Opinion: Your involvement in the school budget can make a difference

Dear Editor,

The Owego Apalachin Central School District’s budgeting process shall begin in January. This is important.

The objective of this letter is to serve students and taxpayers, inform taxpayers of the problems, motivate taxpayers to get involved, and motivate the OACSD Board of Education to rigorously fulfill their obligations of stewardship to public funds.  

Under the administration of Superintendent Russell, both academic performance languished and finances went out of control. This year, the District adopted goals to improve academic performance and removed all goals relating to stewardship of public funds! This is backwards!  

Financial resources are fundamental towards providing the teaching assistance and teacher’s aids, among other things needed to improve academic performance. In Russell’s own words, lack of adequate taxpayer revenue was detrimental to our students.

From 2007 into the indefinite future, students and taxpayers will suffer dearly at the hands of waste, fraud and abuse. These terms, waste, fraud and abuse, are met to their full definition and publicly documented. Stewardship of public funds is joined at the hip with academic performance. 

The Superintendent Russell budgeting paradigm to cut teaching staff, maximize property increases under the property tax cap, and berate NYS for failing to provide funding for the highest teachers’ salaries in the Southern Tier (61 school districts of our area). There effectively was no budgeting and planning process. The NYS Office of State Comptroller effectively told this to OACSD in their August 2014 Audit Report.

Finances went out of control in 2007 when OACSD teacher and employee union compensation began increasing faster than any District in New York State. This was identified to the District in 2011 and dismissed until 2014.  

Then the process failures, financial damage, and causes of this were laid on the District’s doorstep. In 2016 actions were taken to slow the bleeding. The conservative minimum dollar blood loss between 2008 and 2016 is $9.9 million and increasing every year thereafter. The damage is $23 million if evaluated from what should have been done. The BOE’s 2016 actions were triage and triage only. You and students will pay dearly for decades unless the BOE resolves to make right these past transgressions.  

One concern is that bad news doesn’t get the publicity that it should. In a 2014 BOE meeting I asked if the 2007 Owego Apalachin Employees Association union contract clause 5.2 was the healthcare giveaway program I read it to be. The question was neither answered nor recorded in the BOE meeting minutes.  

The 2014 OSC Audit Report so critical of OACSD finances was suppressed. It only got the minimum BOE open meeting discussion necessary to comply with the law and compliance with the Comptroller’s required Corrective Action Plan.

This community was taken to the cleaners in 2007 when the OACSD Teachers and Employees unions negotiated contracts in bad faith. To the best of my knowledge the only mention of this has come from my mouth.

The past is what we use to see the future. From my observations, stewardship of public funds was not accomplished when the BOE had specific goals and objectives to those ends. 

This year the BOE has eliminated them. I fear that instead of fixing the problems they will be kept out of public eyes. This would be wholly consistent with the past. This is a greater tragedy given the fact that we have a new Superintendent, Mr. Corey Greene, whose capacity appears fully adequate to fix things. This talent will be wasted unless the BOE provides specific goals and objectives to empower Mr. Greene to fix the mess.

The last Sidney School District Budget Newsletter contained this statement; “We are very pleased for the seventh year in a row to propose a negative tax levy. We recognize the financial challenges our community.” Mr. Greene was the business manager for Sidney until we poached him away.

Some questions we should ask. Why weren’t the District’s labor union contracts nullified, terminated, or otherwise immediately fixed on discovery of the bad faith? Why isn’t there a plan to fix the oppressive contract compensation costs? When will it be fixed? How much will the residual effect of the teacher salary inflator clause 8.1.1.1 take out of future budgets? Can we afford it? If the District needs $300,000 and has the choice of taking it away from students, taxpayers, or the highest teacher salaries in the Southern Tier, which will they choose? If reserves are used then students and taxpayers pay for it.

Your involvement can make a difference. Millions have been saved for our children by one concerned citizen’s attention.  

Sincerely,

Haig McNamee

Owego, N.Y.