The nice spin that our HCISD website puts on the dark “candlelight” commencement ceremonies does not agree with the comments that I heard from many parents and seniors on Saturday night immediately following the ceremonies.

I realize that when they approved the emergency sole source contract, board members were merely trying to insure that our seniors and their families would have replacement lighting in place in time for graduation. However, just a little more time and effort back before a contract was signed could have insured that adequate lighting would be in place.

Did HCISD staff know that the truck lighting mentioned as a back-up measure in the sole source contract would be one bank of lights only? Did they really think that one bank of lights could possibly light the field adequately when it normally takes four banks? Does the emergency contract say anything about the “real” lights being installed in time for football season?

Again, just because the law allows for sole source purchases in certain circumstances, does not mean that we should do so.

I cannot understand why HCISD continues to make the same type of costly mistakes (using loop holes in the law to side step the competitive bidding process). Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Marty Kanetzky

Driftwood