[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: Public Hearing - Part 2

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
Public Hearing - Part 2
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1198126699.shtml


   Let me try another perspective on last night's Public Hearing
   regarding the $5 million in budget cuts facing the Robbinsdale Area
   Schools, District 281. Suppose this was my first exposure to this
   district and this problem.
   I had a similar experience tagging along with a friend to an Osseo
   board also facing cuts. As my friend had earlier surmised, clearly no
   one was in charge. In fact, in was painfully evident that the
   Superintendent was not leading nor wanted to lead. He formed
   committees and task forces, letting them make the hard choices,
   offering no insight, direction, or priority. He supposedly was great
   at the big picture but clearly had no interest in day to day
   operations, let alone tough choices like this.
   So now, what to make of District 281, as a man from Mars on his first
   visit? I heard an executive say that when you're making a decision,
   you should consider which way would you rather be wrong. Here, the key
   question was the referendum. You've never lost yet, so you follow the
   same formula. You stay largely positive, but with a sense of urgency
   via speculation on what failure would mean.
   This time, however, there's organized opposition. They even hired a
   consultant, one with a pretty good track record. You could lose. What
   should you do? As I understand it, the District did step up the
   campaign some and responded some. It pushed hard the last few days,
   but so did the opposition. It's hard to know why in the last analysis
   but the referendum failed.
   Stunned and/or disappointed, the Board now begins the painful task of
   enumerating $5 million worth of cuts. A number of scenarios are
   developed regarding closing one or more schools. A decision is made
   and the public advised, but then a major change is made shortly before
   this Public Hearing, possibly in response to political pressure. In
   fact, another option now reappears, elementary pairing. It (cleverly?)
   frames the debate as how to best close Northport, not whether to close
   it or another school. Is this politics, too? I don't know, and it
   doesn't matter now anyway.
   What I do know, pretending to be an outsider seeing this for the first
   time, is that the Board made a significant error in strategy. The
   process of determining what to cut should have been developed,
   discussed, and decided before the election. I say that for two
   reasons, the first being it would have clarified the situation for the
   voters, and possibly might have carried the day.
   The other reason is the compressed timeline we now find ourselves in
   trying to make the necessary cuts, further shortened by the Holidays.
   The Board looks like and is in fact, scrambling, having not done their
   homework.
   The Board should have looked at this and realized that it's much
   easier to increase a cut budget than what we're doing today. The
   baseline budget for 2008-09 should have assumed the levy failed, not
   succeeded. That in fact, is the way Hennepin County does its Truth in
   Taxation projections for taxpayers every year, assuming that all
   referendums by all units of government fail.
   We should not expect the Board and staff to be adroit at budget
   cutting, since this would require considerable practice. As such, they
   need to conduct this when they truly have the time, which also helps
   the voters. It's too late for this cycle, but a mistake that must not
   be repeated.
   One more part to go: what do I think of the proposed cuts?