A School Board’s Paper Trail of Negligence
Aberdeen’s School District No. 5 accepts a contractor's bond that admits to being filled out by 'inexperienced persons' with no legal sureties.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Another of the peculiar bonds on file with School District No. 5 is that of Scott & Scott. Like that with the other contractor, no sureties are named in what purports to be the bond and none justify. The school directors could scarcely have been ignorant of the careless manner in which the bond was drawn, as a letter to one of the board from A. J. Scott dated July 9, 1892, admitted: 'Please excuse the mistakes in the bond, the actual reason of it was that I left it in the hands of inexperienced persons to have filled. It is not exactly as it should be at present, but it is lawful nevertheless.' The board kindly 'excused' all mistakes, and the contract was let, although the so-called bond remains 'at present' just as it was at first.
“The board kindly 'excused' all mistakes, and the contract was let.”
Public oversight of school construction contracts remains a persistent friction point in local government. The Herald's skepticism regarding 'peculiar bonds' mirrors modern concerns about how public funds are handled when boards cut corners on administrative due diligence.
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