A Tale of Two Budget Meetings AKA the story of Darla and Carla

It was the best of budget meetings, it was the worst of budget meetings, it was the age of information, it was the age of obfuscation, it was the epoch of belief in making a difference in schools, it was the epoch of incredulity that anything will be done to help schools, it was the season of bargaining, it was the season of refusal to bargain, it was the spring of solutions, it was the winter of strikes, we had all the budget information before us, we had a bad summary of the budget before us, we were all going direct to a new school year, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the absolute trust of their authority only.

August 11, 2015, a day that will live in relative obscurity (unless we all rise up and make sure otherwise). Two budget meetings, happening simultaneously, showed in essence the direction our school district might go. Carla went to one, Darla went to the other. Offered by two respected local entities but at overlapping times, each had a different perspective on current, pressing issues to their school district. It would be nice to say that each had its strengths and weaknesses, but the only thing Carla and Darla can honestly say is they were starkly different experiences.

PAE Community budget Forum vs PSD Annual Budget Hearing

"Carla, where have you been? I just got back from the PAE community budget forum and it was a very interesting experience."
"Oh, Darla, I was at the Pasco School District Annual Budget Hearing."
"I didn't hear about that one, did it happen tonight?"
"Yes. I found the notice online after a bit of digging earlier this week but it wasn't really widely advertised."
"Oh, I heard about the community budget forum through an online invite. There were lots of invitations floating around Facebook for weeks in advance. I even got an invite hung on my front door!"
"Huh. I guess PSD didn't really care about a large turnout."
"Well, PAE really wanted as many people there as possible. They had a whole dedicated meeting about the Pasco School District budget, which, you know, is pretty important right now. What with the bargaining going on..."
"Yeah, it is pretty important. Um... PSD's budget hearing was... well, it was during a normal school board meeting."
"Did they talk mostly about the budget?"
"No, they talked about a lot of district business. I mean it was a school board meeting."
"Oh. I'd think if they were serious about the budget's importance, they'd have a meeting just for it. Well, I'm sure they talked about the budget a whole lot, though. It was probably the number one item on the agenda. PAE's entire presentation was just budget, budget, budget."
"Well, there was a presentation about the budget. But it was sandwiched in between a report on student data software and a six item consent agenda."
"Oh. Well, I bet the presentation was good."
"It was a nice presentation. But it actually had a lot less information in it than the summarized Pasco School District 2015-2016 budget that was online. If I hadn't known about a lot of the topics and specific numbers beforehand I would have been totally lost."
"That's too bad. I learned a lot of great new information about PSD's budget. There were lots of graphs and data comparing PSD's spending to past years and other districts."
"That sounds really good. Sounds like there was a lot of information there, did you get to ask questions, too?"
"Oh, yes. At the PAE meeting, we asked a dozen questions, and we got some very specific answers. Did you get answers to all your questions at the PSD hearing?"
"...not really. The group of us there only got about 3 questions in during the hearing portion and, to be honest, none of the answers given were clear."
"What? Didn't the board give you good information?"
"Well, Saundra Hill was the only one that really answered questions. Amy Phillips tried to answer once, but Saundra Hill cut her off. Scott Lehrman made a good attempt at the end but the majority of the, uh, sort-of-answers came from Saundra."
"Well, she's been the superintendent awhile, I bet she knows a lot. Marie Conas, a budget analyst for the WAE, was super knowledgable and very polite to everyone who asked questions.  When she didn't have answers, Greg Olson did. There were only a few questions they didn't have answers for, but they said they would try to find answers and post them online. I came away knowing a LOT more than when I arrived."
"That sounds nice. To be honest, Saundra was very rude and abrupt to the people asking questions. And even with all the talking she did,  we never really got a strait answer out of her. The board members at the end were more direct but pretty reluctant. I think they knew what they had to say wasn't popular, but at least they gave real answers, even if we had to cajole it out of them."
"That's too bad. At the PAE meeting we got really simple and direct answers to our questions. Even when they didn't know the answer to something, they admitted it openly. Of course I think most of the people were happy to be there."
"Yeah, it was pretty clear that a lot of the parents and teachers that went to the PSD meeting were really unhappy with the way things are going."
"Oooh. That sounds uncomfortable. Too bad it lasted so long, weren't you in that meeting for like two  hours?"
"Yeah, but the actual hearing lasted... well only 11 minutes, actually."
"Whoa! The most important part of a two hour meeting only lasted 11 minutes?! We spent the whole PAE meeting getting information about and then asking questions about the budget!"
"We did get our normal commentary time at the beginning. But it's only two minutes per person."
"That's not much time."
"I know. One person got cut off and two more almost did."
"Nobody got cut off at the PAE budget meeting, and some of us spoke more than once."
"I'm starting to wish I'd gone to that meeting instead."
"Well, even if the PAE meeting was easier to understand and more enjoyable than the PSD budget hearing, it's still important that people went to both. If we didn't, we couldn't tell everyone else about our experiences and they sound like they were pretty stark contrasts to one another."
"You've got that right, Darla. Ice cream?"
"Sure. My treat, Carla. You had a rough night."




*Widely advertised on social media, weeks in advance
vs
*Posted quietly, per the letter of the law, the bare minimum of two weeks before the hearing, without fanfare

*Dedicated meeting, highlighting only budgetary information, as this is an extremely critical moment for the district and the budget plays a serious and important part
vs
*Mashed together with other district business, including over an hour of presentations on side projects and other district activities

*Short, single topic presentation, followed by a long Q&A session
vs
*Second to last item on long agenda, most of meeting covering other topics

*Open question and answer style, with no limit given to amount of questions or time spent speaking for each individual participant
vs
*Extremely limited public participation during opening comments (strictly observed 2 minute per participant rule) with final open hearing taking only 11 minutes of an over 2 hour meeting.

*Budgetary expert presented detailed budget, giving explicit examples of each item on budget and how monies are received and spent.
vs
*Budgetary expert presented an extremely truncated, general budget without any detailed cash flows of either revenues or expenditures.

View a summary of the PAE meeting:
 PAE Meeting
View the presentation here:
PAE Presentation 


View a summary of the PSD meeting, including transcription of the budget hearing portion:
 PSD Meeting
View PSD's budget presentation here:
PSD Presentation