worse through out the county. Of course it is hard to know any of this if the school board is not going to release its numbers. We guess releasing these numbers is more difficult that figuring out if you have recalled beef in your freezer, so we will not be surprised if the numbers are released well after the the school year ends. Until then we will just ask the question of the ages, "Where's the Beef?"
7 comments:
This school board is one of the most incompetent groups of people I have ever seen. They do not function in an oversight capacity, the server in a check signer capacity. Staff comes up with some crazy way to spend money that only remotely connects to children and they jump all over it spending money like crazy.
Enrollment is down in some areas in Osceola, but most of the schools have gone back to being populated the way they should be. You are right that money will be the issue, since they had so many building projects they were working on.
Where's the Fountain?
From the Orlando Sentinel:
In less than 24 hours, the Osceola school district has found 25 cases of potentially contaminated meat in eight public schools here.
As late as yesterday evening, the district had reported only two cases of potentially tainted meat linked to a California meatpacking plant. Suddenly, this afternoon a press release went out saying more cases had been found. The district has not been immediately been able to answer why those amounts were not reported earlier.
The USDA on Sunday ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of beef from the slaughterhouse, which is the subject of an animal-abuse investigation.
The recall affects beef products dating to Feb. 1, 2006, that came from Chino-based Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co., the federal agency said. The company provided meat to various federal programs.
District spokeswoman Dana Schafer said children were never at risk of becoming sick because the district stopped consumption of all bulk ground beef as soon as the USDA notified them of possible contamination on Feb. 5.
“Nobody has consumed any of the bulk beef since [that warning],” she said. “There was no danger to any of the students.”
Schools were the meat was found are: Poinciana High, Boggy Creek Elementary, Four Corners Charter, Discovery Intermediate, Harmony High, Partin Settlement Elementary, St. Cloud Elementary, and Kissimmee Middle. Letters will be going out to parents of children at those schools tomorrow letting them know of the district’s findings.
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Good Job WayneWho!!!
WHERE'S THE PUPPET SHOW? MUST HAVE A FOUNTAIN IN IT.
MAYBE WITH SOME COMMISSIONERS HOSTING A WET T-SHIRT CONTEST ON ACCESS OSCEOLA.
im confused because i received an email stating the recalled beef was sold by a company the school ditrict did no business with at this time. it stated that muse checked and was told that the lot number did not match an of the recall #"s. someone is lying. oh wait. its the school district and the soon to be retiring (thank god) blaine muse.
This was an honest mistake. The school board keeps two sets of books, one for the public and one for staff. Poor Blaine got the wrong set.
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