Unreliable offer a disservice to school

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Such is the case in Cary Elementary District 26, where a newly formed foundation with a promise of $4.3 million to restore teachers jobs and music, art and gym classes for a year announced this week it was rescinding its offer.

Foundation leader David Ruelle, the onetime president of the school board who quit in November because he didn't think the board was serious about balancing the budget, said the group made the decision after the school board declined delaying the start of school for a couple of weeks to hire back teachers.

Ruelle said a central condition of the offer was to have 68 of the 71 teachers who were laid off rehired and programs restored for the entire school year. Still, he says, the foundation will entertain requests for specific, and presumably smaller, grants.

A day before Ruelle made his announcement via e-mail to the Daily Herald, he admitted to staff writer Jameel Naqvi that the foundation didn't have a penny of that $4.3 million in hand - just a fistful of IOUs. That, after saying unequivocally that the money, indeed, was in hand.

It's no wonder the school board didn't trust that the money was there. Why should the board - or the rest of us - have believed so when Ruelle's group failed to meet several deadlines to produce proof of the money's existence and has consistently refused to disclose the donor list?

This was a real pig in a poke.

We still don't know whether the donors were a well-intended bunch who wanted to see kids have access to art, music and gym class, whether they wanted to see most teachers get their jobs back, whether they wanted to stall a potential state takeover or whether this was a smoke screen created to undermine or embarrass.

Conspiracy theories abound. If the group and its money and its intentions are genuine, all this bad vibe around the district is really a shame. Because the group's leaders very easily can dispel much of it with a little openness.

The school board acted appropriately during this ordeal. Its primary functions are to educate the children of the district and to be good stewards of the tax money that achieves it.

Shaking on a deal without knowing who was behind it and whether the money even would be there would have been a reckless leap of faith and could have hastened a state takeover.

This drama has done a disservice to a school district that begins the year with significant challenges - the lingering threat of the state taking control of its finances, fewer teachers at work and a curriculum minus a lot of the right-brained activities that kids feel make school fun.

The foundation has left the door open for the district to apply for a grant. Hopefully, if the district does seek specific funding, it will be handled much differently and will have a happier result.