School board member Ervin says Weast's numbers are phony

Board of Education member Valerie Ervin says the school system's Seven Locks/Kendale cost figures are meaningless.

"Some of these numbers are funny to me," Ervin (pictured) told her colleagues in the recent school board meeting to discuss Kendale, "because they're not competitively bid. They're just estimates."

But the board majority insisted on building Kendale or abolishing the Seven Locks community school completely. The Gazette reports that Ervin and fellow board member Nancy Navarro - the only two members not in lockstep with the board majority on Kendale - left the meeting.

The school board endorsed only the options that did away with Seven Locks Elementary School.

(As he did with the inspector general, school board member Steve "Abramoff" Abrams immediately questioned Ervin's motives. He interrupted her with a taunt that she might not be speaking as a supporter of public schools but as an employee of County Council President George Leventhal.)