Orange
County CORE Reports on Budget Studies
Thursday,
March 5, 2009
As you know, Orange County CORE participated in the Superintendent's
Community Budget Study Committee. The committee met nine
times during the months of November 2008 through February 2009.
Superintendent Blocker recently submitted a report of the committee's
work to the School Board. That final report, which includes
a memorandum from the Superintendent to the Board, an Executive
Summary of the Committee's work, a ranked list of the budget
reductions considered by the Committee, and the comments of
Committee members on the proposed reductions, is included on
the CORE website under "Latest News." The various
pieces of the report are also contained on the OCPS website,
at this location (the links are on right side of webpage) https://www.ocps.net/sb/Superintendent/Pages/BudgetStudyCom.aspx.
You may also view the report in an easier to read format
on our web site--click through the apple core
When reviewing the work of the Committee, keep in mind that
the Committee did not generate its own cost saving ideas and
did not set its own agenda. Similarly, the Committee did
not scrutinize the data that supported the potential budget
cuts that were presented by OCPS staff. (In fact, the
Committee was not presented with any written documentation regarding
any of the potential cuts it considered.)
The Committee did not approve or disapprove any proposal.
The Committee's only role was to consider the potential budget
cut ideas generated by the Superintendent's senior staff.
With respect to those ideas, the Committee's work was limited
to considering ONLY the impact of the proposed cuts on OCPS
staff, students and parents, the community at-large, and the
District's strategic plan. The discussion of each suggestion
(with one exception) was concluded at the meeting at which the
suggestion was first proposed. No advance notice was provided
of the suggestions to be considered at each meeting.
Very few of the proposed cuts considered by the Committee will
be painless. The Committee was required to divide the
list into "minimal" "moderate" and "severe"
impact categories, but in the discussion at that meeting, several
committee members noted that most of the proposed cuts have
the potential to severely impact a number of people and that
the categories were of questionable value.
The Committee was told that some of the ideas submitted by the
public through the OCPS website were being considered by the
Superintendent's Technical Budget Committee and that some had
been rejected because they would require the violation of various
state and federal laws. The Committee was also informed
that other, less controversial ideas were being studied by OCPS
staff or had already been implemented or recommended to the
School Board for implementation.
The Superintendent's Technical Budget Committee remains a mystery.
OCPS has announced on its website that the Technical Committee
includes "certified public accountants, chief financial
officers and others with expertise in budget and finance."
Despite requests, no information has been provided with respect
to the number of people on the Technical Committee, its mission,
when its report will be issued, or the number of times it has
met. The names and backgrounds of the members of that
committee have not been disclosed, even though the names of
the Community Budget Committee are posted on the OCPS website.
Also unlike the Community Budget Committee's meetings, the Technical
Committee's meetings, if there have been meetings, have not
open to the public.
CORE welcomes ALL efforts by OCPS to involve the community.
CORE was very happy to serve on the Superintendent's Community
Budget Study Committee and applauds Superintendent Blocker for
instituting the Committee. Because CORE believes that
more involvement by the community will yield better results
for Orange County students, CORE is also interested in helping
OCPS improve its efforts to involve the community. In
this case, a better model would have been to permit the Committee
to review with OCPS staff, the list of ideas generated by staff
and the community and to make their own suggestions. That
review could, in a couple of meetings, have generated a list
of ideas for further consideration. Then, staff could
have gathered information regarding the cost savings and educational
risks of the suggested cuts and presented that information to
the Committee, making the information available in writing for
review and scrutiny. The ideas could have been taken by
the Committee members back to their respective groups and discussed,
and those discussions would have better informed the Committee's
deliberations regarding the impacts of the cuts.
In the current economic climate, everyone, legislators, parents,
administrators, teachers, and really everyone in Orange County,
need to work together to find solutions that will not hurt Orange
County's students. CORE continues to hear from teachers,
students, and community members that non-school-based administrative
expenses at OCPS are still too high. Teachers, especially,
cite examples of services they receive from central administration
that they do not believe are essential in times when budget
cuts are threatening the quality of the educational experiences
offered to Orange County's students. If you would like
to give your opinion or examples of services that might be curtailed,
even if only temporarily, please write us at orangecountycore@gmail.com.
CORE will share the ideas it receives with OCPS. Information
is the CORE to a great education!
