BOE Approves Independant Review

Last night (March 4, 2008) the BOE (Board of Education) voted to pay for an outside independent review of the budget. I was not at the meeting so the details I give below are as they were related to me.

TUF has been working on this for 2 ½ years. It was in Aug of 2005 that TUF's Phil Kramer first proposed an outside independent review of the budget to the BOE. The BOE resisted it at that time stating that it would be a waste of money and that they "are so careful with the budget that they could not possibly make a mistake". They also contended that the review was the desire of only one person (Phil Kramer) and it did not have widespread support.

Change began two years ago as candidates stood up to challenge incumbents during elections. All the while TUF kept hammering away with frequent appearances at meetings.

Finally this year TUF published two articles demonstrating over $6M of "less than ideal" budgeting practices. That information was from discoveries made by the new administration headed by Superintendent Ed Seto when they were examining the prior administration's operations. Meanwhile BOE Vice President Nancy LaCorte, who ran on the idea of an outside review, began to push for it. BOE member David Burns who was initially against it joined her because of the numerous problems that came to light. Together they kept the review alive from within.

The final blow seems to have come the night of Feb 28, 2008 when Phil Kramer and several others, many who had helped in the effort to recall Ellen Ritchie, attended a BOE meeting to speak for the review. This included Skip Schaeffer and former Councilman Anthony Mazzola. Of note people there to speak to the BOE on other issues also spoke in favor of the review.

With the pretext of errorless performance by the BOE gone, along with the obvious widespread support, the only obstacle was getting over the $300,000 price tag. I'm not certain what tipped the scale on this account but perhaps it was that Mr. Seto had just come from a school district that had gone through a similar and helpful review.

On March 4th the BOE met to vote on its budget. Eva Nagy, BOE president, realizing that this was the last opportunity this budget year for the BOE to make a decision raised the issue. It eventually passed with all in favor except Unger and Holzheimer against, with Siegal abstaining.

The $300,000 will come from money not spent in this year's budget. The BOE will soon choose a company to perform the review and it should start before June.

Our thanks to all the BOE members that voted yes and especially to Nancy LaCorte and David Burns who kept this alive. Superintendant Seto is also to be praised for his hard work in soliciting companies to perform the review and in keeping both the public and the BOE informed of his progress. It appears that he will be well suited to take the suggestions of the review and make the most of them.

Phil Kramer

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