BOARD MEMBERS MORRIS AND KEARNS MISLEAD THE PUBLIC ABOUT PLANNING PERIOD

5-15-08

Two Sundays ago, I attended one of my favorite functions that our district presents to the public. The annual FCSD Arts Fair. For those of you in the community who were unable to attend you missed a really great Sunday afternoon. The arts fair is just one of the many great things going on in our district. And tonight we just honored the best of the best of our staff, with the Golden Apple awards.

With that said I will turn my attention to the business side of all the great things going on in our district and that is revenue. It takes a lot of money to keep these programs going. As we all know the majority of school funding comes from local property taxes and that money will soon run out. This board of education is now faced with the reality of either placing another Operating Tax Levy on the ballot or implementing cost saving ideas that may not be popular with many of our staff.

Our board president claimed we have 3 options  cut expenses, raise (taxes), or a combination of both. I disagree. There is only one option and my fellow board members know the only choice is to cut expenses. In my opinion there is no way our BOE can pass another Operating Tax Levy in these poor economic conditions. It took the board 5 tries to pass the last levy and times were not near as bad as they are now.

At our 4-17-08 board meeting I was challenged by my fellow board members to present my plan to save our district money. My plan is to run a balanced budget that will result in no new operating levies. Contrary to what my fellow board members may feel, this IS a plan. Since I want to run a balanced budget, it should be expected that I should have some idea of how we could achieve that goal. Therefore, I presented my cost saving ideas to avoid a future levy at our 5-4-06 work session, at our 10-4-07 work session and again at our 5-1-08 work session.

At our 5-1-08 board meeting I shared 33 cost saving ideas on how we could avoid the next Operating Tax Levy. The number one savings would be to require all our teachers to teach 6 hours a day in the classroom. This savings alone could save our district as much as $5,000,000 a year. Immediately after sharing my ideas with the board both Mr. Kearns and Mr. Morris purposely mislead the public and claimed I wanted to take the planning period away from our teachers. I believe the hidden agenda behind their misinformation is to inflame the staff. Mr. Kearns told me he reviewed the October work session video and Mr. Morris was at the work session. They both know the truth about what I said. My comment was that we should move the planning period to the beginning or end of the day. This would allow our teachers to teach 6 hours in the middle of the day. You can read my entire presentation and all my board comments at www.thetaxpayersvoice.net.

At the end of my presentation both Mr. Morris and Mr. Kearns expressed disappointment in my plan and Ideas. I believe Mr. Morris’s comment was that my plan was pathetic. Mr. Kearns said he still wasn’t satisfied and wasn’t expecting 33 ideas. I would think any reasonable person would assume the board would be elated to have so many ideas to consider.

In an effort to be thorough in my cost saving ideas I took it upon myself to invite 8 current and past school board members, from other local school districts, to share additional cost saving ideas. Mr. Kearns took offense to this action and suggested these school board members know nothing about Fairfield. He also seemed upset that one of these board members showed up at a meeting in our district. Mr. Kearns took offense to one of the State Representatives that I associate with. He took offense to my definition of a plan. He took offense on how I handled Mr. Ball when he was being rude and confrontational. He claimed I am not a good listener when he himself has misstated what I have said. He took offense that I said “in light of the weak economic climate I pray our school employees realize they are fortunate to even have jobs.” Here is what I actually said “In light of the weak economic climate, I pray that our school employees realize they are fortunate to even have a job. I further hope that they will be considerate to their neighbors, who are fighting for survival on a day to day basis, by being open to contract concessions.” Mr. Kearns talked about encouraging on going communications among board members, but when I speak about cost saving ideas, taxes and the lack of revenue I am regularly assaulted by my fellow board members. Mr. Kearns attack is just one example of the hostile environment that I sit in twice a month in an effort to share fiscal conservative ideas with the rest of the board.

