Nearby we have a reader’s comment questioning the newspaper’s objectivity in our lead news story from two weeks ago of having described ABSS’ preliminary proposed budget increases of 35 to 44 percent for the next fiscal year as “eye-popping.”
The story included the super-intendent’s emphasis that the figures were “preliminary,” but even then such an astronomically large increase in just one year was certainly news worthy. We think it was a fairly objective description, but to the extent such characterizations should be reserved for the editorial page opinions of the newspaper, we’re more than happy to oblige this week.
Eye-popping. Astronomical. Unbelievable. Choose your adjective. And totally unreasonable.
Unfortunately, this week’s more updated, though still preliminary, figures get even more outrageous, now projecting a 46 percent (!) increase in county funding in one fell swoop with a $27.3 million increase, for a total of $86.6 million.
We know the superintendent is new last fall (September 18), as is his chief finance guru (who arrived October 24), but someone needs to indoctrinate these school officials that such outlandish figures – replete with a multi-million price tag for brand new “supplements” being contemplated for mostly hourly employees (costing $1.3 million) – are simply not reasonable.
Alamance County commissioners, and taxpaying residents, have grown accustomed to very costly projected wish lists from school officials – the most accurate description came from the late county commissioner Bill Lashley who said there wasn’t enough money in Fort Knox to pay for what the school system wants.
Always with a panicked sense of false urgency, school officials always insist that every penny is desperately needed.
Yet there’s no accountability for how they spent what they got in the past, much less how this year’s increase will contribute to any improvement in actual education.
Never mentioned is: that overall enrollment numbers in the school system remain stagnant; academic performance continues to be poor (almost half the schools are rated as Ds or Fs on the state’s grading scale); and there’s absolutely no evidence that past increases in spending have resulted in any measurable improvements on any front.
But still, ABSS officials think, year after year, that they need, indeed “deserve,” more money from Alamance County’s taxpayers, and this year a lot more.
But $27.3 million more, if fully funded by the commissioners, would translate, by itself, to requiring an almost 11-cent increase in the county’s property tax rate, above the 46.86-cent current rate.
That would represent a 23.47 percent increase in overall taxes for each taxpayer – and that’s just for the school system’s request, not yet counting every other county department and agency’s desired wish list.
We don’t know if school officials have noticed, but their request is wholly out of line with the prevailing mood across the country, to say nothing about Alamance County’s more thrifty inclinations.
It’s also always disappointing to us that school board members sit through such presentations like the proverbial bumps on a log, rarely raising even the most basic questions when these multi-million increases are first broached at their meetings.
If they say anything at all, it’s more likely to be in a cheerleading role.
In fact, that’s part of the problem; they apparently think of themselves as something like a union board who represents ABSS teachers and educrats.
Last we heard, however, they are supposed to be representing all Alamance County residents.
We think we can count on commissioners, and taxpayers, being a lot more attentive and engaged on the subject than school board members have been.
School officials might as well start prioritizing their expensive wish list, because we think we can predict with a high degree of certainly that they’re not going to get anything like the $27.3 million in extra spending they put out this week.
One proposed item, costing $1.5 million, even requests that county taxpayers absorb even more additional personnel costs than they’re already footing.
Instead of adding more county-funded personnel expenses, the commissioners may need to review how much the county is already paying for extraneous staff not funded by the state; the county’s primary responsibility is facilities and, to a lesser degree operations, not personnel.
The school system says salaries of 80 employees are county-funded and cost $5 million annually; DPI puts the number at 180 county-funded positions (without citing a cost).
In either case, the commissioners may already need to divert that pot of county tax dollars to the more legitimate items among this new laundry list of expensive items, if ABSS persists in this magnitude of a proposed increase.
