Understanding school surpluses and budgets

York Dispatch reporter Andy Shaw offers some good reporting here on the issues school districts are facing as they deal with 2011-2012 budget planning.

The story takes a look at the surpluses that districts around the county maintain and asks two reasonable questions: Why have a multi-million dollar surplus? And how much is enough?

For those complaining that taxes are too high, several district business managers offer legitimate reasons for keeping healthy surpluses. Those reasons include wanting to maintain a strong credit rating, which keeps borrowing costs down for major capital projects, and softening the blow of off years to avoid big tax increases or major cuts.

Spring Grove Business Manager George Ioannidis offered a more detailed explanation in the story:

---Many districts have been saving for what was expected to be a major pension funding crisis in two years; the crisis now seems to be lessened, although not greatly.


---Business managers are usually of the belief it's better to have incremental tax increases, rather than no increase for a few years and then a major hike. That means a tax hike -- and excess revenue -- could happen in a year when it might not be fully necessary.

---That leads to Act 1. With a cap each year on taxes, some business managers believe a district should consider raising what it can through tax revenue in that budget year, within reason, in case the cap is below expectations the following year.

"What you're doing is front-loading," Ioannidis said. "It gives you room to make budget cuts in less of a reactive way. You can ease your way into those cuts."

That first reason, related to the pension funding crisis, was the one we were most interested in. That was the only mention of it in the story, which was a little surprising after what we heard in January during a school funding town hall in Lancaster. We'll have a vigorous discussion of that very issue during the countywide education summit we're hosting April 14.

What do you think? Are districts being prudent fiscal managers? Or could they reduce the surpluses and give taxpayers a little relief?

- Dan Fink

Want to change your school? Know your school board

by Leigh Dalton

During a political debate with my husband (then boyfriend) about eight years ago, I learned that he – 27 years old at the time – had never voted.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because it doesn’t matter,” he replied.

I then told him that I would not discuss politics with him until he registered and practiced his right to vote. “It is the right only of those who vote,” I told him, “to weigh in on what is working and what is not in our government. If you don’t vote, keep your mouth shut.”

I sometimes feel that way about parents and their involvement in their children’s schools. I have worked in communities around school issues for about nine years. When I am in schools I hear a lot of parents complaining about how things should be done, but see very little action from the parents to help make changes.

One of the ever-emerging discussions among teachers and school administrators is the need for increased parent involvement. Actually, in one of the first speeches by then President-elect Obama in 2008, he called parents to the plate, reminding them that they need to be involved in their children’s education. And rather than complaining to one another while waiting for school to dismiss, a very effective way to be involved includes attending school board meetings.

I was once told that if you want to make the biggest impact on a child’s life, sit on a school board. And it is true. Who decides at what age your child can enroll in school? Who votes on the curriculum? Who hires and holds accountable the superintendents, who then hire and supervise the teachers? Who passes the budget – a budget that affects class size, building maintenance, after-school programming, elective classes, and availability of social workers and guidance counselors in a school? Who approves attendance and discipline policies?

With all of those issues at hand, why is it that I most often hear parents resolve to go to a school board meeting to demand changes in school calendars and school policies around snow days and two-hour delays? While I understand the need for safe transportation is preferred over crazy attempts to shovel out, spin tires in the snow, and peep over mounds of snow, the frequency of snow days/delays and their impact on a child’s actual educational experience pale in comparison to more important issues such as curriculum, budget concerns, discipline and attendance policies.

I am a new parent; my daughter is 10 months old. But knowing what I know about school boards’ power, I will likely attend at least half of the school board meetings that take place in any given school year. The impact school boards have is amazing. Please consider attending the school board meeting for your child’s school. Not only will you learn about budget items, personnel decisions and curriculum changes; not only can you challenge decisions about school buildings being built or torn down; but you can see and meet the people who make daily decisions affecting your children. If you talk to a teacher, he or she will say their hands are tied, talk to the principal. The principal, most likely, will indicate that she follows orders from the superintendent. And who does the superintendent report to?

The school board.

Please consider issues larger than the school calendar. Think about discipline codes, attendance issues or even bullying situations. Go to the school; talk. Go to the school board meetings; learn.

And the best part? Your child will watch you, learn from you, see that you value his or her education and learn to do the same.

Leigh Dalton is the director of the York County Truancy Prevention Initiative and the community mobilizer for York County Communities That Care. After receiving her law degree from the University of Baltimore, School of Law, she managed a truancy intervention program called the Truancy Court Program. She is pursuing her doctorate in education policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She lives in Spring Garden Township with her husband, baby daughter and her two rescued dogs. She can be reached at leigh@yorkbar.com and 717-854-8755, ext. 209.

Survey to bring vital data on youth

From today's York Dispatch:

York County students are being surveyed through Nov. 13 to gather data about their behavior, their attitudes and their knowledge about alcohol, tobacco, drugs and violence.
The Pennsylvania Youth Survey will be administered to students in sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th grades in 15 of the county's 16 school districts and several charter schools.

The article says this will be the first time so many York County schools will participate in the survey. Why is that important? More students responding means more and better data, and that will help local officials better identify issues, assess programs and target spending needs.

In the bigger picture, this is a key part of the effort to reduce gang violence and youth crime and the related issues of truancy and school dropout rates. YorkCounts will hold a series of town halls on that very subject, starting with the first event in Dover on Nov. 9. The town halls, "Kids, Truancy and a County at Risk," will focus on the YorkCounts-United Way's Stay in School Report.

- Dan Fink