Mr. Kearns, said and I quote “I understand government financing” and “I understand what it is to do more with less.” He also said “ now is not the time to add to the tax burden of those who can least afford it.” Mr. Morris said almost the exact same thing at a previous meeting. So, Mr. Kearns I would like you to share with the board and community just how the Fairfield Schools can do more with less? You say you understand government financing but as the architect of the multi-million dollar county buyout deal you have placed yourself right in the middle of what seems to be a good old boy back room deal that has blown up in your face. And I will agree with both Mr. Kearns and Mr. Morris that now is not the time to add to the tax burden of those who can least afford it. If these men are not misleading the public then they must be opposed to additional taxes and should be open to considering my 33 cost saving revenue generating ideas.

Unless Mr. Morris was misleading the public, he can’t seriously think we have 3 options, cut expenses, raise (taxes), or a combination of both. In my opinion the board of education has no choice. I shared 33 ideas on how to save tax dollars and raise revenue. My fellow board members have yet to share a single idea between them. I believe the 33 ideas could amount to over $10,000,000 annually. As I said at the last meeting, will our staff be happy? NO. But this board is not here to represent just the staff. We are here to represent the ENTIRE community.

I will once again challenge my fellow board members to bring their own cost saving ideas to the next work session and agree to sit in a collective and collaborative spirit to discuss our district’s financial health. And I will remind all that the road to an excellent education for our children is paved with accountability and not more taxes.

Arnie Engel

Fairfield BOE

RESPONSE TO BOARD MEMBER KEARNS REQUEST FOR MY IDEAS TO AVOID THE NEXT OPERATING LEVY

5-1-08

Mr. Kearns’ recently commented, and I quote, "Mr. Engel has referenced ideas, a plan and/or a fiscal plan to save this district money." He challenged me to provide specifics. Tonight, I would like to accept the challenge to, once again, share my ideas.

I thank my fellow board members for this opportunity. Before starting, I ask the board to refrain from interrupting me. Please hold all comments until the completion of this presentation.

This presentation and all of my past board comments are available in their complete form on my web-site www.thetaxpayersvoice.net. I will also talk about a February e-mail between Mr. Kearns and I that is attached at the end of this document.

I welcome this opportunity to again share my ideas, not a plan, about possible cost saving measures to avoid the next operating levy. However, I have personal reservations concerning Mr. Kearns’ true intentions for the request. Mr. Kearns’ and I conversed, via e-mail, on this very subject back in February. Since Mr. Kearns’ had no additional questions and did not request my list of ideas to balance our budget, I assumed he was satisfied with my answers.

Historically, when sharing my list of ideas to balance our budget with our 2007 board, my ideas were not well received. Quite frankly, I received hostile responses. Instead of being discussed collaboratively, my comments and suggestions were twisted and perverted into untruths. Then they were presented as facts to the public.

As I just mentioned, I hope that Mr. Kearns and my fellow board members are asking me to share my ideas with the genuine intent to sit collectively, in a collaborative spirit , to discuss the District’s financial health.

As members of this Board of Education, we all took an oath to represent the needs and interests of the public that elected us. We come with differing backgrounds and experiences. We often have differing views; sometimes opposing. However, does this mean that we ignore, disrespect, and belittle another member’s views? On the contrary. It's time to put our differences aside. Let's work toward the common pursuit of academic excellence, while being fiscally responsible to the taxpayers who pay the bills for that education.Let's be open-minded to each other's ideas and work toward solutions that benefit our children, the tax payers of this district, and the community at large. It's time to stop misquoting other members and engaging in mud slinging gossip.

Since being elected two years ago, I have felt like I am the only fiscal conservative on this board, as well as the only fiscal watchdog for the community. My fellow board members can prove me wrong by seriously considering the ideas I am presenting to this board tonight. Better yet I challenge them to bring their own cost saving ideas to the table. Then hopefully we will have an open, frank discussion at a future work session about cost saving ideas that will benefit the school district. I agree with Mr. Kearns when he says it’s time to move forward.

I don’t recall ever saying that I had “a plan and/or a fiscal plan to save this district money.”

