School Board Shows Some Love

This past Monday night, the school board finally showed some big love to the community.  The tax hike, projected to be as high as 8% last March, had been whittled down about 5.2%.  We'll not argue to what extent that was the district being frugal.  Suffice it to say that a LOT of the surplus was due to Federal Stimulus funds.  We're not looking a gift horse in the mouth.  We're just saying that the gift horse was not quite as "My Pretty Pony" as the district would have you believe.  But let's get to Monday night.
Using the EdJobs Fund NOW

First, the community, knowing the availability of new Federal Education Jobs Funds, wanted to see the money applied to THIS year's budget to further reduce the levy, and ease the struggles of its community members.  The district's plan called for saving all the money and using it next year.
At the Finance Committee meeting, a suggestion was made and approved by the committee to use about --$450K this year to cover new teachers (SPEA union) hired since August 10.  Late, at the full board meeting--in a surprise move--Terry Shimek actually motioned (and the approved) the use of a total of $670K this year to pay the costs (this year) for both new SPEA members and new Local 60 positions hired.
The board also voted to discuss in closed session a plan to use much of the remaining $1.1M to fund early retirement incentives for the longest tenured, highest paid staff.

Canceling the Chamber of Commerce Membership Dues

It may not seem like much--$1,300-- but there were so many questions, it seemed the right thing to do to cancel this membership.  After all, it is a Chamber of Commerce...and the district is a non-profit SCHOOL.  Also, many communities offer membership to the local/regional school district for a token fee.  Hint. Hint.  Sun Prairie could take a page from this book.   The bottom line is the Chamber needs the school district far more than the district needs the chamber.  It's not like we're competing for business.  If the Chamber were to change their 'tude, the community might be more willing to support membership.  It's like...it ain't happening for $1300...so, do you want a couple of hundred bucks and the district as a partner?  Or nothing? Zip. Zero. Zed.

Holding Off Hiring a New HR Administrative Position

This was a biggie because it would have meant adding ANOTHER higher paid ($67K) Administrative "Human Resources and Relations" position.  It's important to note that this was not added to the budget proposal by administration.  It came during the Finance Committee, on a motion from citizen representative Pastor Harold Rayford.  
You might recall Pastor Rayford was an unfortunate pawn in the citizen representative shenanigans last year.  He applied only to serve on the board's Human Resources committee (perhaps explaining his interest in hiring the position).  Instead, he was offered a seat on the Finance Committee, for which he did not apply, and another, highly qualified citizen (who DID apply for Finance) was passed over.
Pastor Rayford's motion to add the position into this year's budget was approved by the Finance committee, but was voted down at the school board table.
Is the new HR position needed?  Many would argue, "YES".  The position was/is earmarked to be one focused on attracting minority job applicants to our district.  Certainly Sun Prairie has grown into a very culturally diverse district.  But the district staffing composition has not grown similarly.

Net Savings

Using $670K of the EdJobs Fund money THIS year will serve to reduce the tax levy further...possibly lowering it to an increase of only 4.2-4.5% over last year.   The school board (some voices much more vocal than others) HAS made a concrete effort to respond to the community, and they deserve credit for that.
Final Analysis:  More Could Still Be Done

The bottom line---as we saw last year (cutting the levy $2M and we STILL had $1.3M surplus)--is that the district most definitely has a sizable quantity of fluff in its budget.  While we respect conservative budgeting (as we all do ourselves with our own household budgets), we all know that there's more in the checkbook than the budget calls for.  
It's soon to be placed in the community's hands.  The only question now is...was last year an anomaly?  Or will the community decide again that it needs to step in and instruct the board how much of a tax it can levy?