Ladies and Gentlemen,
I don't usually write about Mehlville School District business. When I left the school board, I told myself and others ,that I would be a supportive parent and I think I am. I promised not to complain about issues unless I could spend some time to study and reflect upon how my comments could help the district. I've seen others leave the board to become grouches and self-proclaimed experts. I didn't want to be like that. I had no intention of spending any more time on district business but I'm compelled to comment this week after receiving the information below.
For those of you not familiar with the financial ins and outs of school budget requirements, let me summarize this for you. The current school board has approved a plan leading our district into bankruptcy.
This is what the district's Chief Financial Officer told the superintendent last week:
03/07/2008 06:26PMSubject: budget
Just wanted to touch base with you before the meeting on Monday. I went through all revenue and expenditures for the next two years. The situation is pretty much what we discussed before - which is dismal.
If the 08-09 budget is adjusted for:
an additional 4 math teachers
channel changes (columns on teacher sal. schedule)
new Webmaster position
increased retirement rates
e-newsletter
decreased fees for Unicom, Access Mgt., and Dickinson Hussman
increased utilities and security costs
a decrease of $600K to Maint.
then that will bring the balance to 4.94% in FY08-09 from 9.58% in the current year.
Looking at FY09-10, just carrying the SAME expenditures over from FY08-09 (no increases) but adjusting revenue, the balance will be at .9%.
Thanks,
Brent
And here's what the board was told:
The CFO has projected decreasing fund balances to the point of an alarming level. The Board obviously received some poor advice last June when the administration recommended raises with one time funds. When the district decided to use one time funds (fund balances) to pay for recurring expenses (salary increases for this year).
I remember leaving the school board. There were some unhappy people. We cut a lot of staff, we cut a lot of programs and we gave meager raises to our teachers and our administrators. We made plans to charge most students for transportation. We did one other thing. We let the community know what we were doing and we weren't even facing a crisis. Never did the CFO use the word dismal in our budget discussions.
Our current school board has remained silent. This week's board meeting lasted just over an hour and not one word was made of the alarming budget issue. One can only assume Board President Tom Diehl would like to keep this quiet until after the April 8th school board election.
The Mehlville School District is facing an incredible financial challenge. They're sure to be asking voters in the next year to approve bond or other types of tax issues and we will need directors on our school board with some financial sense and integrity.
And look at what we have. Mr. Karl Frank, Jr., current Board Vice President, was rejected by his fellow board members just last year when he sought the board presidency. They told him privately that his personal financial irresponsibility was not appropriate for the office. It seems Frank just filed for bankruptcy and numerous lawsuits were filed against him and his business. They also learned that Frank had been fired from his last employer, the President Casino. Frank has also demonstrated an irresponsible voting record as a school board member including voting against refinancing some bonds with Bank of America which saved the district $750,000. Frank was the lone dissenter in the 6 to 1 decision. Also, Karl Frank, Jr, has been cited by the Missouri Ethics Commission twice during his campaigns for school board. Once was for failing to document major campaign contributors and the other was for failing to file quarterly financial disclosure forms.
Mehlville School District voters will go to the polls in just a few weeks to vote for three directors for our school board. The taxpayers in the district will need someone they can trust. We need directors who care about kids, but also have fiscal commonsense and integrity.
I'm voting for the three women at the bottom of the ballot:
Marea Hoppe, Deborah Langland and Erin Weber.
16 comments:
Thanks for putting the issue out there. I know that some people actually new of the issue before the canidate forum and were surorised it was not brought up there as well. Then, not hearing about it at the board meeting was a complete shock.
The voters do need to know about this isssue.
I guess we shouldn't be surprised that this has been supressed. Tom Diehl is close friend with Karl Frank, Jr. and this is not good news. What is important news? Karl just put up $50 of his own money as a reward for the vandals who destroyed part of the turf at OHS. Karl should consider paying some of his debtors instead of throwing around such large some of cash like that. It's unbelievable that this has not been communicated to the district's staff and the community by now. On Thursday night the board was renewing contracts with many of its administrators and I'm sure they don't even know about the budget.
Mike:
What gives you the impression those 3 women have fiscal commonsense and integrity ?
Please elaborate.
I've always said " You don't truly know a person until you've worked (or coached youth sports) with them."
I've worked the most with Marea Hoppe on the school board. I know that she makes child centered decisions.I know that she makes fiscally sound decisions. She has built a strong resume in business, at her church and with the school district. She currently serves as the president of the Mehlville/Oakville Foundation.
