Transparency and timeliness with budgets

Budgeting is not easy. It’s not easy for children to save their pennies for comic books, teens to save their weekend pay for college, parents to save their paychecks for mortgages or our towns, villages, states or even our nation to save tax dollars for infrastructure, Social Security, defense, health care or education. Which brings us to our schools — they have to budget, too.When public entities budget, that process is supposed to be transparent — done openly for all to see so everyone knows exactly where their tax dollars are going. It also allows taxpayers a chance to learn how their governments, or, in this case, school districts, work.In the Harlem Valley, different school districts budget differently. Let’s take the actual numbers out of the equation; they are worthy of a discussion all their own. Let’s instead focus on the process. Some districts are shining examples of superior organization, excellent planning and open communication. None more so than the Pine Plains Central School District.Pine Plains Superintendent of Schools Linda Kaumeyer has done a superlative job during her tenure with the budget. Each year she holds the first public budget workshop in January, giving educators, administrators and the Board of Education (BOE) ample time to work the numbers, while inviting parents and taxpayers to observe and perhaps partake in the process (all BOE meetings are open and offer public comment sessions — this is true in all districts). It’s a process, and it’s an important one. It’s also one the community deserves to witness. Certainly if a school district expects the public to vote in favor of its budget it should do no less than educate those voters on what they are either adopting or rejecting.Year after year, Pine Plains outdoes itself in preparing voters, regardless of whether they like the final figures (which is not the point here). The Pine Plains Board of Education, along with its superintendent, should be commended for setting such a high bar in ensuring the budgeting process remains transparent and productive.So now let’s look at the neighboring district of Webutuck. This year, in particular, the North East Central School District (commonly referred to as Webutuck), has really dropped the ball. According to its own 2011-12 Budget Development Calendar, as of the publication date of this paper, Thursday, March 24, Superintendent Steven Schoonmaker is already 18 days late in presenting his school board a copy of the preliminary budget. When interviewed last week, the superintendent said he would have the preliminary budget ready for a formal presentation to the board by Monday, March 28 — 22 days past the deadline. Schoonmaker attributed the delay to a number of issues.“The budget situation has dozens and dozens of folks across the county with positions that are going to be eliminated to balance the budget, and federal money is going away,” he said, adding the state’s budget will likely be late. That, by the way, should be no surprise to a seasoned school administrator in the state of New York. “Those are the realities we are facing this year, and in my many years, going back to the 1970s and 1980s, we have never had these kinds of situations before.”Really? Certainly times are tough, and there are going to be difficult budget cuts ahead. Unfortunately, Schoonmaker also predicted Webutuck may have to deal with as many as 10 layoffs, which will unquestionably hurt the community, but other districts, like Pine Plains and neighboring Millbrook, are dealing with the same state of affairs. Yet their budgets are on time and have already been presented to their school boards and their voters.In all fairness, Webutuck’s Finance Committee has been meeting to work with Business Manager Mary Grden and Schoonmaker to get the budget drafted. That is all well and good, but the circumstances remain. Schoonmaker was hired, in 2010, to do a job. A major part of that job is to create a fiscal plan for the district — he knew that before he signed his contract. It’s his responsibility to fulfill that obligation, and to do so on time. The school board is dependent on him doing so in order to do its job properly. If those pieces don’t fall into place it’s the students who will suffer.Bottom line: The community deserves better. With this kind of performance, the Webutuck superintendent is on the brink of receiving a failing grade.