- By Dan Veaner
- News
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Superintendent Mark Lewis recommended cuts that would reduce the original budget by $165,331 for a $21,388,348 total. He said that any cuts beyond that would cut into the core curriculum program. The cuts would mean a 3.99% rise in the tax levy and a 3.78% rise in the tax rate. The defeated budget would have increased the tax rate by 5.09%.
| Tell the Board of Education what you think by taking this quick survey: |
But the BOE wasn't ready to decide on specific cuts until they got input from the community, to try to get a sense of what it will accept. And plenty of people lined up to tell them in Monday's regular BOE meeting. Anticipating a large turnout, the meeting was held in the chorus room at Lansing High School.
Board of Education hears public comment
While the BOE was accused of closed meetings and not publicizing budget discussions, some members seemed baffled by that. They noted that all school board meetings are open to the public. Tom Keane said that almost nobody came to the special meeting called to explain the budget to the community. Indeed only ten people attended that May 4 meeting (see story). They also sited low voter turnout. Board Member Sandi Dhimitri suggested that community members may not have known when the budget was being discussed even though the communication was there. "We need to do a better job of presenting the budget in a format that people can understand," she said.
Board Member Anne Drake reiterated her concern about high taxes. "People are moving out of the district, our taxes are too high, and people are concerned," she said. Drake was the only board member to vote against the budget in the first round.
Board Member Christine Iacobucci said the amount of taxes may not be the only reason the budget was defeated. She suggested there is a disconnect, saying, "It may not be just the budget, but the perception is that other decisions are being made unilaterally with a few key people. Whoever those people are, I'm not one of them."
This is a theme she has brought up several times in past meetings, accusing other board members of excluding her and the public from deliberations. Iacobucci frequently disagrees with other school board members, and has challenged board members' and administrators' integrity at past meetings. Joe Woelfel and others echoed her concern about board openness. Woelfel spoke eloquently and forcefully, but some community members were disaffected in the days after the meeting when they learned that he is Iacobucci's husband, suspecting he was motivated by moving her agenda forward.
| Why Did Lansing Defeat The School Budget? Last Monday People told the Board of Education:
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That speaks to the diversity of opinions, general dissatisfaction within the community, and eroding confidence in the school district's spending. Each time a tax initiative is defeated it makes it harder to get voters to accept the next one. After withdrawing the first version of the capital project for lack of support and then failing to get a budget passed, the BOE is facing a serious problem that is exacerbated by desperate capital needs, especially in the High School. If the new budget is defeated next month the contingency budget will automatically go into effect, and no one has been willing to predict the fate of the capital project if that were to happen.
The BOE, tightly constrained by State regulations dictating when a second vote can take place and the need to craft a new budget in time to meet those regulations, set a public meeting for June 1 in Room 101 of the High School at 5pm. In addition they agreed to put a simple survey on the Internet that solicits comments from the public. Their hope was to get as much public input as possible to help put forward a budget that Lansing will accept in a vote on June 20.
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