1) The total deficit number that Evanstonnow used was 19.97M, which included the capital projects. Which number matches the 10M deficits each of the last two years - did those include capital deficits or not?
2) It appears that the surprise 10M from the end of last fiscal year was due to the phony accounting final…
1) The total deficit number that Evanstonnow used was 19.97M, which included the capital projects. Which number matches the 10M deficits each of the last two years - did those include capital deficits or not?
2) It appears that the surprise 10M from the end of last fiscal year was due to the phony accounting finally being stopped.
3) I find the following statements infuriating in light of Dr. Turner's statement that "However, this is transparent and honest as it relates to the district’s financial outlook"
a) Dr. Turner stating "Unfortunately, we do not believe our staff, board, or community had been provided with a complete picture up to this point"
b) Dr. Grossi stated "In our short time working with the District, the most troubling matter we have come across is that the Board of Education seemed to have been regularly provided with information that understated the financial impact of the major financial decisions they were asked to support....
These actions are irregular and not consistent with best practices...This administration and its support team is committed to ending these practices and have already begun to take the necessary actions."
Neither of them appear willing to point a finger at how these practices were happening, who is responsible, if the responsible parties still remain and if they do, why; the list goes on. The last year of updates from the Board/Superintendent have been a constant drip of somber pronouncements that someone, somewhere, messed with the finances to the tune of a surprise $40M deficit in 3 years, for a district with a ~160M yearly budget. An 8% miss over that term, which would have been a 9.5% miss without their 6M in cuts for this year. Yep the culprit(s) appear to be elves and gnomes for all we're told.
They seem to realize that trust has evaporated but cannot get themselves out of their secretive processes (closed door SAP III), and appear to have no plan going forward for how to properly compensate teachers.
And my personal belief is that the ballooning budget in areas like private school payments + cab rides show that the administration 'solved' difficult problems by paying for them to go away, without ever taking action and solving it. Not much different than a charter school simply expelling kids with behavior disorders in order to raise average scores, except here the admin just threw tax revenue at the problem so they didn't have to think about it.
The lack of shame by the long time board members + admin is truly deplorable.
With regard to 3(a) and 3(b), the lack of accountability here is so ridiculous. Turner calling herself the "new" superintendent--even though she has been in charge for over a year--is so weasely.
And she was on Horton’s leadership team prior yo being named interim Superintendent so she can’t pretend that she just didn’t know! A leadership team is always looped in AND a competent leaders holds the organization accountable.
Absolutely correct about the private school placements and the cab rides But these aren’t that difficult. The Special Education Team has the capacity to be aware when students need really special services. These students don’t just pop out of nowhere. They can be identified as early as first grade and services put in place and updated very frequently. You can put an aide on a bus to ride with anyone who needs it.
A few thoughts/questions:
1) The total deficit number that Evanstonnow used was 19.97M, which included the capital projects. Which number matches the 10M deficits each of the last two years - did those include capital deficits or not?
2) It appears that the surprise 10M from the end of last fiscal year was due to the phony accounting finally being stopped.
3) I find the following statements infuriating in light of Dr. Turner's statement that "However, this is transparent and honest as it relates to the district’s financial outlook"
a) Dr. Turner stating "Unfortunately, we do not believe our staff, board, or community had been provided with a complete picture up to this point"
b) Dr. Grossi stated "In our short time working with the District, the most troubling matter we have come across is that the Board of Education seemed to have been regularly provided with information that understated the financial impact of the major financial decisions they were asked to support....
These actions are irregular and not consistent with best practices...This administration and its support team is committed to ending these practices and have already begun to take the necessary actions."
Neither of them appear willing to point a finger at how these practices were happening, who is responsible, if the responsible parties still remain and if they do, why; the list goes on. The last year of updates from the Board/Superintendent have been a constant drip of somber pronouncements that someone, somewhere, messed with the finances to the tune of a surprise $40M deficit in 3 years, for a district with a ~160M yearly budget. An 8% miss over that term, which would have been a 9.5% miss without their 6M in cuts for this year. Yep the culprit(s) appear to be elves and gnomes for all we're told.
They seem to realize that trust has evaporated but cannot get themselves out of their secretive processes (closed door SAP III), and appear to have no plan going forward for how to properly compensate teachers.
And my personal belief is that the ballooning budget in areas like private school payments + cab rides show that the administration 'solved' difficult problems by paying for them to go away, without ever taking action and solving it. Not much different than a charter school simply expelling kids with behavior disorders in order to raise average scores, except here the admin just threw tax revenue at the problem so they didn't have to think about it.
The lack of shame by the long time board members + admin is truly deplorable.
With regard to 3(a) and 3(b), the lack of accountability here is so ridiculous. Turner calling herself the "new" superintendent--even though she has been in charge for over a year--is so weasely.
And she was on Horton’s leadership team prior yo being named interim Superintendent so she can’t pretend that she just didn’t know! A leadership team is always looped in AND a competent leaders holds the organization accountable.
Absolutely correct about the private school placements and the cab rides But these aren’t that difficult. The Special Education Team has the capacity to be aware when students need really special services. These students don’t just pop out of nowhere. They can be identified as early as first grade and services put in place and updated very frequently. You can put an aide on a bus to ride with anyone who needs it.
Stay tuned story coming this week on this