District Accountability Committee makes budget recommendations

Lynn Volkens

05/01/2008 - Gilpin School’s District Accountability Committee held a special meeting at the Justice Center on Sunday, April 27^th to formulate their budget recommendations to the Board of Education. In making the recommendations the DAC is fulfilling a requirement mandated by the state. DAC President Terrye Lovett presided over the meeting and asked for input from six members of the public who attended, as well as DAC members.

  The first question from the public: “Does the Board (of Education) even care about DAC recommendations?” At issue is a budget the school’s superintendent, Ken Ladouceur has said will fall short by about $283,000. They noted parents and community members have been saying for years that the school is top heavy in administration and should make budget cuts there. (The district currently has a superintendent, two principals, a business manager, technology manager, data/communications coordinator, three secretaries and a receptionist. These positions are currently costing the district $595,329 and the preliminary June budget document projects them to cost $627,992 in the 2008-09 school year.) Those positions will likely not be cut this year, although the DAC will make recommendations to cut the Data/Communications position and the Receptionist position. Lovett informed those present that Board of Education (BOE) President Scott Groginsky had “stopped me dead in my tracks,” when she called him to discuss the top heavy administration. He said the BOE will not cut any administration, Lovett remarked. “Well then, how do we fix the BOE?” one man asked. Short of a recall election, the only answer is to elect new Board members they feel will be more accurately representative as opportunities arise.

  DAC research has found no other school the size of Gilpin’s (less than 400 students, kindergarten through twelfth grade) that has a Data/Communications Coordinator position. The DAC formally moved to recommend cutting this position, a savings of over $42,000 based on last year’s budget documents. DAC members are solution-based, however, and recommended the data collecting/reporting duties be done by the principals, their secretaries, and the superintendent. One woman maintained that removing these duties, particularly the reporting duties from the superintendent removes the school’s chief executive officer from accountability. The data must be reported annually to the Colorado Department of Education. The communications duties, chiefly a weekly newspaper column and e-mail notifications could be picked up by publishing a quarterly newsletter done by the Principal Advisory Committee or other parent volunteers and by nurturing a positive relationship with local newspaper reporters. Two reporters were at the meeting and indicated they would be happy to cover school events. Computer students could do the e-mail notifications, possibly for credit.

  In their recommendation to cut the Receptionist position, the DAC emphasized that school security would not be neglected. The desk in the lobby could be staffed by rotating the district, elementary and secondary secretaries in three hour shifts where they would be able to work on the computer at the desk and still catch their phone calls via the switchboard. Another option, cutting a window behind the current reception desk to the district offices was offered but would need to be investigated for structural possibility. Installing a video camera at the school’s entrance might also prove a viable solution. “Welcome to 2008,” said one man at this suggestion. Cutting the Reception position would save approximately $21,000. No one faulted the job performance of either the Data/Communications Coordinator of the Receptionist. However, they determined the district is in financial trouble and expenditures must be looked at for return value and whether they can be accomplished more economically in other ways.

  The DAC will also recommend the district’s budget document be formatted in a manner that is easily understood by the average citizen, per state requirements. The current format, in addition to being copied in miniscule print, combines numerous positions into a lump sum. Lovett said the school’s business manager had said she’s not going to do that. The problem may lie in the school’s software program.

  Exit Interview forms will be offered to parents who pull their children from Gilpin School’s enrollment, if the DAC recommendation is followed. Enrollment at the school is in decline. Each child who leaves the district takes with him/her approximately $11,000 of state funding, adding to the budget woes. DAC members think it’s important to know why people are leaving.

  DAC is also looking at ways to cut top administrators, particularly one principal position. However, there must be a superintendent in place who steps up and does more school (not just district) administration work for that to happen. Putting all of the school administration on one principal is too much of a workload for one person as was discovered when the district tried that last year. DAC considered an assistant principal might be the answer, at a considerably lower salary than the current average principal salary of $71,108.

  DAC and community members wondered aloud how responsive the BOE would be to their recommendations. None were hopeful, noting such recommendations had been ignored in the past. Consensus was the BOE wants only recommendations about “fluffy stuff.” Still, they will go through with the recommendations, they said. “We represent the parents,” said Lovett. One woman, a member of the Gilpin community but not the DAC, said the BOE was very focused on regulations, statistics, Colorado Association of School Board matters, policy… “Not on kids,” finished another community member. The DAC is considering further budget recommendations. They and the community members present called for the BOE to be accountable to the students, parents and citizens of their school district - the real stakeholders, the taxpayers.