- By Dan Veaner
- Opinions
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Then people complained and Board of Education (BOE) members said, put this back in, put that back in. So they did. The the BOE said, now come back with a 6% budget, but take other stuff out. So they did. Then people complained and the BOE said, put this back, put that back. And so on.
Let's face it -- these seven people work untold hours under attack from all directions for no money. They do it because our kids' education is important to them and they want to try to make a difference. Nobody else is stepping up -- the last election was uncontested and the one before that had only three candidates for two seats -- so it is a bit disingenuous to be critical of them (not that THAT stops anyone!). But they dropped the ball on the budget and voters didn't like it.
The BOE should be setting priorities for the district, building a budget based on that, and sticking to their guns. They should believe in their decisions so they can explain and defend them to voters. Voters have to know why their money is being spent a particular way. This budget was so much higher than last year's without a clear explanation of why, proportionally, the school budget was twice the rise of, say -- mine.
Let me sidetrack for a moment. The BOE has been accused of not working transparently enough, and depending on how you interpret it this is both true and not true. Meetings are open to the public except for contract issues and similar items that require privacy. Meeting times are advertised, maybe not in flashing billboards, but sufficiently, I'd say. If you want to attend a meeting and don't know when and where it is you can always pick up the phone and ask someone at the district office. I've done it, it's not hard.
But there is another side of transparency. Understandability. Oftentimes I have sat in the peanut gallery while the BOE refers to some document or another. In most cases they are not confidential as far as I can tell, but none of the observers can figure out what they're talking about because they don't provide copies for the public. I have to say that it has been a bit better this year as President Bonita Lindberg often takes a moment to explain things to observers.
A lot of people had their own agendas when they expressed their opinions at the last BOE meeting. But they all had one thing in common -- they wanted to understand what the money is going toward, and the reasons some parts of the budget have risen so high in just one year. Understanding is key. We all want to give our kids the best education we can afford. This is a tax people want to pay, but in these tough times they don't want to pay more than is necessary. It's just a matter of understanding how much is necessary, and why.
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