Priorities
Not that there's anything wrong with that.....
At the May 24, 2010 SC meeting, Superintendent Gary Burton told the newest member of the committee that he could look at the details of the 5 inch stack of invoices if he wanted to, but that they usually just assume that Business Administrator Joy Buhler got it right and vote to approve the accounts payable each week, without taking the time to review the individual invoices. This particular stack of payments added up to $209,000.
Three important questions came up in 2008 when it first came out that tax-payers were spending $9000 annually on ski lift tickets for the Wayland High School Ski Team:
• Is this the best use of our school dollars at a time when we're closing a school to allegedly* save money?
• Why was the School Committee unaware this annual expense was part of the budget they voted to approve?
• What else might be buried deep within our $30,000,000 budget that they are not aware of?
It comes as no surprise that when word got out that an audit of our school budget was going to be requested, the vast majority of people hearing about it for the first time expressed their feelings by saying either "Finally!", or "It's about time!"
The photo above is not to suggest that spending money on Wayland's ski team is inappropriate. Athletics, including skiing, are a very important part of a child's development on so many levels.
With apologies to the Ski Team and to ski-lovers everywhere, the purpose of this example is to underscore that we can only prioritize our spending appropriately if we have some idea on what we are currently spending our money. Maybe we can afford to provide ski lift tickets, and maybe we can't. But we'll never know for sure unless we know how ALL of our money is spent.
*Neither the SC nor the Administration has ever presented an accounting that factors in the expenses associated with the reconfiguration. The increase in SPED, increased transportation needed, extra personnel etc., were never factored into their equation. This means that it entirely possible that the reconfiguration actually COST the town money.