Valley View school district's at it again - using the government controlled media (Patch, Bugle and Reporter) to spread propaganda and keep the truth from taxpayers.
If you rely solely on what's published in the Bugle, Patch or Reporter, it would appear the district is doing all that they can to cut cost, and manage spending.
Unfortunately, reality proves otherwise. The district is in fact doing the complete opposite.
Behind the scenes, they are planning to spend more money, overall, and wants to increase the tax levy by approximately 5%.
Has Valley View never heard of a zero-based budget? I think not. I believe that they should be held accountable for every dollar of the budget, not just across the board increases of existing budgets. Prove to me that the dollars you are asking me as a taxpayer for are dollars that you need to educate students, not provide bonuses and overinflated salaries for administrators and paying for "fluff" that is not required to provide a quality education.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I think that would be construed by the administration as "too much work".
R U serious?!
ReplyDeleteGovernment controlled media?
Where are we ... Russia, North Korea, Cuba?
U R now and will always be a whack job, pure and simple.
Anon 7:37am, angry, hunhh? Guess the so called whack job hit a nerve.
ReplyDeleteI would guess, the increase in spending has to do with contractual obligations, not just willy nilly spending as you would have the readers to believe.
ReplyDeleteTalk about skewing the truth! Sheesh!
I disagree. It seems as if the school district wants to continue the spending without doing all that's necessary to cut back. There's no excuse.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the first comment made about zero-based budgeting. What that means is the district, for example, should start each budget at zero. Review every single budget item, and budget upward, spending only what's received in tax revenue, etc.
Contractual obligations is a non-issue in zero-based accounting because if management decides to guarantee raises, they will have to cut in other areas.
Just because Valley View spent more than $200 million last year, doesn't mean they should be expected to spend more this year.
As the article suggest, stop the spending, slash the budget by adopting a zero based budgeting.
Or, the community should get rid of the school board and elect fiscal conservatives with the courage to do the right thing.
Legal Eagle, I would go one step further in the zero-based budgeting process. Every line item in the budget should be evaluated against the district's mission statement and strategic plan. If the line item cannot be justified against the mission statement and strategic plan, then out it goes. If this reduces the existing tax levy, great. The district should not be assuming that they cannot cut costs and reduce their onerous burden on the taxpayers.
ReplyDeleteI am consistently disgusted that 60% of my current tax bill goes to VVSD, yet no one seems to really challenge them on their budget and tax levy. All of the local "watchdog groups" seem to be so content with grabbing onto minimal issues within the other taxing bodies, whose levies are pocket change compared to the "almighty" VVSD.
I completely agree that the school board should be revamped and replaced with individuals who are fiscally-minded and won't be swayed by cries of "but it's for the chillllllldddddddreeeeennnn".