By Dan Schlafer / Sun contributor
March 20, 2008 08:31 pm
—
In what has become the rule rather than the exception, your Cumberland County board of education tackled several hot-button issues in a three hour and 15-minute test of patience and stamina. Like a Dollywood roller coaster, it was a wild ride filled with twists, turns, ups, downs, grins and grimaces.
Among the most significant of issues was a well-timed report from our outstanding barrister with regard to the ongoing saga surrounding our request to the grand poohbahs in state government to release us from the Financial Management System Act of 1981, therefore allowing us sole control of our finances.
It seems a "review committee meeting" was held in Nashville on Friday, March 7. Robert Greene, assistant commissioner of education for finance, chaired the meeting assisted by Christy Ballard, chief legal counsel for the department of education and Chris Steppe, with the department's finance department. Representing the comptrollers office were auditors Anita Scarlett and Carl Lowe.
In one corner, representing the Cumberland County finance department were County Mayor Brock Hill, Finance Director Nathan Brock, Accounts Receivable Clerk Betty Barnett, Payroll Clerk Bernadette Wilson and Janet Floyd, support staff payroll clerk.
Our corner was represented by Director of Schools Aarona Vanwinkle, our aforementioned attorney, Earl Patton, Business Manager Cindy Randol and Board Chair Shirley Parris.
There's a reason I've spent all this time and space letting you know who's who and what they do. This was a big deal! What's more, the meeting showed conclusively that every single thing I've told you about the financial battles we've had with those who control the purse strings is true, factual and outside the bounds of acceptable practice.
To quote our legal expert, "...the Board of Education and Finance Department have reached an agreement on the following issues:"
1. It will "...no longer be the 'local practice' that the county commission's budget committee will have actual discretion over whether or not to allow the board of education to make transfers and adjustments to its budget during the course of the year and that line-item transfer requests made by the board of education will be approved..." As you know, they've had lots of practice with this practice! Not only is line-item veto out of line, they do not have the right to develop our budget for us!
2. "We have agreed that purchase order requests from the office of the board of education will not be denied..." You've read my well documented accounts of these shenanigans as well. Remember the "my parents gave me my allowance but refuse to let me spend it" line?
3. "We have agreed that the office of the director of schools shall be granted viewing access to the local government accounting program." Are you like me? Don't you believe that most folks only want to hide what is not being done correctly?
4. "We have agreed that the director of schools shall be consulted concerning findings and/or recommendations made by county auditors... especially before action is taken concerning said recommendations." This is a no brainer! It's public information, for crying out loud!
I'll call this meeting progress! As a matter of fact, it's a grin! Both the board of education and the county finance department are in the service business! Our very existance is predicated on helping others. Let the helping begin!
Another big grin on this night was the presentation given by the Martin Elementary School's MEAN Green, the Martin Environmental Action Network. This group of earth-friendly students are making a difference that would would make even Al Gore happy.
Grimaces appeared when both Rob Safdie and Orville Hale announced that they would not be seeking re-election in August. I consider both of these gentlemen to be my friends. They have served our county with the utmost professionalism, integrity, distinction and sincerity. Along with many others, I will be sad to see them go.
TSBA's Assistant Executive Director and Chief Legal Counsel Randall Bennett presented the results of your board's evaluation of our director of schools. Assessed on board relations, community relations, staff developer, instructional leader, facilities and finance, and planning, she earned a total evaluation mean score of 4.37 out of a possible 5. Not too shabby! She immediately let us know that she'd go right to work on identified areas to strengthen. Let me know if you want a copy of the full report and I'll gladly shoot it your way.
A happy side note was the presence in our building of TSBA's Executive Director Dr. Tammy Grissom. A first class, top notch professional, she has been graced with a quick wit, wonderful sense of humor and people skills that make her one of the most respected in our profession. It was great to have Tammy and Randy be a part of our meeting.
Phoenix School construction has been slowed by rain but don't complain! A month behind schedule according to Kim Chamberlin, the foundation should be poured by next week. He also gave us the preliminary inclusions that have been solicited by the elementary school planning committee, a group with whom I'm privileged to serve. Kim goes to the drawing board this week to begin the blueprints!
Amid the routine approvals of this and that, two items drew more than passing comment. For the past two months, I've shared my opinon with you on bilingual education. A majority of the board has another opinion, which is just the way it goes sometimes. After the smoke cleared and the dust settled, I let it be known that just because we have stricken that nomenclature from our policy, the new edict does not make bilingual education prohibitive. Teachers who wisely choose to teach language acquisition by connecting dots from two languages will not be flogged and burned at the stake!
As we discussed revisions to several policies, I asked that our policy committee take another look at our "Community Use Of School Facilities" rule. At issue here is whether or not one of our employees has the right to give after-school music lessons for pay. I've never been accused of being the brightest bulb in the lamp, but I didn't just fall off the turnip truck, either. If football and basketball coaches are allowed to have for profit summer camps (they should and do!), if we can offer ACT tutoring for a fee after school (we should and do!), if teachers can be offered $600 to participate in a Summer Gateway Institute on our campus (fill in the blank!) and other for-profit activities are allowed, it is my considered opinion that what's good for one should be good for all. Besides, discrimination lawsuits can get very ugly!
Knowing me as you do, it should not surprise you that I got smack dab in the middle of one final "this ain't right" deal. The CCHS band presented a request for uniform funding help. Did the board furnish band uniforms for Stone Memorial High School? We did! Is the board now going to furnish band uniforms for CCHS? We aren't! We can't! Don't have enough cash to help them and everyone else who will get in line if we do.
The larger issue is that by law, we are required to furnish "a free and appropriate public education" for our students. We don't! We can't! Not enough money is appropriated. So we'll keep on begging our funding body. We'll continue to have bake sales. We'll hawk cookie dough and discount cards. We'll wash cars, sell program ads and Christmas wreaths. We'll hit up every business in town to take up the slack left over from what should have been done but wasn't!
Thanks again for honoring me with the right to represent you. As you can no doubt tell, I didn't seek this job to win the Mr. Congeniality award!
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.