How To Piss Off A County | Part Deux

Originally Posted: 11 May 2011 12:04 PM PDT fore·sight: The ability to predict or the action of predicting what will happen or be needed in the future. Nearly three months ago, on February 19th, I said this about the schools: "Prepare for school closures, and get ready for the fallout folks. The towns' budgets are on the chopping block next." That was right after the 'ad hoc' school funding committee had been formed and $500,000 was in the process of being 'pledged' by the towns, Grand Foundation and county. But the 'community' group saved the schools for one more year. Not so fast people! I stopped by the Fraser Conoco to pick up a copy of the SkyHi Daily (twice weekly, actually), and read this headline: GL Elementary back in crosshairs... I knew I would be reading that headline--the school district's budget has been telling the tale to anyone willing to wade into its numerical story. On February 4th, before the ad hoc committee had been formed, I wrote the following e-mail to Superintendent Karas: "Dear Nancy, I'm writing you this e-mail because I think it's necessary to go to the source when dialogue begins to take a sinister tone.  I've become very critical of the school board and your administration's leadership of late, and I want you to know that I am not pulling my punches when it comes to any of our county representatives. My focus has mainly been at the county level, including the commissioners and the sheriff, but the schools are now front and center. I wrote you an e-mail early last year detailing the challenges I believed the school district would face over the coming year. Not only have those predictions come true, but they are beginning to affect everyone in the county. At the time, I'm not sure anyone at your level could really believe how bad things would become. I'm afraid your fiscal problems are going to get much worse. At the last board meeting, you said these latest fiscal woes aren't the fault of the district. In fact, you failed to shoulder any of the blame. This is unacceptable for someone in your position. Last year, you gave a talk to the parents of Fraser Valley Elementary where you detailed how the state had told you it was very likely they would not be able to provide any of the school districts funding. Why then would you even allow any state funding to enter the 2010-2011 budget? Why would you not prepare for rescissions that were most likely to occur? Those take backs were not surprising given the information the state provided. I've looked at the budget you sent me, and it's secrets are not telling me a good story about your or the board's decisions to date. When you say you've cut the fat, I say that's rubbish.  There are two board members who earn a salary from the district--to me, this is a clear conflict of interest. How can a person, in good conscience, vote to reduce teacher or administrator salaries when their own salary is derived from the same source? That's not acceptable. I was struck by how large your salary is. Combined with that of Dr. Chamberlain, you two are consuming nearly three percent of the entire district budget in salary and benefits. There is no justification for this. I've researched the rationale given for paying Superintendents and their assistants these exorbitant salaries, and it wreaks of cronyism. There are plenty of MBA's who'd be more than happy to do your job at half the cost. I would argue that a superintendent is unnecessary altogether.  The office of the principal at the high school consumes more than 300,000 dollars per year. Along with the office of the counselor, those two administrative functions consume nearly five percent of the entire district's budget. If you annualize these figures to account for the three months of the year these edifices don't operate, the cost is truly staggering. Again, this is unacceptable.  Grand Lake elementary has only 61 students, but pays more than 2000 dollars per student to have a principal. This is just plain stupid.  From my understanding, one of the main functions of a principal is to build a school-level budget. If you have 6400 dollars per student to spend, then task each principal with making the necessary cuts to get under that threshold given their student head count for the year. If they can't do that, then how can they justify their position? Share the responsibility, delegate and make them accountable.  As for teacher salary and benefits, that's the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Public unions are a blight on our communities. They force us to, "retain the trash and throw out the talent." We could afford two eager young teachers for every tenured one, and that's a travesty to our children. Charter schools don't have this problem, and I would say that you need to get your hands around it as well. Merit-based pay is a much more successful model. As for benefits, there is absolutely no reason for these gold-plated healthcare plans. It's time to emulate the private sector and allow the teachers to share in the burden of their cost.  There are millions of dollars being spent in the above manner, and no tax increase is going to paper over the problems this kind of irresponsible behavior creates. In fact, even if a sales tax passes in November, you are going to be shocked by the holes in your budget should the district continue in the manner it is. If you pay attention to the macro economic environment affecting us all, you will see it coming. You and the district have angered and polarized the community in a way I've never seen. If you fail to address the above issues, I guarantee your next call for help will fall on deaf ears and the district will fall into default. I have the numbers, and they don't lie. Take care, Reggie Paulk" Here we are over three months later, having the same discussion that began in January. The only thing that's changed is that East Grand Schools were able to beg the Grand Education Foundation, Mountain Parks Electric and the county for enough money to avoid having to close Fraser for one more year. "No strings attached," as Ms. Karas told the Winter Park Town Council. No strings, no accountability--right? I wonder what happened to West Grand School District? I guarantee their fiscal woes aren't on hold for another year, but they were useful idiots when District #2 needed 'countywide' support for their tax initiative. Grand Lake is being handed a golden opportunity to improve its schools. If they choose to do so, that building could be turned into a charter school very quickly, and the district would be obligated to allow the use of the building. And it wouldn't just be k-5--it could be a K-8 school just like Indian Peaks Charter School.