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Many Questions Surrounding Unexpected Budget Shortfall for San Carlos Schools

November 4, 2009

back-to-school
The Problem:
The hammer continues to come down on the San Carlos School District and its budgetary woes…and this time there are many questions surrounding the shortfall.  In a community bulletin made public today, the San Carlos School District states that there will be a 1.4 million dollar shortfall for each of the following two years. Some of the shortfall is attributed to a shortage in funding from the State, lower than expected enrollment, slightly higher than expected staffing costs and finally….”An accounting error and subsequent miscommunication with the Board during the June budgeting process, related to Special Education costs.”  Yes, you read that correctly.
How did this error occur:
“In the 2009-2010 budget, the Student Services Department projected a net reduction in costs for Special Education programs of ~ $800K, as compared to
08-09.  In actuality, however, we now project a net increase in Special Education costs of ~ $170K.  Some of this discrepancy is due to normal variations in costs, but approximately $900K of this, however, is due to a miscalculation at the time the budget was adopted, (June of 09). The error was primarily caused by inaccurate data regarding legally-required costs
associated with serving all Special Education students.”……translation, approximately $900K of the $1.4M shortfall is attributed to the accounting error.
Stunned?  It is hard to believe. I have certainly made my share of mistakes, some of them big mistakes, but I still have to wonder how this could possibly happen. When you have a District that is as strapped for cash as the San Carlos School District has been…..fighting for every last dollar…how does a $900,000 accounting error occur? We will probably never know exactly what happened.
Frustration
It’s hard to believe that after all of the budget cutting, funrdaising and parcel tax initiatives, we still have a massive shortfall. It almost seems impossible.
Where do we go from here?
I do have a large amount of faith in our School Board. They are very bright, hardworking people who do have the ability to handle an issue such as this..  The District also seems to have the right spin on this which is to focus all efforts on fixing the problem rather than playing the blame game. Some very tough budgetary decisions will need to be made in the near future.
For a complete copy of the bulletin, please click here to be taken to the San Carlos School District’s website.

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Bob Bredel

4 Comments


Arn Cenedella
November 5, 2009 at 8:37 am
Reply

Maybe the above story indicates why the residents of San Carlos OVERWHELMINGLY voted down Prop U 55% to 44% (not by “only” 600 votes as described previously). In a Presidential election or any other election for that matter if one candidate got 55% and the other 44%, the election would be described as a LANDSLIDE victory. So in my mind, residents of San Carlos overwhelmingly rejected more taxes and payments to government.
Maybe just maybe the problem our governmental agencies face now is NOT A LACK OF MONEY but maybe just maybe it is that most governmental organizations are terribly inefficient about spending OUR money. Perhaps if governmental agencies cared less about increasing their staffs and more about providing services in a cost effective manner, there would not be budget shortfalls.
Speaking of government inefficiency, what about the Bay Bridge repair?
Maybe when government organziations carefully spend our money and eliminate waste and PORK, residents will be more willing to give them more money.
At least for me until govenrment organziations start taking better care of our money, I will continue to vote NO on tax increases.



Bob Bredel
November 5, 2009 at 9:09 am
Reply

Hi Arn,
Thanks for your post.
First, I do disagree with calling the defeat of Measure U a landslide victory. The city had a very low turnout. Equating numbers in a presidential election to a few thousand votes in a city election is a bit of a reach. In fact, if just 300 of those folks have a change of heart, Measure U passes. In any event, this is far from a landslide.
Second, you have posted your comment under the “Many Questions Surrounding Unexpected Budget Shortfall for San Carlos Schools” category. If you are trying to make some type of analogy between what is going on at the city level and what is going on with the shortfall within the San Carlos School District, I am afraid you are severely out of touch with what is going on with San Carlos Schools. If you believe that “maybe just maybe the problem our governmental agencies face now is NOT A LACK OF MONEY but maybe just maybe it is that most governmental organizations are terrible inefficient about spending OUR money..” The overwhelming majority of the District’s budget problems are not linked to a spending problem. They are linked most closely to Proposition 13 and continued state reductions in monetary support. Each year the district counts on massive fundraising efforts just to keep basic programs alive.
If you want to find fault with the spending issues with the City of San Carlos, I understand and can see that argument. However, insinuating what is going on at the city level with how the San Carlos School District is spending their money is way out of line. While it is very unfortunate and very frustrating to have yet another massive budget shortfall within the SCSD, the error that was made had nothing to do with wasteful spending.
Bob



CPABOY
November 6, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Reply

Bob
To be precise , this wasnt an accounting error, it was a budgeting error. The school board didnt have an error in reported results, it was a mistake in projections. Minor point. And without knowing the total spends on special ed and how large the total budget is, it’s hard to know how egregious the error is. 900K is rounding on many of the budgets I have worked on. Evidently its more material to San Carlos school district.
As to the comment by Arn, while San Carlos City Govt and San Carlos schools are distinct, I think Arn has captured a general mood about gov’t spending and gov’t employees. Enough spending growth, regardless of area. Calif has the highest income taxes and sales taxes in teh nation. And while property taxes as a % are fairly low, there are still high on an absolute basis for a recent buyers.
Thanks for reading
At regardless of turnout 55% to 45% is a pretty solid win.



Bob Bredel
November 6, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Reply

Yes, agreed. All very reasonable points. Thanks for the post.
Bob



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