January - March, 2015 Board Meetings

As always, these are my opinions only and not the opinions of the Pendleton County School Board or any other individual Board members.

 

I apologize for my absence from writing on this blog.  I often keep my personal life from the public.  However, I think it is necessary to update you on why I haven’t been writing.  My stepfather who raised me since I was 2 years old was hit by another driver on February 4^th.  His injuries were extensive (broken right femur, dislocated left hip, scattered right ankle, 4 broken ribs, laceration to the liver, and a heart contusion).  We are thankful he survived the accident.  He has had 5 surgeries since that time and had two trips to the ICU.  A heart attack sent him to the ICU the second time.  My father is recovering in a rehab facility and scheduled for a surgery on Wednesday April 1^st.  The doctors are doing everything they can do to save his right foot.  Simultaneously, my mother has been going through radiation for breast cancer.  The final blow to our family occurred when my mother-in-law was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this past February.  My husband and I have had our hands full to say the least and the priority has been our families (as it should be).  Again, I share this information not for pity, but because I wanted the readers to know that I have been busy taking care of my loved ones.  In the interest of time, I will consolidate the January 29^th, February 19^th, and March 12^th board meetings.  In a nutshell, this is what happened in those meetings:

 

January 29^th- I have been comparing our district to Simpson County.  Simpson County is a proficient district.  It is comparable to Pendleton County in student size, transportation, size of budget, etc.  They do have three elementary schools instead of our two elementary schools.  They also have one middle school and one high school.  The following is the comparison I gave out that night.  I requested a discussion at the next meeting.

End of Year Fund 1 Expenditures

	Simpson	Pendleton
	FY 2013	FY2013
Instruction	10,375,005  (58%)	9,749,944   (52%)
Student Support Services	804,342   (5%)	765,449  (4%)
Instruct Staff Support Services	695,378   (4%)	369,863  (2%)
District Admin Support	507,897   (3%)	1,442,308   (8%)
School Admin Support	1,166,719  (7%)	1,276,539   (7%)
Business Support Services	458,174  (3%)	677,352   (4%)
Plant Ops & Management	2,311,660  (13%)	2,132,821  (11%)
Student Transportation	1,114,423  (6%)	1,543,335  (8%)
Debt Service	209,385  (1%)	820,799  (4%) *bond refinance?
Fund Transfers	0	36,627 (0.2%)
Total Expenditures	17,642,983	18,847,292

 

Sources:  KDE website Simpson Co Schools Audit, Pendleton Co Schools End of Yr MUNIS

Please note the difference in spending in the District Admin Support and Instructional costs between Pendleton and Simpson Counties.  I also went back in time to 2004 and did a comparison of what we used to spend on instruction (teachers, essentially).  Historically, we have always spent about 58% of our Fund 1 on instructional costs until Mr. Strong came to Pendleton County.  At that time, you could see a shift in priorities toward district administrative spending.  That 5% shift is just under 1 million dollars.

 

February 19^th- Your School Board had a long discussion regarding our finances.  At least one Board member had some reservations about comparing our district to another district.  Interestingly enough, at our KSBA board training one week later (February 27-28), it was mentioned that KDE (Kentucky Department of Education) is now going to be putting information on their website which allows us to do just that.  Ms. Kay Kennedy did a fabulous job of showing board members how to do district finance comparisons during this training session. Improved district financial information from last year is supposed to be available for comparison on the KDE website within the next month.

 I mentioned the need for bringing Ms. Keene, our outside auditor, back to address your Board regarding the state of our finances. 

March 12^th Special Meeting- Ms. Keene addressed your School Board regarding our finances.  She confirmed that our current district spending is not sustainable beyond 2 years.  I had submitted questions to her ahead of time, and she answered those questions sufficiently.  The Board requested that Mr. Strong bring forward a balanced budget to our next meeting.

 

March 19^th- One of the first orders of business at every Board meeting is the approval of the agenda for that meeting.  I had requested via email to our entire Board on February 20^th that two agenda items be placed on the March meeting’s agenda.  These items were elimination of district positions and district legal services.  There was a request by our Board chairman for additional supporting information.  My concern with providing supporting information is the need to comply with Kentucky Open Meeting Law.  I will do my best to get clarification on Board member initiated agenda items and complying with this law.  For this March 19^th meeting, our Board chair did not include my requested items on the pre-meeting agenda.  Because of this omission, I made a motion to include the single item of district legal services on that evening’s agenda.  This motion passed (Bertram, Nordheim, Utz yeas – Ross and Spence nays).

