Chutzpah or go take a flying leap

Former Knucklehead winner Jostens Inc is back in the news today. The company that failed badly on its contract to supply diplomas for Palm Beach County Students says it will pay the county thousands of dollars for that failure. If Jostens is allowed to continue its three-year contract with the school board.

In spite of Jostens offer of scholarships, I feel the county should tell this company to do the act I mention in this post's title. Jostens is an abysmal failure and needs to pay up, at the same time the school board should end all business with this firm.

Saturday Special- Jo's Cafe

The company whose contract was broken by the Palm Beach County School District after it sent out diplomas months late says it will pay the district thousands of dollars if it allows Jostens Inc. to continue its three-year contract.

None of the seniors at Palm Beach Gardens High School — as with nearly half of the county's 9,000 graduates — received their diplomas on graduation day because of massive problems with Jostens.

In a letter to Superintendent Art Johnson, Jostens offered to pay the district $10,000 to cover the costs of mailing diplomas to students over the summer and to provide $1,000 scholarships to 16 high schools affected by the delay. Jostens also would agree not to submit bids for any projects for three years.

District spokesman Nat Harrington said Johnson and staff have not decided how to respond to the company's offer, but this summer the district signed a one-year contract with Herff-Jones to purchase diplomas.

The Herff-Jones contract won't exceed $50,000, compared to $117,000 that the district paid Jostens last year.

Jostens attributed the delay to the movement of its printing operations from its longtime Minnesota plant to new ones in Tennessee and Kansas.

In addition to missing diplomas, many schools did not receive the leather covers that cradle them. Because students receive the covers as they cross the stage during the ceremony, the problem forced students to share covers or use generic ones shipped at the last minute. Some students didn't get their diplomas until late July.