Archive for January 19th, 2008
Preds lease quagmire continues
Averaging 12,618 in paid attendance so far this season, the Preds are in danger of missing out on much needed revenue sharing dollars from the NHL and well below the 14,000 threshold required to maintain the terms of the team’s current lease at the Sommet Center.
The questions no one seems to be asking are: 1) Why aren’t things moving faster with the Nashville Sports Authority and the Metro Council, so the revised lease agreement (the one that requires the team to stay in Nashville for a minimum of three years) can take effect? 2) Will David Freeman and company, the new ownership group, consider exercising the team’s out clause if the new lease isn’t enacted by season’s end?
Time for Garcia to go
I initally applauded the hiring of Metro Nashville Public Schools Director Pedro Garcia, but I think it’s time for him to go. I considered the school board’s decision to bring in someone with a proven track record from outside the system to be an intelligent and well-reasoned decision. In retrospect, it looks more like a mistake.
The word on the street has long been that Garcia is dictatorial and adversarial, and that might have been tolerable with improving schools. With a critical evaluation forthcoming, that clearly isn’t the case.
Metro Schools Director Pedro Garcia on Friday made his first official move to be released from his contract, just one day before the board was set to begin his annual evaluation process … The embattled school director is under contract until 2010 but submitted a written request for the board to consider giving him a severance package.
Garcia’s contract states that he must give 120 days’ notice unless the board agrees to a shorter period of time. The board also has the power to fire him for a number of reasons, in which case he gets no compensation and has to forfeit all his sick leave.
Nashville should not foot the bill, in my opinion, for an official who has frequently flirted with other school systems about job vacancies and has engendered much ill will within the system along the way. I hope the school board will make the case against keeping Garcia rather than accepting this overture from the beleaguered director. It’s in the best interest, I believe, of the city, the schools and, ultimately, the students for there to be a change in leadership.