I've seen Deborah Langland at work on behalf of the district on many committees, including the Citizens Advisory, the Long Range Planning Committees and the Mehlville Oakville Foundation. Deborah has had an impressive career in information technology and is a Realtor.
Both these ladies are proven leaders with impecable backgrounds.
After that it got a little tougher. I checked backgrounds a little and it boiled down to this.
Brown, Bertelsen, Mooy share the same tunnel vision that they can't make good decisions on behalf of our kids. It's clear all have come forward on behalf of a political agenda. Brown barely moved into the district last year when he signed up to run. Bertelsen ran half heartedly against Carnahan for congress a few years back. We don't need their political agendas.
Frank can't spend a dollar fast enough to please anyone. You can see this with both his personal and school board life. He's the most insincere person I've met in any political arena. So it came down to Drew or Erin. Both are parents in the district who I think are naive but have backgrounds that lead me to believe they'll learn to make good decisions. Honestly, I went with the woman becaues there's a chance after Cindy Christopher leaves there may not be one on the board.
Doesn't the balance of a fiscal year have something to do with the state acreditation of a school district? Could you explain that more?
Warning to all parents with children in our schools, Brown is Hilmer and Stoneys clone.
Accredidation, I'm not sure about. What I do know is that when the balance dips below 3%, you go on their distressed list. Then you must file a plan to get above it. Should the district not see a new source of revenue, there will be major cuts in staffing and services. And I'm not taliking administrators.
Also much of those monies that you have in that 3% balance are protected monies you can't spend except in their specific areas. The largest one would be food service money.
You might want to rethink your endorsement of Erin Weber.
Erin told the MNEA in February that she's "currently attending" SIU-E.
In reality, she hasn't attended there since 2000 (8 years).
But what do you expect from someone running with Karl Frank (who lists different colleges attended each time he runs)?
Hey, I just said I'm voting for the lady. That's not much of an endorsement. But this might be error and not a deception. Maybe she'll write us.
As to Karl, I wouldn't believe I thing he says. How does a guy run on a platform of accountability when he can't answer his phone because of the bill collectors? He whined about Prop P being overbudget but voted for the IT back up project when it was 41% over budget.
I heard from Erin Weber about the misunderstanding with her college classwork.
She is indeed finishing up her Biology degree from SIU. She just needs 10 credits.
After setting aside her own academic goals for the sake of her children, in January she started taking chemistry classes at Meremac CC, which she'll be able to transfer the credits. She apoligized but not having made that clearer but hey, who's perfect. I applaud her efforts and wish her all the luck.
I heard from Erin Weber this morning. She apoligized for not having made the pursuit of her degree clearer on her MNEA application.
She is indeed working on her degree in biology from SIU-E.
After postponing her academic goals to raise her young children, she started taking classes back in January at Meramac CC. It's cheaper and closer and she can put the Meramac credits toward her degree at SIU-E. She's only 10 credits short of her degree. I applaud her efforts and wish her well.
I'm not clear on what you're saying about Erin - do the Meramec courses count towards the 10 credits or does she need 10 more credits (in addition to the Meramec credits) from SIU-E.
It sounds like the Meramec courses are prerequisites for required SIU-E courses.
When will she graduate?
Sarah
She told me she enrolled in one course as a refresher, since she'd been out a while and the next Meramec course would transfer. She didn't tell me when she'd graduate but I'm sure if you use your search engine and type in Erin Weber and Mehlville, her website will pop up. I suggest you e-mail or call her.
Also, I'm not sure about the forum airing again. Call the district at 467-5151 or e-mail wallacep@mehlville.k12.mo.us for district information.
I'm told the forum will air again on Charter cable channel 21 on March 21st and April 3 from 6-8 pm.
Somebody on the Board spilled the beans that Cindy Christopher sent you the internal e-mail meant only for Board members that you quote in this post. If so, we commend her for sharing the truth and we thank you for posting it!
All e-mails from public entities are public records unless they contain certain privacy issues. This is a budget issue and therefore public. When I shared it with Erin Weber, she had already seen it as I'm sure VP Karl Frank, Jr. had shared it with everone he thought should know should be informed. I'm glad to see it has finally been in the papers. People have a right to know what our problems are before the upcoming elections. Board President Tom Diehl should have disclosed this instead of waiting for it to hit my BLOG. Thanks for sharing.
Mike Heins
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