Bill gave me permission to post this.
--Jenna
Feb 3, 2011
Fellow Members of the Advisory Budget Committee;
When I volunteered to serve on the ABC, I made certain assumptions about the time that would be required of me as well as the amount of time that I could offer. I assumed that analysis of the ORCSD budget would be a simpler process than has proven to be the case, and that retirement would provide me with a more significant amount of “free” time to serve the needs of the community. I was mistaken on both accounts.
It has become very apparent that he organization of the school budget itself has a history of inconsistency and confusion, needlessly requiring a great deal of time and effort to properly understand and analyze it. Honestly, I am not sure whether that has been intentional or just the consequence of haphazard business practices and neglectful oversight. In any case, it requires a greater commitment of time from ABC members than I have been able to provide. For the important work of the ABC to move forward, it needs the full commitment of all its members. Being honest with myself and with you, I’m not that person right now. I greatly respect and admire the amount and quality of work each of you have contributed in an attempt to bring reason and fiscal responsibility to the ORCSD budgeting process; I don’t want to add to your workload or detract from your effort by underperforming while others are ready to provide the assistance you need.
Please do not conclude that I have lost interest. Prior to joining the ABC, I had committed to serving on the board of directors of Child Voice International and the board of elders of Durham Evangelical Church. I have had a long association with both organizations and feel called to give them my highest priority. In so doing, I am simply not able to provide the ABC with the time required to sort through the budget morass and address the fiscal issues that you, the school board and the taxpayers of Durham, Lee and Madbury face. I would be happy to help in a more limited and specific role; I am not content to miss as many meetings as my schedule now requires or to contribute as little as my time now allows.
Please accept my resignation as well as my appreciation for the opportunity to have served with you for a brief time. The school board is extremely fortunate to have as capable and committed a resource as you offer them. I hope they fully understand, appreciate and utilize it.
I wish you the greatest success.
Sincerely
Bill Bryon
mr. bryron thank you for your time served.
ReplyDeleteI am very worried about some of the comments within the context of your resignation letter.
In particular regarding "haphazard business practice or oversight"
The children of this district deserve more than this.
For quite some time now citizens have been arguing that the use of funds for direct service to our children seems lacking, perhaps the findings of the ABC committee will begin to uncover whether this declared belief is indeed true.
The board should heed the advice of this group of citizens who have delved into the innerworkings of the budget, many of whom are experts within their field or with previous budget experience such as Mr. Taylor.
I agree with the last statement within the context of the letter, "I hope the (board) fully understand, appreciate and utilize it (meaning the work of the ABC committee).
I want to thank Bill for his service. I think the ABC made some very reasonable recommendations for future budgetary planning. Starting the process early, measuring budget needs against past/projected expenses, etc.
ReplyDeleteAny service to our community is greatly appreciated... Thank You Bill! And thank you all members of ABC and the ORCSD School Board for your time, energy, sacrifices and opinions (even if they differ from mine).
ReplyDelete"a history of inconsistency and confusion", "haphazard business practices and neglectful oversight".....
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry if I don't thank Mr. Bryon for his less than enthusiastic work on the ABC (he missed several meetings and then laces his resignation letter with unprofessional phrases like these which he conveniently is unable to back up with fact). I also question why this letter was printed on this blog. Some of you love this kind of thing, I guess: the negativity, the criticism, the finger pointing.
The above comment must be from a person on the ABC??? I wonder who....
ReplyDeleteStop trying to squash the comments of other viewpoints. These a invaluable insights that can only lead to a better future. Why the coverup??????
I would be surprised if it were someone on the ABC. I could be wrong but would be surprised. And if it were would hope they had the courage to post their name. The ABC has worked quite well as a group and despite some differences of opinions on specific issues is very cordial and highly functional.
ReplyDeleteBill was a pleasure to have on the committee and raised some excellent points and did some good work on class sizes and staffing at the High School.
I am sorry he could not participate more as I think he has much to contribute but certainly understand when scheduling conflicts get in the way.
David Proulx
I echo David's statement and thank Bill wholeheartedly for his contributions and professional report on class sizes.
ReplyDeleteBill was a wonderful addition to our committee and will be sorely missed! The tasks before this committee are overwhelming, but the pay-off will be worth the effort. We can use more helping hands!
ReplyDelete--Jenna
Great,
ReplyDeleteNow let's get someone on the this committee who supports our schools instead of setting goals which aim to cut, cut, cut
Dear ABC Committee Members,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your hard work and service.
Dear Anonymous
I am trying to reconcile your impressions of ABC committee members with the reality I am living in. Maybe you can help me understand what I'm missing. I find the priorities and values of the committee members I know, combined with the recommendations that this committee presented,to be about as "PRO EDUCATION" as it gets. Several have kids in our schools and care deeply about how well our schools are preparing our kids for life after high school. Improving the quality and services of our schools ... not maintaining and certainly not downgrading our programs just to save some money, seemed to be their top priority. Your impression seems to be that all this committee cares about is "cut, cut, cutting". My impression is that they took their work extremely seriously and did a deep dive into every line item of the budget and discovered our money is not always being used for the highest and best use when it comes to delivering a high quality education for our kids. My impression is this four month exercise resulted in a group of objective, pro eduction residents having a more comprehensive understanding of the state of our school budget than any group of residents have had in decades, and that includes current and past School Boards. Their insights are useful and productive, and can help us implement continuous improvements in our schools if we put them to good use. It is unproductive and untrue to try and characterize the members of this committee as fiscal extremists. This committee delivered exactly what many residents were hoping for ... a comprehensive, objective analysis of the state of our school budget and recommendations of how to get more for our money, not less. Now if we can only get the Strategic Planning Committee back on track by following a similar model and re-populating with a more logical balance of objective citizens relative to the number of district employees. I personally don't understand how anyone can expect a high quality education from an institution that is working without a long range strategic plan.
