That's about all you've got left going for you.Since his arrival in 2001, Grunert has overseen a $141 million bond program approved by voters in 1999. Three new elementary schools have opened, a site for the new high school at Hicksville was selected (a school idea that had been floating around since '97 and was supposed to be completed this upcoming school year), and litigation over mold in three intermediate schools was settled in the district's favor.The superintendent was the subject of controversy this spring after the Hicksville ISD board of trustees discovered that he and his assistant superintendent of finance had negotiated loans of school district funds to the Hicksville and Low Town high schools' athletic booster clubs in order to facilitate payment of the clubs' half-share of a $1 million artificial turf purchase for those schools. Idiot. At an earlier public school board meeting, the trustees had directed the administration not to finalize the turf deal until the booster clubs secured bank financing. Instead, TenX Turf was allowed to begin work on the schools' football fields before the clubs' financing was obtained. Mondo idiot. Is that where all the district's budget cuts come in?Another controversial action by Grunert was the consolidation of Hicks Valley Elementary and Intermediate schools into one campus, causing the slimination of one principal's job and other now-duplicated positions. Yeah, you know, they built the Intermediate campus for a reason -- so that it was NOT a part of the elementary school anymore. An e-mail from the superintendent's administration to the two schools' staff stated that the board had approved the merging of the campuses, but trustees denied they had directed Grunert to combine the schools. Can't blame 'em for denying that. The plan sucked.The school board will decide in the weeks ahead how to conduct the search for a new superintendent, who will have the job of preparing the 2004-05 budget. Ha ha, glad I won't be there for THAT one!Grunert has spent 31 years in public education in Texas, with the last 17 as the superintendent in the Bonham, Cleburn, and Hicksville school districts. He was an assistant superintendent in the Sulphur Springs adn Lindale school districts, an assistant principal in the Dickinson school district, and began his teaching and coaching career in the Rusk and Marion school districts. Where did it all go wrong?"Hicksville ISD has an outstanding staff of teachers, administrators and support personnel," Grunert said. Oh, so those people were so outstanding that you decided to fire half of them? "The quality of instruction is second to none, and that's a reflection of Hicksville's teachers and campus leadership." Yep, and you, sir, are a prime example. I salute you, bud! ...Idiot.
