The ABC made recommendations in its report of January 3 (see link below), presented to the School Board, based on the data it was given in December. We as a committee are pleased that the School Board and the Administration made some reductions before finally proposing this operating budget, but we believe additional reductions could be made without damaging our shared goals of effective and efficient education of our students. We are particularly concerned about one time savings being spent on recurring costs. Although the budget has gone down for the first time in recent memory, taxes for all three towns will increase because of declining revenue.
The ABC voted against recommending the budget in Article 8 by 5 to 2.
Additional Information
The election to approve the School District Warrant Articles and select new School Board members will occur March 8, 2011 in the respective towns.
The posted FY2011-2012 budget for the Oyster River Cooperative School District can be reviewed by going to Google Docs for the full budget data as well as visual graphs and charts of the data. The links to the budget documents are:
Budget Visualization: https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0ATacA8zqQKh3ZDdyZjR2d18xdmg5aG44Zw&authkey=COPi0p4I&hl=en
Full Budget Data: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AjacA8zqQKh3dDl3bWJETHYtcXNRQ09xMUlCZzZLMHc&hl=en&authkey=CL3rjeoF
The ABC report submitted to the School Board on 1/3/11 is posted on the district websitewww.orcsd.org under School Board SubCommittees at http://www.orcsd.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=103&Itemid=203
I don't understand this. I thought that the Advisory budget committee was just that... advisory. They made recommendations. The school board took some of them. Others they did not. The ABC is not a statutory committee that has veto power over the budget. The school board is elected by the taxpayers and its role is to ultimately present a budget to the taxpayers. Is it even in the ABC's charge to recommend or not the budget that is being presented? I would like to see the minutes from this particular meeting and know how ABC members voted. The minutes are not posted yet but this recommendation is?
ReplyDeleteHello Julie - we made recommendations and we understand that we are not a statutory committee. However we have been asked individually by members of the public how we feel about the Board's proposed budget. We felt as a group that we needed to make a statement to the public about the budget as we head into deliberative session and voting.
ReplyDeleteOur charge is very broad and we feel that it is within our charge to educate the community about the budget and be transparent about our discussions and decisions.
David Proulx - ABC member
This is exactly why some questioned the appropriateness of a budget committee in the first place. That there would be pressure or perceived pressure for the board to take the recommendations of the committee. Why have the committee if they aren't going to take the recommendations, right? The school boards are elected officials and SHOULD have the ability to reject recommendations without this pressure and without what I see as undermining behavior by the ABC. This should not be a power play, but we should have all seen this coming.
ReplyDeleteTo the previous poster - there is no power play or undermining going on. We are volunteering our time to understand the budget and provide transparency to the process, understand tax impacts, where money is being spent, etc. There has been very little of this in the past and now we are beginning to provide it. We welcome discussion and debate and we do not expect our recommendations to be fully accepted or implemented.
ReplyDeleteIf you have questions or comments we are always willing to accept them and discuss them. You may reach us at abc@sau5.org.
Also it would be great if people did not post anonymously to add credibility to the comments.
David Proulx - ABC Member
It certainly looks like the Advisory Budget Committee is undermining the elected school board. Recommendations are one thing but this is much more than that. If people are asking about the budget inform them to watch the school board meetings. Then they will see the whole discussion on each item and understand the opinions and voting of the elected officials who also have to take into account the education of the kids.
ReplyDeletePlease explain to us how we are undermining the School Board? We are shedding light on the budget and budget process for the School Board and public. The current state of financial affairs within the school district is a mess. Some examples: A complete budget was not submitted to the board to review until the end of January. There were numerous discoveries of prior year double budgeting, incorrect budget entries, use of one time funds for permanent expenses, etc. In addition an independent audit was not completed until last week on FY10 financials. FY10 ended on 6/30/10.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, historical comparison data that had been requested in November has not been presented and no explanation for how the FY10 $2.2 million surplus has been absorbed in the FY11 budget.
Personally, I am shocked that things are in such disarray. I am very pleased with Sue Caswell. She really is a great hire but she has been handed a real mess to clean up.
Please read our report for more information. Maybe the public does not want to know or understand this but we felt they should.
Once again, please stand behind your comments and include your name.
David Proulx - ABC member
The ABC did not Vote Down the budget as Seth suggests.
ReplyDeleteA motion was made to recommend the budget. The motion failed. This reflects the ABC members' concerns with the budget process, bottom-line fluidity, availability of data, and the impact on tax payers.
There was no motion to reject the budget.
ABC meetings are public and posted in advance. Our minutes, reports, data, and discussions are public record. Our methods for making those public records available have been consistent since inception. The SB will likely open Bill's position for volunteers. If you wish to shape the process - please get involved.
Rob McEwan - ABC Member.
Sue has done an amazing job putting together a more user-friendly budget. If you compare this year to last year, you would not know it was the same data. That said, her task to clean up this data is formidable. As I went through tens of hours of meetings, I often felt that I had more questions than answers. Sue has already made a great change to the format and I am hopeful that with her on board and some grunt work from ABC, this District will be able to produce a budget that is accurate, user-friendly and fiscally sustainable. There is a long road ahead of us...
ReplyDeleteI edited the title in this post...the ABC did NOT vote down the budget as previously stated.
ReplyDeleteBut the ABC's vote not to support the budget speaks volumes. The negativity of that vote and publicly announcing it has resulted in so much tension and name calling. It makes me second-guess the committee and I'm thinking about calling for its repeal.
ReplyDeleteFor those that insist that the ABC 'vote to not recommend' the budget was some sort of breach of trust or stretch beyond the ABC's authority, I ask--what is the actual issue? Is it that your specific expectation was that the committee would just communicate with the board? Is it that you feel they don't have the right to communicate with the public? Here's my take: the committee's opinion of the budget was going to become public knowledge at some point, via some way. Would you rather get a hint of the opinion of the committee via gossip or blogs or would you like a specific, public, and accountable record of each committee members opinion? It appears to me that the expecatation of some members of the public, that the committee advise without speaking,are not seeing the benefit of the transparency of this particular process.
ReplyDelete