by Angie Cardinal
What a turn of events tonight. The Farmington School Board had a regularly scheduled meeting. A new community initiative called "Coordinated School Health Committee" presented to the school board for the first time tonight. That was my main interest in tonight 's agenda. The committee is just getting started and are looking for parents to participate. I can send anyone more information if interested.
The closing of the meeting was a pleasant surprise. I have been spending a lot of time trying to explain, in my simplest attempts, the way the separate school budget and SAU budget timelines work. I've tried my best to outline the timing and purpose of public hearings and the deliberative session. Tonight, the Farmington School Board voted to merge the two budgets into one school budget with the SAU61 plan as its own line item within that school budget. This is how single-town districts, like what Farmington will be after this academic year, perform their fiscal planning. Our school board members consulted with their legal advisors and determined Farmington can go about the budget preparations as a single-town district now since that will be our reality for the 2016-17 academic year.
What this means for us is change could be a little smoother and holistic starting with the public hearing. The SAU61 Board will still hold the hearing at 6:30 PM on Tuesday, December 22, 2015 at the Farmington High School library. We have the opportunity to provide our input on the SAU61 spending plan. They will not hold a vote to approve a final version of an SAU61 budget this Tuesday. The next Farmington School Board meeting is scheduled for January 4, 2016. Hopefully the board plans to review and approve a newly combined SAU/school budget then.
At the January 30, 2016 deliberative session, voters may propose changes to the overall budget, the SAU61 line item included, as a final measure before the March 8, 2016 ballot vote.
Of course, I cannot say for sure if this blog had anything to do with tonight's change in the budget process. Perhaps showing how overly complex having two budgets was made others look at our budget process with more common sense. I do know the blog has reached a number of Farmington voters who would like to see funding shift from the SAU61 office into the Farmington schools. Tuesday night is still our next opportunity to influence our elected decision makers to do that. My hope is a combined budget will help make appropriate changes happen.
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ReplyDeleteThe school board just re-assumed power previously taken from them and given to the voters to control the SAU budget. If this moves forward, the school board may now fund the SAU to whatever level it sees fit and we risk returning to days of yore when every problem was solved with more money and increased spending on administration with no results to show for it. While that may not be the current mood of the school board, municipal boards can be a moody beast and can turn on a dime in a year's time.
This gives less control to the voter, not more. While we may speak at meetings as much as we like, the board may spend money where ever it wants, and a future board may decide to reverse the current trend and return to the days of large annual increases in the SAU budgets.
The SAU board prepared a budget without the scrutiny of a budget committee for years because the two school boards and/or towns did not create a joint budget committee to oversee it. After the current school year the Farmington Budget committee will be given scrutiny over the budget, as direct by RSA since the SAU serves the single town. The budget committee could never serve as a relief valve and another set of eyes for the SAU budget. Now, just in time, there's an effort being made to once again avoid another governing body that isn't motivated by personal vendettas and political ideologies better suited for Washington DC than the small town of Farmington. If this moves forward, the SAU budget will become another line in a bottom line budget at the full discretion of the school board.
With the SAU budget as a warrant article the voters can slow the increase in the budget if we start to see increases again. There was at least one vote in the past where voters have INCREASED funding for the SAU beyond what the board suggested. This was a consolidation of power to the school board, not a tool for the towns people to have more control.
Political maneuvering is about the future, not today. The motives for the power consolidation may not be clear to everyone, and it may be sold to some as good for us, but it's hard to see how less control in the hands of the people is a good thing.