For the past three months Phillip Kramer of TUF has attended most Board of Education (BOE) meetings. We have repeated five requests to them.

1. Change they way the BOE advertises its budget with respect to how represents the tax rate and how that rate will effect taxes. - At the Oct 20th meeting the BOE has agreed to do this but TUF needs to ask them about the details.

    Update-Mar 5, 2006 We have decided that the only why to see how they will handle this is to see what they do this year

2. BOE Budget 101 Class - The BOE budget is immense and when TUF has tried to go through it we have found it difficult to understand. We have asked for a short class to help us understand how to read the budget. - At the Oct 20th meeting the BOE told us it would provide this in the spring.

    Update-Mar 5, 2006 TUF has repeatedly asked when the BOE will provide this service. Ms. Nagy has indicated that the BOE has been too busy to date to arrange this. With yet another budget to be presented only days from now it is clear that the BOE has broken this promise.

3. Mandates - Every year the BOE tells use that the budget is as high as it is because of the many mandates placed upon it by the state. We have asked for a list of mandates that they want the state to remove. With this list we can begin to lobby the state to have them removed. At the Oct 20th meeting the BOE provide TUF with a list. They will be emailing it to us soon.

    Update-Mar 5, 2006 On Now 11, 2005 BOE President, Eva Nagy, emailed us the list of mandates

4. Televise the BOE meeting - Members of the BOE often complain that not enough people come out to their meetings, they want the public more aware. So do we, so we have asked that the meetings be televised. The BOE has channel 14 on PatMedia, they have the camera equipment and producing the program can be an educational exercise for the students. The BOE has refused to do so. They state expense (even if students do it they have to be supervised) and that it's technically difficult because they hold he meetings in varying places. Many members also comment such as they are afraid "It will turn into the Lucy show."

TUF disagrees with their decision. The reason that they hold meetings at varying places is so that more people will have access to the meetings. We believe that this is not well founded in reality and clear hasn't worked. Getting more than 10 people from the public to attend a meeting is rare. If someone has a reason to go to a BOE meeting, Franklin isn't that big that they will not drive to where ever the meeting is held. Keeping the meeting in one place solves most of the technical problems and expense. A single stationary camera can be set up prior to the meeting and there are several staff members at every meeting that can change the tape when needed. Ever meeting is audio taped, it's little more work to video tape it. Then the meeting can be downloaded by students during the school day as part of a course or a club and put on Channel 14.

As for the Lucy show comment. We believe that open government is the best government. The more that the people see the better it is for all. We heard the same thing when C-Span wanted to show Congress yet the country has survived. Democracy is messy but it's the best form of government we have going. If they televise the meetings they have the opportunity to get their word out. They seem concerned that others may have the same opportunity.

    Update-Mar 5, 2006 as of this writing (Mar 05, 2006) the BOE has decided to reconsider televising meetings. They have been reconsidering it now for 2 months. We are please that they are considering listening to TUF on this issue but wonder why they are dragging their feet.

    Update-Feb 2007 the BOE finally begins televising it's meetings on channel 14

5. TUF's most important request was also refused. TUF has been requesting an outside and independent operational review of the BOE budget. Simply stated we believe that in a $116M budget it is more than reasonable that there are some inefficiencies. If there were just a 0.1% correction that could be made then that would be a savings of $116,000. If the review cost $50,000 that would be a return on investment of over 200%. We suspect that there are far greater inefficiencies than 0.1% and the savings could be significant. It is also possible that the money is correct but with better efficiency our children could get a better education. The BOE stated that such a review would be a waste of money.

Members of the BOE have stated that they go over the budget so carefully that nothing can escape their attention. It is just such an attitude that we fear most. Some of the biggest mistakes in history have been made in that exact frame of mind and the stakes in this case are titanic (pun intended). We have heard Ms. Nagy state that she believes that it is wrong that the BOE budget has to be approved by the voters, again this demonstrates an attitude that the BOE cannot make a mistake.

We believe that the BOE is concerned that they will loss control if such a review were performed. They fear a recommendation would be made to cut something that they want and then popular opinion would prevent them from keeping it in the budget. We are not surprised however, have you ever heard of a group wanting oversight?

We believe that if nine of the last 15 budgets have failed that the people do not have faith in the BOE's budgets. If a review found that all BOE spending was correct then there would be little reason for people to vote down the budget.

We are open to suggestions on how to convince the BOE of their folly and would suggest coming to a meeting a voicing your opinion. We will also continue to look for ways to get the BOE to televise their meetings.

    Update-Mar 5, 2006 unfortunately nothing to update here. The BOE still flat refuses to consider this, In fact Mr. Bonnano has stated that he believes that if people don't like how the BOE operates then they should elect new members. He suggested to me that absent of that we should allow the BOE to do its job and stop asking them to change the way they do business.

    Update-Mar 5, 2008 After 2 1/2 years the BOE has final granted all of TUF's requests. On March 4th 2008 the BOE approved and outside review.

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