So, where did the idea of a plan come from? I am left to assume it came from the CARE flier, dated October, 2007, where I said I had a plan to avoid all new operating levies. Here is exactly what was said "The plan is a simple one, which is to live within a budget just like we all do…. The sad thing is that the current board knows it can be done but refuses to represent their constituents who are demanding a balanced budget void of new tax levies."

So, what did Mr. Murray do? Instead of being truthful with the public and stating my plan was to "live within a budget" that would result in no new levies, he and the rest of the board twisted my statement into something of their own liking in an effort to discredit me. When I am speaking about a plan, I would assume that I get to define just what the plan is. In this case, the plan was to run a balanced budget void of new levies. The dictionary defines plan as: "a proposed or intended course of action". I don’t see anything in the definition that talks about a plan having data/research to support it.

So again. What is my plan? My plan is to run a balanced budget that will result in no new operating levies. Contrary to what my fellow board members may feel, this IS a plan. Since I want to run a balanced budget, it should be expected that I should have some idea of how we could achieve that goal. Therefore, I presented my cost saving ideas to avoid a future levy at our 5-4-06 work session, at our 10-4-07 work session and again today.

Let me make this clear. In my opinion, it is not the duty of any board member to produce a plan on their own accord. Frankly, I feel it would be a waste of my time because, past experience has shown me the 2007 board was not interested in considering any of my suggested cost saving ideas.

Moreover, I do not believe it is the duty of the board to tell the superintendent what she must cut to balance the budget. It is the duty of the board to give her a budget and demand she live within it. If we start telling her who, where and what to cut, then we are setting her up for failure and giving her an excuse for failure. I do believe the board should give guidance on responsible cuts. For example, I would not allow her to eliminate our kids buses or drop extra-curriculars to balance the budget. It's very easy to be successful if you have a blank check and no budget to live within.

The bottom line is this. In my opinion, we can balance the budget and avoid the next operating levy. I suggested many appropriate cuts to do this. Will our staff be happy? NO. But this board is not here to represent just the staff. We are here to represent the ENTIRE community. It is not our job to blackmail the public in an effort to pass levies. It is not our job to induce panic within the community, by claiming our children’s education will be ruined if we don’t pass the next levy, or heaven forbid, elect the wrong SB member. It is our job to spend the taxpayers money responsibly. It is our job to keep our district out of fiscal crisis. It is our job to listen to the community when they say no to new tax levies. It is our job to represent the ENTIRE community and that would be a community who is opposed to additional taxes. And finally, it is our job to provide our children with the best education that our community can afford and is willing to pay for. I will remind you the road to an excellent education for our children is paved with accountability, not more taxes.

Here are my cost saving ideas to avoid a future levy. The first 16 ideas are mine that were already presented to the 2007 BOE. The rest of the ideas came from a meeting with 8 current and past school board members that included our current state school board representative. I would like to ask my fellow board members to take these ideas home, look them over and come back to our next work session with ideas of their own that we can all work on in a collaborative effort to balance our budget.

1.     We should consider doing an efficiency study on our janitorial staff.

2.     We need to consider requiring all our teachers to teach 6 hours a day in the classroom.

3.     We should consider reducing the number of administrators and  make sure we are using our administrators in an effective and efficient way.

4.     When in a financial crunch, other districts have made it a point to reduce administrators, we should consider the same.

5.     A big part of the principal's job, at the higher level, is discipline. Why can’t we hire lower paid staff to do that job?

6.     Can we justify 3 curriculum administrators? I noticed an Enquirer article [CPS cuts staffers 3-28-06] that stated the CPS reduced their curriculum administrators from 5 to 3.

7.     Can we justify 10 PR people, one in each building?

8.     Why did we create the bus safety coordinator position? Wasn’t this handled by the 2 transportation directors?

9.     We should consider hiring lower paid Liberians for our libraries. I would like to know what law requires us to use certified staff in our libraries? [2 making over $70,000 a year]

10.  Can we really justify 16 tech support supplementals?

11.  Could you please explain the unit leaders, there are over 40?

12.  Can we justify 86 teaching aids? [ as reported by Rob at the 3-16-06 meeting]

13.  I would like a thorough review of each supplemental in an effort to justify the cost to the district. I would also like to see a plea to the public for volunteers to staff many of these positions. In my opinion, the supplemental contracts should go to the qualified volunteer first. I believe we spend over a million dollars a year on supplemental contracts.

