Government watchdog: CD School District

* The school bus controversy is back in the news again – CLICK HERE for an update from The Patriot-News. Fortunately, school buses should roll on the first day of school next Monday even though the district has not finalized a deal to have an outside firm run the district’s transportation department.

* Gazette contributor Jay Purdy blows off some steam about the outsourcing of student transportation services in his latest op-ed piece.

* The school board will be back in session tonight in the lecture hall at Central Dauphin East High School. To view the meeting agenda, click on the plus sign for 8/24/2009, and then click on the plus signs to get details about specific agenda items, including downloadable PDF files of documents.

The agenda includes an update on an opportunity for the district to generate up to $2 million by getting out of the complex financial swap that the board entered into earlier this year. This issue was raised a few meetings ago and the board voted to keep the swap, which is supposed to pay out about $500,000 annually in the early years of the arrangement.