More input needed on school budget decisions

Boards set policy; staff executes.

I've espoused this mantra as a nonprofit manager for decades, yet found how disabling it can be when utilized in the context of my participation in the deliberations of the Sisters School District Budget Committee last month. Each year several citizens are added to the Sisters School Board for the purpose of considering and adopting the annual budget for the district. This well-meaning group signed on this year with the mistaken assumption that they would have some impact on the expenditure of public funds for the education of Sisters' children.

The budget committee, consisting of the Sisters School Board and five appointed volunteers, is an anachronism from the days when the committee had some say about the taxes levied for the funding of the schools. Nowadays, the committee is presented with an impressive document, prepared by the district administration, purported to be the "proposed" budget for the ensuing school year. It is, in fact, nothing of the kind. When the five add-ons attempted to ask questions about the budget, we were told the administration was too busy to respond to queries. If we were insistent, we were told a cost analysis would be necessary to determine whether it would be cost effective to provide answers.

Several of the current board members were equally as helpful. The questions asked were either off limits because they fell under the rubric of "policy," so were the exclusive province of the board or were considered to be "operational" in nature and the exclusive province of the administration. We were told we couldn't even discuss the budget among ourselves, since doing so violated Oregon's open meeting statute.

Questions arose mainly because the budget was so opaque.

In order to make up the shortfall in revenues this year, district teachers and support staff will be eliminated and empty positions not filled.

The manner in which the budget was presented made it virtually impossible to ascertain what the impact of these cuts will be on the quality of education.

When I suggested it would be helpful to know in what areas teachers would be eliminated, a board member said that such issues are operational and thus not proper for discussion.

The board chair said we could measure the consequences by the results of student testing.

Oh fine.

Not only is testing a controversial measure of performance, but it could take years to find out what's happening while kids are falling through the proverbial educational crack.

So, we have a school board which, for the most part, seems to be convinced its only job is to hire a superintendent, develop some high-sounding goals, and then leave the implementation of these goals to the superintendent and his administrative staff.

As for the manner in which precious education dollars are spent, that's all up to the administration too, no questions asked.

How to close funding gaps, whether by cutting school days, cutting staff, cutting salaries and benefits, or by other means is decided without input from the community as to which method the folks of Sisters Country want.

It would seem we should expect our elected school board representatives to be willing to listen to creative ideas the people of Sisters may suggest.

My appointment to the budget committee lasts until the 2013-14 budget year, assuming I don't get un-appointed. Here's hoping that next year, the board will see itself as more proactive when it comes to the all-important expenditure of taxpayer dollars for education. In addition, I also hope the board and administration will be willing to adopt a budgeting process which is truly transparent and allows for much greater citizen input than it does now.