 |
| Community School Financial Planning? |
The Broadsider ran yet another story this week about the School Committee diverting educational tax dollars to shore up the rapidly sinking Community School program (motto: "Providing subsidized entertainment for Marstons Mills, Mashpee and Bourne at the expense of our own kids ...").
Here's the key point the Committee isn't clearly acknowledging. The School Committee is not "lending" the Community School anything. The Community School is the legal responsibility of the School Committee. By allowing it to operate, they are committing to fund whatever expenses are incurred. In order to fund any deficits incurred by the Community School, they need to take funds away from K-12 classrooms.
That's it. Forget the posturing, huffing and puffing --- when the Community School loses money, the District has to pay it. Its too late to discuss once the bills arrive.
Thanks to several years of renting out facilities which the School Department paid to maintain, the Community School had managed to built-up its own Reserve Fund that could cover most operating deficits. They even had delusions about utilizing the Reserve Fund to help finance a new free-standing Daycare/Early Learning Center. Unfortunately, their income dwindled when the economic downturn reduced the number of people willing to spend their hard-earned disposable income, folks began to question Community School Accounting practices, and other organizations began to provide similar offerings.
The program is now becoming a victim to the town-wide aversion to facilities maintenance as the pool suffered one mechanical failure after another. Even today, the Pool has hemorrhaged more than 80,000 gallons of water, and nobody has any idea where it has been going.
Now What?
Stop the bleeding. Unless a program covers all of its operating costs, and a proportional share of the general & administration costs of the program, it should be eliminated. Period. No more wasted time discussing silly support group fundraisers that have yet to happen. We also need to hear exactly how big a deficit the District may currently be liable for. The number will undoubtedly be ugly -- but we need to hear a realistic funding plan.
An argument could certainly be made that the Pool is a Town resource. In that case, somebody needs to propose an article at Town Meeting to fund Pool operations. This would be a far more honest and responsible approach than diverting tax dollars intended for K-12 education to subsidizing recreational opportunities for people throughout the Upper Cape area. Taxpayers would have the clear option of maintaining or closing the pool.
This has been a long-standing problem. I agree that Dr. Canfield and Lance Kennedy inherited a fiscal mess -- as did Dr. Johnson and Jim Lehane before them. Its unfortunate, however, that the restructuring which began in July of 2009 (and might have saved the program) was allowed to unravel when Kangas and Crossman (who is a Community School employee as well as a former Chair of the Committee which had overseen the Community School) joined the School Committee.
Maybe if some members with professional training or experience had been elected, somebody could have asked relevant questions, done some realistic budgeting, and proposed the necessary programming changes before the Reserve Fund ran dry.
