Amid budget crisis, $230,000 spent on School Board meeting room
by Barri Bronston - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

Despite a budget crisis that had the Jefferson Parish School Board cut more than 300 teaching positions last month, the board has agreed to pay $230,000 for technology upgrades to its own meeting room at Bonnabel Magnet Academy High School in Kenner. The improvements, which include a $2,700 podium and $22,000 in desktop computers to replace portables that board members already had, were completed this month. But board members learned of the final tab only this week, shocking member Mark Morgan. "I don't recall voting for it, and now we are being asked to approve something where the money has already been spent?" Morgan said at Wednesday's board meeting. "In the middle of a budget crisis?"