14.  We should consider a cut in the staff support budget, that shows $171,000 for meetings and mileage and the $10,000 expense for administrator tuition.

15.  We should consider removal of the board pickup of the administrators share of STRS

16.  We should look into requiring all staff to pay more toward their health benefits.

17.  We should require a quarterly report on all expenditures over $2,000  to be sure we are optimizing our new policy requiring 3 quotes for expenditures over $2,000.

18.  We should look at reducing the step raises that are given on top of cost of living raises. Currently these raises, calculated on the base salary, are between 4.5% and 8.7% and are given in 18 of the first 24 years of service.

19.  We should consider tying the step raises to some type of performance that includes attendance.

20.  We should consider asking the State Auditor to do a performance audit on our district. Apparently they have been doing these audits since 1999 and the goal is to help districts identify improvement opportunities in areas of fiscal management

21.  Consider adopting the state of Ohio’s travel and expense policy.

22.  Limit staff time of during school hours for professional development.

23.  Limit the number of cell phones and monitor the school policy on use.

24.  Be sure we have a strict policy on the use of school purchase\credit cards.

25.  Require superintendent approval of all expenses over $250 (a currant practice in many large companies)

26.  Eliminate as many part time, full benefit, positions as possible. Replace them with full time employees. More hours per employee has the effect of reducing benefit cost.

27.  Request a county sales tax to help pay for permanent improvements.

28.  Look into impact fees to pay for new schools

29.  Offer at home Internet based classes to reduce in-class instruction labor. This may be a way to reintroduce our home schoolers to our district.

30.  Like many large businesses, develop a program for employees to suggest cost saving ideas.

31.  Consider charging the going private rate for pre-school and latchkey.

32.  Consider an on line auction to dispose of old equipment.

33.  Form alliances with other districts to offer small specialized HS classes where student enrollment is low.

The 33 ideas I have just presented to the board could save our district millions of tax dollars. I find it sad and disappointing that my fellow board members have not offered a single cost-savings idea. I am concerned that the message they are sending to the community, is they have no fiscal conservative ideas and are satisfied with the status quo of taxing and spending.

Speaking of status quo, last December Mr. Morris made a couple of statements that I agree with. He said we should not be satisfied with the status quo and he said "we must develop and implement a workable plan to meet the financial needs of our district. We cannot wait until we find ourselves in fiscal crisis." So, Mr. Morris, it is now May. Where is your plan to keep our district out of fiscal crisis? If you have a plan I would ask that you share it with the board and our community at our next meeting. I have been crying for this plan for months. In my February 7^th board commentary, I made the following statement: "In regard to the next Operating Levy, I believe it is in the best interest of the Board, our children and the community that we seriously discuss our financial situation and prepare and share a fiscal plan of future action. I would suggest we start this process at the boards next work session and have a plan in place by the end of the school year." I believe Mr. Murray agreed. So there you have it. You have a majority of the board asking for a plan to keep us out of fiscal crisis. All my cost cutting ideas were shot down by the last board. The ball is now in your court, Mr. Morris.

BOARD QUESTIONS

So, before I succumb to the boards tough questions, I have some of my own questions for the board.
 

I believe locking us into millions of dollars worth of new contracts, without a plan to keep the district out of fiscal crisis, is reckless. Mr. Morris, in December you called for a "plan to meet the financial needs of our district in order to keep us out of fiscal crisis." It is now May. If you have such a plan, I'm asking you to share it with the board and our community now. And remember, according to Mr. Kearns "every good and feasible plan should have data/research to support it."

