Hot Off the Press: Democrat and Chronicle probe

In an investigation, the Democrat and Chronicle found that the Rochester School District's process for buying, tracking and distributing textbooks has long been plagued by costly mismanagement and miscommunication. "While a few hundred thousand dollars represent only a sliver of the district's $683 million annual budget," reporter David Andreatta reports today, "the school board has wrestled for years with textbook complaints. Board member Van White cast the perpetual dysfunction as symptomatic of a school district in which, as he put it, 'people are operating in silos.'"



"It's beyond the left hand not knowing what the right is doing," White told the paper. "The left hand isn't interested in knowing what the right hand is doing."

The story has already drawn 34 comments; at least one includes a tip from a reader on other possible school mismanagement -- a sign the paper may have a story with legs. Responding, Managing Editor Neill Borowski (left) is urging that tipster to step forward: "We encourage this forum writer and others to contact us with information about the textbook problem happening elsewhere."

Got an investigative project to recommend to Gannett Blog readers? Leave a note, in the comments section, below. Or use this link to e-mail your suggested link; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

[Image: Newseum]