 

Another item on every meeting’s agenda is audience member comments.  There were three speakers on the speaker’s list at this meeting.  I am very happy to see our community provide comments to our School Board, and would encourage more audience member comments at future meetings.  I am also open to constructive criticism if it pertains to school district issues.  What I want my voters to know, however, is that unconstructive attacks on my motivations or attacks on my character meant to simply intimidate me will never be effective.  This is also true for our local press and the misrepresentations contained in newspaper articles.  My duty to my voters is unaffected by these baseless attacks.

 

One audience member questioned my religious beliefs by suggesting that I would “attack Jesus Christ” if he returned.  This speaker also suggested that I had made personal attacks against our Superintendent.  My concerns about our district are never personal.  I just don’t agree with some of the decisions our Superintendent has made for our district.  I believe in fair and equitable treatment for all of our employees.  I have been studying the book of James in Sunday School over the last few months.  I encourage you to read James 2:1-12.  In verse 1, “My dear brothers and sisters how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?”  It goes on to say in verse 8 that one “should love your neighbor as yourself.  But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin.”  This is why I have an issue for passing a pay scale that puts more money in cells that contain senior administrators. This is also why I have an issue paying for Mr. Strong’s doctorate degree when teachers have to obtain a mandatory master’s degree.  This is also why it’s inappropriate to cut more teaching staff when our district administration team is considerably larger than other districts our size.  I attempt to make decisions reflective of my faith.

 

Another audience member commented on taxes.  She stated that “she views taxes as a tuition payment.”  I take a more moderate stance on taxes.  I philosophically believe that if you are going to take money from people, you need to be good stewards with the money and use the money wisely.  You just don’t take money because you can.  I am going to use an analogy here.  My son may go to college in a year and a half.  I will probably get him a credit card for emergencies.  If I see him using it for food and gas, I am OK with that, but if I see him using it for partying and wasteful spending, he will be cut off.  Paying for our Superintendent’s doctorate degree, upgrading administrative positions, and leasing unneeded vehicles was, in my opinion, wasteful spending.

 

Our budget for the next fiscal year was the subject of one of our items on the Board discussion agenda.  Mr Strong presented his suggested budget cuts for next year, and one was the preschool wrap around program.  At what point will our community step up and say enough is enough? Will we then cut music, art, or gym.  In my opinion, our Superintendent’s proposals are offered to keep his administrative staff positions intact.  My position is also that we as a Board need to shift our priorities in our district spending.

 

One item on our action agenda was added at the beginning of the meeting. This was district legal services.  Based on the actions of Mr. Donald J. Ruberg from the previous two years, I made the motion to terminate the services of the law firm of O’Hara, Ruberg, Taylor, Sloan, and Sergent to Pendleton County Schools.  There are many firms in Northern Kentucky that can provide interim and long term solutions to our district legal needs.  It is worth noting that the Board attorney is hired by the Board and works for the Board.  Another Board member amended my motion to put our legal services out for an RFP (request for proposal).  The Board then had discussion on this motion as amended.  Board member Utz asked if it was common practice for the Board attorney to comment on Board discussions before being requested by the Board.  Mr. Ruberg responded that (in his opinion) he only did this to reduce legal liability to the Board.  My question that Mr. Ruberg dodged that night was “Why is it we voted for Mr. Strong’s contract and doctoral degree in February 2013 and had to revote on it 6 months later in August 2013?”  Mr. Ruberg’s response to this question was that it needed to be discussed in executive (closed) session.  In my opinion, this lack of an answer is very telling in why we need a change of District legal counsel.  At that point, our Board chairman called for a vote on the motion (as amended).  The motion to amend (and the new motion) passed (Bertram, Ross, and Spence yeas – Nordheim and Utz nays).  I voted “no” because I think an immediate change in legal counsel is needed, not an RFP process.

 

Summary

 

I highly encourage all stakeholders to come to School Board meetings- students, parents, teachers, and community members.  The more people are involved in our schools, the better they will be.  I have a vision for our district.  It is a district where teachers are welcomed to come to board meetings.  It is a district where board members can question spending priorities without threats of litigation.  It is a district where students come first, not administrators.  I am reading a book about being a courageous leader.  According to this book, courage has to do with the willingness to face what needs to be faced and to do what needs to be done.  It involves making your leadership “heartbeat” felt by those around you.  To do this, you must stand by your values in every aspect of your life.  I value fair and equitable treatment for all employees.  I value the democratic process and getting input from all stakeholders.  I value transparency.  I am asking for our community to be involved at the next board meeting on April 16^th.  Your involvement will ensure our children get the best education your district can provide.