Audit for Virginia school which didn't do its homework...

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/oct/07/audit-sought-after-40000-spent-bring-nfl-player-sc-ar-1366762/

Key portions:

Awesome.

 

It is not uncommon for a school division to bring in a speaker to address the staff before the school year to motivate them. The number usually is between $5,000 and $10,000 and about another $500 to $1000 for travel and other crap.

And that is for professional speakers.

For this guy to get this amount is insane. It's like paying $75,000 for a new Chevy Malibu. Sure, it will do the job, but the number is way too high for what he did and his experience.

I think Vitale, or a big time former athlete like Troy Aikman would command that money. And it would be a joke for a school division to pay this amount.

One thing a school can do to CYA is to start an Educational Foundation which could have looser procurement rules than using straight tax dollars.

In Virginia, to spend that amount (over $25,000) in a non-emergency situation, they would have had to advertise a Request for Proposal (RFP) and taken requests and ruled the best choice. The results of the RFP should be available at the School Board Office. You know, if they did one.

The long and short of it is someone will probably lose their job, and I would look into seeing if this player has a link to this school divsion which would mean jail is on the table for the school employee.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_proposal

 

If you put in for bids and some UFL punter says he'll do it for $30k, do you have to take him?

 

Dude, they could have had him for FREE.

 

...that didn't do its homework.

How much are they counting off for grammar these days?

 

Rutgers paid about the same for Snooki.

 

HAHAHA honest, true story: I wrote that, then thought, 'Wait, is that which?' I have no idea why I thought that. I'm an idiot.

Bonus points to you, good eyes.

 

You have rubric in place that will give scores for best price, fame, experience and any other shit you can think up. You have a few people score it and see who comes out on top.

RFP protects a school division from having to take the low bid. You want to take a good, solid, prudent choice, and many times low bid means you are just going to get shit service in the end.

You know, the 10K in hotel rooms looks worse than paying $30K for the speaker.

 

Not going to lie. They both sound correct to me.

 

This is a tricky situation because, with a comma, "which" would be fine grammatically. But "that" is probably the best choice here.

"Which" is used for non-restrictive clauses. "That" is used for restrictive clauses. So the intent of the writer often comes into play.

IJAG meant for the phrase "didn't do its homework" to be a restrictive clause, I believe. The fact that the Virginia school didn't do its homework is essential to why it's audited. If she had meant for it to be a non-restrictive clause, she would have needed a comma after "school," and it would have suggested the Virginia school's failure to do its homework was not being implied as the reason for the audit.

Grammar's fun, guys.

 

This thread has taken an AWESOME turn.

 

So now, apparently, I need to read up on restrictive clauses. I have slept a lot since I learned about them.