5-08-06 He claims by extending the COP for another 11 years at a cost of some $1.6 million is a good deal. but his ravings are just as good as my ravings and deserved the published for all to read. Distaso sent them only to the Country Journal
Distaso again attempt to take credit for the higher developer frees which is a project pushed by Ron Bird, Charles Brink, Larry Layton and others Distaso actually voted against the study to get the higher developer fees that now of course as any good politician je takes full credit for them.
I am writing this letter as an individual and comments made herein are not meant to reflect the opinion or collective position of the School Board).
As everyone in the community certainly knows, the School District has suffered for years from a lack of money in the budget. Due to this lack of money, the General Fund, a fund that is used to support classrooms, educational supplies, programs and teachers, has been used to pay other debt and expenses – thus compromising educational efforts. This fact has caused a closure of a school, the lay offs of teachers and other staff, the inability to compensate remaining staff competitively, and last and foremost an inability of the District to provide the types of educational programming our children deserve.
With the election of new Board members, the School Board has placed significant attention on the budget to address its woes. We first addressed the problem of the District not charging enough developer fees on new residential and commercial developments. The result is that we now charge the maximum allowed by law.
Secondly, on May 9th, the Board voted to restructure our existing debt. By doing so, the District's annual debt payments will be significantly lowered. Between the raising of developer fees and the lowering of our annual debt payments, the District can now help insure that General. Fund money will not be diverted out of the classroom in order to pay other expenses. The result is that the burden of poor financial decisions in the past will not continually be borne on the backs of our kids and that the District can get back into the business of creating enhanced educational opportunities and programs for our kids.
The vote to restructure our debt was a split 3-2 vote that, in part, reflected concerns about added interest payments that could run over a million extra dollars over the next 11 years. While it is true that our interest payments will go up, our annual payment will be lower. It is also true that the District will realize between 1.7 million and 3 million dollars in funds that can be used to support education programs inside the classrooms over this same period of time.
This gain is the combined result of raising developer fees that will be used to pay our facility based costs (without reaching into the General Fund) and the lowering of our annual debt payments. Depending on the level of developer fees the District receives, there is also an opportunity to pay down the additional interest early and reducing the amount of extra interest payments. Refinancing debt is sometimes good and sometimes not. In this case, the gains far out-weigh. the cost and allow the District to re-focus on the classroom. A renewed focus on the classroom is something that. I believe the entire Board is committed to and it is something the public has made clear it wants to see. Despite what you may hear or read, the new budget is designed to advocate for and support enhanced education in our district. THE KIDS WIN IN THIS SCENARIO!
There are a few members in the community, who via e-mail and other editorial mediums, have professed that restructuring debt and adding additional debt service is irresponsible. They of paint a picture of disaster and gloom regardless of the issue and appear not to be content unless they are stirring up controversy – even when no controversy exists. While claiming to be for children, they offer no real or viable alternative and often stoop to personal attacks. It is also apparent that in regard to the issue of public sector financing and budgets, they know little about the subject matter and the art of balancing debt payments while still being able to pay for services to the public. In our case, this service is the profound responsibility of providing a challenging and sound education to our children.
Having been a vocal critic of the District before the election, I recognize everyone's right to state an opinion – but I would hope that everyone would do so responsibly. As for myself, I chose a productive path and ran for the School Board in order to challenge old ways of doing business, to ferret out areas where the District should operate better and then to implement positive changes that will support and benefit kids, parents, educators and the community as a whole.
In the coming weeks, the Board will be identifying and prioritizing what educational programs to implement with General Fund savings as a result of restructuring the budget. Much of this deliberation will be based on feedback received from the community via the Master-Plan survey. The community survey results are providing some interesting and clear direction for the Board to follow. We will be sharing those results soon as the entire Master Plan study process nears a close.
I'll end this with congratulations to teachers, staff, students and parents of Meadowlark Elementary for their achievement of being named a California Distinguished School!
Mark Distaso, School Board Member