District 304 Checks Another Box with Saturday’s Forum
March 7, 2010
I have to admit I had a surprise heading into this forum. The District actually followed through and posted on their website a revised 2/22 presentation and also posted 10 Frequently Asked Questions regarding the proposed cuts. Of course, the links provided in their email didn’t work, but the at least the information was on their web site for a change.
As for the Forum itself, I’m not going to go into great detail like I have in prior posts. Suffice it to say that there were plenty of people there in opposition to A&E, special ed and library aid cuts. Respectful, earnest people, naively believing that their comments could actually change anything. Of course, all of this was just the Administration and the Board checking the “Community Forum” box on their way to doing exactly what they planned to do before they got any community input. Did anyone notice that District employees praised the Administration’s process of soliciting their input in 15 or so meetings, yet the first community input to any of this was the 2/22 Board meeting and Saturday’s forum? Why you may ask? Because the last thing the Administration and the majority of this Board want is independent community members looking under the hood and seeing how this district really operates and the real waste that could be eliminated from every budget. They love to tell us that they are running a tight ship when compared to various, sometimes not directly comparable, metrics obtained from other districts. Of course, being a smaller hog at the trough doesn’t mean you aren’t still a hog.
The GEARS leader speaking in support of A&E stressed that academics should always come first and questioned why athletics were not cut more. She wanted to know how much was spent on athletics and was informed that it was on the district website. All I can say is good luck sorting that out. You’ll kill a bunch of trees with the FOIA requests it will take to get to the bottom of that one! Don’t forget, that million dollar artificial turf football field idea is still lurking out there somewhere.
I did find it interesting that many of the speakers in Saturday’s forum were on a first name basis with the Administration and/or the Board. Perhaps for future public forums, along with asking for the names and addresses of each speaker, we should also have them declare whether they or any member of their immediate household is on the District 304 payroll.
So Monday night, they will vote to approve the cuts as proposed and that will be that. Thanks for your input, don’t let the door hit you on your way out, see you at the next forum.
Meanwhile, it looks like we’ll go through this same exercise for each of the other major budgets over the coming months. In the interim, we’ll go from Board meeting to Board meeting with no public presentation or discussion of where each current year budget stands year to date vs. the original plan. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to have a District Budget status scorecard as a standard agenda item for each Board meeting? Surely such a report exists already, so why not publicly review it every month? Wouldn’t it be nice to know whether or not any of this year’s budgets will carry over a surplus into next year? Sure, PMA projects this on an annual basis, but how are we really tracking month to month?
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Is anyone collecting Daveisms? This must go on the list: “Of course, being a smaller hog at the trough doesn’t mean you aren’t still a hog.” This is close to my favorite, but doesn’t quite top: “The best way to avoid ridicule is to not do anything ridiculous.”
What the article about the forum screams out for is a considered effort to seat a majority on the Board that won’t just “check the box”. Otherwise, a watchdog can only bark, not bite.
Feel free to use that one, Dave.
I read the Chronicle’s article on the forum today as well as their articles about Kaneland and Batavia’s cuts. Assuming the articles are at least loosely based upon fact, I must give kudos to the Batavia school board that got their teachers union back to the table to negotiate an across the board cut for the teachers pay rather than just firing many of the non-tenured teachers.
Ironically, Geneva isn’t even looking to renegotiate with it’s union that recently received a generous (for the economic times) increase of almost 10% over 3 years. Why not bring them back to the table instead of cutting or reducing hours for only non-union staff? Oh no, that box has been checked. And, where are the MUCH needed cuts in the superintendent’s office?