Re “Teachers Close in on Contract, with a Hat Tip to LaRose”
The School Board, in accepting the three negotiated Collective Bargaining Agreements, has agreed to increase the School District employees’ salary schedules by 2 percent this year and for each of the next two years. In so doing, Board members have added almost $8.1M to the District’s budget over the next three fiscal years.
Long-lasting Effects
By committing the District to long-term spending obligations, this Board has chosen to more than double the percentage of our District’s deficit from 2.1 percent in 2012-13 to 5.50 percent in 2014-15.
By including a retroactive 2 percent raise, all the way back to last July 1, the start of the current fiscal year, the School Board has increased our School District’s deficit spending by over 60 percent, from $1.2M to over $1.9M in one swoop.
The fiscal snowballing of their latest vote will continue far beyond this current year. In the next fiscal year (2013-14), it is estimated, using the District’s own figures, its deficit spending will balloon, once again, increasing well over 55 percent, to $3M.
Is It Too Much to Ask?
Do you think it wise for Board members to be increasing our District’s budget deficits by spending onetime savings for ongoing expenditures, like District salaries, just before asking you, the taxpayer, to pay for yet another multi-million dollar bond measure?
Game Changer
Here I thought the administration earnestly was trying to put our District back on a firm fiscal footing by cutting our deficit spending, not by increasing it.
I guess Board members had in mind someone else’s benefits rather than achieving a balanced budget.
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com
