A Foggy Night in August

I just received the September 2007 ISD47 News Letter and, sure enough, the full court press has started.  Just as the Boardwatcher predicted in our previous post, superintendent, Greg Vandal, is now unveiling the new “vision” for the future of the Sauk Rapids-Rice school district.  A similarly emotional plea can also be found in the Times Super Spotlight, where he politicizes the recent I35W bridge collapse to try to drum up support for the upcoming tax levy.

As the superintendent puts it:

“In a community initiative called Voicing Our Vision, parents and non parents alike gathered together to begin to talk about tomorrow.  These individuals identified four key issues of focus which they wish to have considered.  Each member intends to host a series of community conversations around these issues…to tap into the voices of over a thousand district residents….as we develop that ten-year plan.”

Recall in our previous post, the Boardwatcher predicted that the district would point to this hand-picked group as representative of the desires and needs of the district.  As we stated then, these Friends of Greg (aka the FOG) was hand selected by a small group of members of the central committee–err school board.  In an attempt to impart some level of importance and credibility to this flawed unrepresentative process the district is now referring to the FOG as the districts’ “planners”. 

We suggest that you ask yourself and the district a few questions about this process:

• How was this group selected?  Were they elected?
• Were your interests represented on this FOGGY night in August?
• Of the 4 preferred alternatives selected in this process how many other issues were raised and what were they?
• If you are a member of the FOG do you believe it was appropriate that you were personally invited to the early stages of this private group while your friends, relatives and neighbors were not invited? 

As the Boardwatcher predicted, the FOG did indeed identify  

“Uniting school and community to secure adequate resources” as one of the priority issues. 

To the casual reader, this sounds like code for developing a coalition to pass the tax levy in November.   Additionally, the FOG are being cast to play the role of community, so it eill be no surprise when the community amazingly agrees with the district that new taxes are needed.  The Boardwatchers predict that the district will very soon declare that consensus on the need for property taxes has been reached.

While increased taxes may in the end be necessary, we at the SchoolBoardWatch are not yet convinced that all the facts are on the table to come to this decision. 

 For example the total budget for the SRR district is approximately $40 million dollars.  The district was reported that they were short somewhere between $1.5 and $2.5 million dollars.  We are compelled to emphasize that this is a budget shortfall of just 4 to 6 percent.   The SchoolBoardWatch may not fully grasp the complexities of school financing, but at our house when we are going a little over budget we do a little belt tightening.  For example, we cut out the luxuries such as eating out or perhaps take a few less trips to the movie theatre.  We don’t panic and run to the bank for another cash infusion from the home equity ATM.   

We fail to understand why the district decided to cut 35 positions (20 plus teachers) just to reduce the budget by 4-6%.  This needs to be clearly explained in no uncertain terms to the residents of this district before additional taxes should be considered.  

Interestingly, I also received the SRR Community Education brochure in the mail today and I am amazed to see so many new offerings and expanded services in these times of dire need.  The community education department (largely benefiting adults) apparently continues to employ at least three directors and a coordinator and other staff members. 

Why are these positions apparently more important to the SRR mission than the 20 or more teachers that have been reportedly let go?  I want history teachers, not administrative staff running a program offering important topics like

• IPod Basics
• Internet for beginners
• Introduction to eBay
• Fall floral arranging
• Organizing Ideas for Garages
• MySpace Safety
• Cooking Boot Camp

In fairness, there are nominal fees for these programs, but we wonder if the revenues pay for the team of administrators employed to run this program.  If these programs made the cut we wonder what programs were eliminated.   We have heard that the overall budget for community education may exceed $1 million dollars.  The SchoolBoardWatch is working to verify this, and we suggest that readers ask the district what the budget is for these services and where the money comes from. 

Are these services more important than teachers for our K-12 students?   

The district is currently developing a spending plan for the next 10 years.  No small coincidence, the proposed ballot question for taxes is to be in place for 10 years. 

This Voicing our Vision is heading for a predictable outcome-an apparent demand for new spending with an accompanying perception that new property taxes are necessary to keep pace with the vision for the “21^st century“. 

The SchoolBoardWatch believes that the district needs to

• Carefully lay out the specifics of the $40 million dollar budget currently in place and determine what would be necessary to bring back all teachers that were laid off.
• Develop materials necessary for the residents of the community to evaluate the trade offs necessary to balance the existing budget.
• Solicit information from the entire community to develop the core essential programs of the SRR public schools.
• Hold open meetings to discuss these alternatives and budget implications.

This type of open full disclosure process would provide the community with facts necessary to determine the need for a property tax levy.