Financial forecast
Board members comply, but they're not pleased
 

Thursday, November 2, 2006

By MARK MAJOR
ThisWeek Staff Writer

Though the Worthington school board unanimously approved the district's new five-year forecast Monday, members said they were upset they were given just three days to review the document before their meeting.

Board members received e-mail copies of the forecast Friday evening, they said -- just four days before the statutory Oct. 31 deadline for the document's approval.

Board member Marc Schare, also a member of the board's Treasurer's Advisory Committee, read a prepared statement Monday expressing his frustration.

"Tonight, we meet just one day before the statutory deadline to approve a new five-year forecast," Schare said. "I will be voting in favor of this forecast solely because the penalties for not submitting a forecast are ... serious."

Board member David Bressman also said he was unhappy the board did not have more time to review the numbers before being asked to vote on them.

"When I found out about this I was told I had very little time to review it before being asked to approve it," Bressman said before the board's vote. "When I found out about this I was disinclined to approve it."

Approving the document without sufficient review means the district might not have the best financial forecasts possible and shortchanges the public by not giving them a chance to participate in the process, Bressman said.

"If we're going to talk about public engagement, we can't just talk about it," he said. "We need to set up a time for this to take place."

Board president Gary Tyack shared his colleagues' frustration, he said.

"I would have liked to have a chance to go over it with board members," he said. "(Boyd) needs to allocate his time so we can have it earlier."

The district first started work on the forecast in August, said treasurer Jonathan Boyd, then sent it to the advisory committee.

Though Boyd wanted the board to have two to three weeks to review the document before approving it, he said, making changes at the request of the advisory committee slowed down the process.

"This was unusual because the advisory board asked for so many changes which I did in fact implement," he said.

Some of the blame lies with lawmakers who established the deadline, Schare said.

The statutory deadline of Oct. 31 means many districts are required to spend a lot of time preparing their forecasts only to do it all over again after election day, he said.

"Having a deadline of Oct. 31 is silly," he said. "Hundreds of school districts are going to be on the ballot each November. That means hundreds of school districts are going to have to change their financial forecasts."

In addition, some information -- such as student enrollment -- isn't even available until after the school year starts and their deadline is just weeks away, Schare said.

Board members said they plan to revisit the forecast this month, whether or not voters approve a "no new millage" bond issue Tuesday that would generate about $37.5-million for the district.