Mr. Kearns, you claim you "have a conservative approach to fiscal management, and a track record of balancing budgets." I am asking you to prove that you are truly conservative and prove you have a “track record of balancing budgets." by balancing the Fairfield School District's budget. And remember, you said "every good and feasible plan should have data/research to support it."

Mr. Murray, at the 4-17-08 board meeting, you said you would not pledge to negotiate tough union contracts on behalf of the community. But you did say you would be fair. Please explain yourself Mr. Murray. Just who are you going to be fair with? Please explain “with data and research” just how you are going to be fair with the taxpayers who just can’t afford any more taxes and at the same time be fair with our staff and our students.  Moreover please explain to our community how you are going to pay for the fair contract you are going to negotiate.

Mrs. Bailey, During your school board campaign you pledged "to have a compassionate concern for our Senior Citizens and all taxpayers by pushing for a sensible way to fund education." You told the community, if elected, you were going to unite the school boards across the region in order to address school funding in Columbus with one message. After receiving word that your school board campaign was successful, you told the public on November 8^th that you were going to follow up on your commitment to work with Columbus on the funding situation, and would form a committee as soon as you took office. I hope this was not an empty promise just to get yourself elected. Mrs. Bailey, our district could use that additional funding now. It is now May. Please tell us who is on your committee. Please tell us just how you plan on prying more money out of Columbus. And remember, according to Mr. Kearns "every good and feasible plan should have data/research to support it."

Mr. Kearns, The community and I want to know just how our board is connecting with the struggling citizens of our community? Just what is our plan to keep them from being taxed out of their homes?

And finally, I have just shared 33 ideas on how we could save our district money. By Mr. Morris’s count, back in October my 16 ideas amounted to over $8,000,000. Before this board discounts these ideas, I challenge you to prove, with "data and research" that they are not feasible.

ATTACHMENTS

2-7-08 E-mail

Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 10:58 PM

"Arnie,

At the October 18, 2007 Board meeting you were asked to provide details regarding your plan. I believe you responded that you needed sometime to compile this information. I am just following up to see where you are with the details. We have a great deal of information to review and if you have specific details (similar to a business plan) on how we can save money I would encourage you to make that information available.

Jerome"

"Jerome

If my guys were elected we would have implemented many of the cuts I suggested. So if you want the plan it would have been to pick and choose, with the direction of the superintendent and the rest of the board, enough cuts to balance the budget. My guys were willing to demand our teachers teach 6 hours a day and that contractual change would have been enough to balance the budget for the 08-09 school year.

Know and understand this. How Ball and the rest of the board define a plan and how I define a plan were apparently 2 different things and I do not have to conform to any of my fellow board members definition of a plan. Feel free to look up the definition of plan in the dictionary if you are still confused.

The only reason I told Ball I would work on the plan was to shut him up. He, Murray and Morris were being rude and confrontational. They had no intention of considering anything I said. If you read the local papers you would have noted their ambush blew up in their face.

If you want the list of suggested cuts I will be more than happy to send them to you. The list was given to the board at the May 4th 2006 work session and the title was "Possible cuts to avoid a future levy" I believe the word plan came from our October 2007 flier that Morris says he never reads. You may want to get your flier out and read it. (page 2 second paragraph)

I will tell you, in my opinion, it is not the duty of any board member to produce a plan on their own accord and frankly it would be a waste of time because, in my opinion, the majority of this board of education will not implement any of the suggested cuts.

Also, know that I do not believe it is the duty of the board to tell the superintendent what she must cut to balance the budget. It is the duty of the board to give her a budget and demand she live within it. If we start telling her who where and what to cut we are setting her up for failure and giving her an excuse for failure. It's very easy to be successful if you have a blank check/no budget to live within.

As I see it we have no budget. When the superintendent wants something the board more or less gives it to her. Thus the board gets pegged as rubber stamp/bobble heads

I will not be spending any of my time preparing useless plans for the board to consider. I will be spending my time trying to stop the next operating and bond levy. I think I have already made myself clear with you on these 2 matters

I hope this helps.

Arnie"