School Officials Disagree Over Budget Appropriations

Treasurer Mark Pepera was met with stiff resistance from board members Nate Cross and Tim Sullivan as he sought to approve the operational end of the district’s 2011-12 budget.

Cross and Sullivan voted against the appropriations at Monday night's Board of Education meeting, while board members Tom Mays, Andrea Rocco and Carol Winter voted for it. 

The respective 3-2 split is nothing new when it comes to financial matters that go before the board, and Superintendent Dan Keenan took exception to much of Cross’s and Sullivan’s reasoning as it dealt with more of the personnel end of the budget. 

“What makes it difficult here is (the idea) 'We’re going to hold you for ransom and vote no until you accept my concept or idea,'” Keenan said of Cross’s and Sullivan’s positions. “I don’t know how that would work if we had the majority of people on this board voting no in that fashion. We would be left without an appropriation to buy a book, buy a piece of paper, buy materials or take a field trip. 

“We’re not voting on (teacher) contracts right now. Mark (Pepera) and I aren’t recommending for you to do that.” 

Operational expenses include classroom materials, textbooks, gasoline for buses and so on. The costs comprise about 15 percent of the district’s $52.1 million annual budget. Since the district only has $48.4 million in revenue to work with this year due to state funding cuts, operational expenditures were cut by 6.7 percent to help absorb the losses, Pepera said. 

The $3.7 million gap between revenue and expenditures will be filled in by the district's rainy day fund. 

Personnel accounts for about 85 percent of the district’s general fund expenses, and school officials are currently in meetings with the Westlake Teachers' Association to determine whether or not the two sides can reach an agreement and go into negotiations that would freeze or reduce teacher salaries in the near term. 

The teacher contracts aren’t set to expire until Dec. 31, 2012, and the consensus among Keenan, Pepera and all five board members is that salaries need to be reduced to balance a budget that has jumped from $33 million to $52 million in the last decade alone. 

Board president Tom Mays had the last word of the meeting and said that practically every school system in the state was grappling with budget shortfalls, including Westlake which is positioned to lose over the next two years.