who should be reseponsible for it?
March 1, 2005
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Joseph Gillis Jr.
You can do something!
Much has been said and written about two School Committee members voting against the $54+M budget proposal set forth by the B-R School Superintendent. The point was discussed at length, after questions from both Mark Oliari and myself to the Committee Chair. Others on the Committee, and Administration members also addressed this at the February School Committee meeting. The response was clear - the motion was to approve the $54+M budget request based on the concept that this amount represented the proper amount of funds that should be used to fund the schools.
I did not agree with the proposal for $54+M, nor did I believe that as a School Committee member that I had sufficient knowledge to say that this was an appropriate dollar amount. The School Administration created the budget, made the choices of funding and teachers, and then provided School Committee members with a printout of the estimated budget amount.
This brings us to the second issue - who is responsible for the budget. The elected School Committee is ultimately responsible for the budget. Therefore, even though I was part of the budget sub-committee, we never discussed issues specific to the budget. For example, whether one or two teachers should be added to accomplish a certain educational policy, or if school activity & sports fees should be reduced, or if doubling the textbook budget from $55k to $108k would be sufficient. Perhaps these answers will come out over the next weeks as the School Administration has the informational meetings. But, in the meantime, the public has about the same amount of information as I do.
Dr. McIntyre, in last night's opening, stated how this presentation of information was to the School Committee and members of the community. Why should he be presenting to a Board that is responsible for the budget?