Dear Anonymous - I have three children in the ORCSD and I value their education greatly. It is because of them I am serving on the Advisory Budget Committee. I am not interested in cutting as you are stating. I am interested in ensuring that we are spending our limited financial resources as efficiently and effectively as possible to deliver the best possible education to our students, including my children. Spending more money without a clear plan and a periodic review of outcomes does not, in my opinion lead to a better education.
ReplyDeleteI have learned quite a bit in my time on the ABC and I feel that there are many opportunities to increase efficiency and use resources much more effectively than we are using them now. For example, last year we used taxpayer dollars to cover $30,000 in bad debts from the school lunch program. There were no controls in place to hold students and families accountable for charging to their account and thus they were provided a "free lunch" by the taxpayers. These are not the students that need a free lunch - those are covered by state funds. These are regular students buying food from the school and putting it on their account without any funds available and no collection efforts on the part of ORCSD.
Fortunately after we raised our concern about this practice, the school board and the administration changed the policy about charging and collections.
There are many more financial concerns I have and we have as a committee and they must be addressed. Please read our report, ask us questions, attend our meetings, etc. We would love to hear your ideas and thoughts rather than having you throw out ignorant claims of our aim to cut, cut, cut.
David Proulx - ABC member and proud parent of 3 ORCSD students
Mr. Proulx and other ABC members,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your service, insight and dedication to the district.
The board seems to be fumbling but only due to a lack of direction from their advisor Colter.
The ABC committee seems to be made up of experts in their field, along with David Taylor who with his years on the board must have provided insight that was helpful.
It is for this reason that I support the ABC committee work. Thank you for taking a stand and voting to not support the board proposed budget. I too hope others will not support the proposed budget due to what seems to be slush within the proposed budget.
I will say I must support the teacher contract, as it does seem it was negotiated in good faith.
In responce to Mr Proulx statment above regarding school lunch charges I feel I must correct some misinformation.The school board discussed how to deal with the problem of over due lunch accounts I belive this took place in sept 2009. The concern at this time was the difficult economic times we were in. The board was very concerned that some children in the district might go hungry if they were denied lunch at school. Unlike committees that make recommodations the school board had to decide if we as a district would turn away a child asking for lunch.That is reality not just talk.
ReplyDeleteI belive the board was in full agreement not to turn children away. At the start of the 2010 school year the board found out that many had taken advantage of this policy and began dicussions on this policy.
in the above posting it sated that the district made no effort to collect these funds
that is completly untrue. The distict and Food service sent out several notices to parents requesting payments. Thousand of dollars was recieved. A couple of months ago The wellness committee took up this issuse and meet with the DOE and reported back to the school board our findings. It was at this time that the Board changed the charging policy.
Mr Proulx makes it seem that there was no action being taken on this issue until he or the ABC did something . This is false and shows that misinformation comes from all sides.If people are interested they can go back and check out the boards meeting and see that this issued was dicussed well before the ABC was formed.
and this is no " IGNORANT CLAIM " just facts
With all due respect to the Anonymous poster who apparently can not leave their name due to fear of some sort of retribution, most of the $30,000 in bad debts were not from students who needed food and could not pay for it. It simply was the lack of financial controls in place and the district's policy to allow students to charge meals. Many parents were not receiving regular bills and there were no consequences for not paying. About $17k of the bad debt was in the high school. As a taxpayer I do not want to be paying for free lunches of those students who can pay.
ReplyDeleteDavid Proulx - ABC Member.
As I stated above that the board revisted the charging policy when it learned that charging had gotten out of control.To be clear I did not personaly support the original position the board took with charging but I watched them try to find away to make sure children were eating.
ReplyDeleteThe point that I was trying to make was that this policy was already being changed before thr ABC was even formed. This was in response to your comment above "FORTUNATELY AFTER WE RAISED OUR CONCERN,,,,,, THE SCHOOL BOARD CHANGED THE POLICY'
I also would like to make very clear that I feel that we needed a ABC to bring a greater understanding of the budget.In the more than a decade that I have been in this district I have
been very frustrated with the budget process and the stonewalling that has taken place.This being said I belive that the ABC should continue thier good work but with the understanding that a little humility goes a long way.
To the Anonymous poster - fair enough. None of us are on the ABC to achieve recognition for our efforts. We are just trying to increase transparency and communication as well as improve the budget process at ORCSD. Thank you for your clarification on the school lunch issue and thank you for your help on this issue.
ReplyDeleteThe point I was really trying to make was that this is one example of a number of them where financial practice leaves much to be desired.
David Proulx - ABC member