Budgets, Winder, Auburn and schools...
Friday, July 27. 2012
Good grief! Will those sanctimonious public bureaucrats never learn? Even after several years of controversy over how the Barrow County government and the City of Winder have done their annual budget process, county officials apparently didn’t get the message. Rather than setting up a formal budget review process, county officials began their budget reviews this year with an informal, secret process. Why? Because inane bureaucrats thought that would be the best way to skirt the state Open Meetings Law.
A Journal reporter recently crashed one of the secret budget meetings and it set the bureaucrats atwitter. How dare we invade the privacy of their budget sanctum!
So let’s say this again to all government officials and their bureaucratic bean counters: It ain’t your money you’re spending. That money belongs to the taxpayers and they have the right to know not just the final budget data, but also why and how you made those spending decisions.
This isn’t the first time a public official has tried to play games with keeping the public in the dark on government spending. At one of the Journal’s sister newspapers last year, a city finance official had her city council meet at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning in the basement of the city hall to discuss the town’s faltering budget. When our reporter showed up, she refused to give us a copy of the proposed budget. That bone-headed official was recently fired by that town’s council for being a bonehead.
What goes around, comes around. In the meantime, the Journal will continue to press for access to all local government financial data so that our readers will know how THEIR tax money is being spent.
•••
So now criminal charges have been pressed against one person who formerly worked for the City of Winder in the meter-gate scandal. Seems the former city government was more screwed up than even its critics thought.
The new city administration has brought greater transparency and more professionalism to the city government’s operations and much to its credit, has unmasked the old system for what it really was.
Rumors circulate that the old Winder administration is plotting a comeback attempt at the next election cycle. Boy, won’t that be fun to write about.
•••
It’s difficult to know just how to interpret the recent school results on the CRCT for Barrow County schools. As a system, Barrow County has struggled in recent years with its performance in Math. That’s been true at the elementary level as well as in the high schools. Either the curriculum is bad, the teachers are bad, or both.
This year’s results in Math were mixed for the system. Some schools improved while others did worse. There was not much of an obvious pattern.
For the 8th Grade, Russell Middle School had the best improvement in Math dropping its failure rate from 34 percent last year to 18.2 percent this year. Winder-Barrow Middle School also improved, but was still below the state average. The improvement was a positive sign, but more needs to be done at that school.
At the 5th Grade level, most of the county’s elementary schools improved or were rather close to last year’s results in Math. But two schools — County Line Elementary School and Bramlett Elementary School — had dramatically worse results and both were below the state average.
The overall trend seems to be improving for the system, but where there were dramatic negative changes, the quality of instruction at those schools need a serious review. If the math teachers in those schools aren’t getting the job done, then make changes sooner rather than later. The system owes it to the kids to see that they get the best instruction possible.
•••
The Auburn City Council is in the process of setting its budget for the coming fiscal year. With that, citizens will soon see if the council can get a handle on its overspending, or if the city will continue to bleed money.
For the last four years, the town has been living off reserves. Each of those years, Auburn has spent more money than it has taken in and made up the shortfall by dipping into a huge amount of reserves it accrued during the boom years. But those reserves are now beginning to run low and the town can’t forever continue to spend more each year than it takes in. That math just won’t work forever.
So far, the city council has been oblivious to that reality. It’s a rare city council member who can read a budget or financial statement, much less understand what it means. Most just sit on their thumbs and never ask any questions.
The real problem is that the town has too large of a police department for the size of the community. Some 50 percent of the town’s general fund goes to that one department.
This is a common problem in many small towns and eventually, the reality catches up. Anytime a single department consumes half of a city budget, there will be financial problems in the town. Officials often try to mask that by adopting higher taxes, fees and utility rates, but that doesn’t alter the fundamental issue that one department is simply too big.
No city government likes to hear that, but the reality is what it is. And when the money runs out and city council members begin to whine, they will have nobody to blame but themselves for their lack of due diligence today.
Mike Buffington is co-publisher of the Barrow Journal. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
So let’s say this again to all government officials and their bureaucratic bean counters: It ain’t your money you’re spending. That money belongs to the taxpayers and they have the right to know not just the final budget data, but also why and how you made those spending decisions.
This isn’t the first time a public official has tried to play games with keeping the public in the dark on government spending. At one of the Journal’s sister newspapers last year, a city finance official had her city council meet at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning in the basement of the city hall to discuss the town’s faltering budget. When our reporter showed up, she refused to give us a copy of the proposed budget. That bone-headed official was recently fired by that town’s council for being a bonehead.
What goes around, comes around. In the meantime, the Journal will continue to press for access to all local government financial data so that our readers will know how THEIR tax money is being spent.
•••
So now criminal charges have been pressed against one person who formerly worked for the City of Winder in the meter-gate scandal. Seems the former city government was more screwed up than even its critics thought.
The new city administration has brought greater transparency and more professionalism to the city government’s operations and much to its credit, has unmasked the old system for what it really was.
Rumors circulate that the old Winder administration is plotting a comeback attempt at the next election cycle. Boy, won’t that be fun to write about.
•••
It’s difficult to know just how to interpret the recent school results on the CRCT for Barrow County schools. As a system, Barrow County has struggled in recent years with its performance in Math. That’s been true at the elementary level as well as in the high schools. Either the curriculum is bad, the teachers are bad, or both.
This year’s results in Math were mixed for the system. Some schools improved while others did worse. There was not much of an obvious pattern.
For the 8th Grade, Russell Middle School had the best improvement in Math dropping its failure rate from 34 percent last year to 18.2 percent this year. Winder-Barrow Middle School also improved, but was still below the state average. The improvement was a positive sign, but more needs to be done at that school.
At the 5th Grade level, most of the county’s elementary schools improved or were rather close to last year’s results in Math. But two schools — County Line Elementary School and Bramlett Elementary School — had dramatically worse results and both were below the state average.
The overall trend seems to be improving for the system, but where there were dramatic negative changes, the quality of instruction at those schools need a serious review. If the math teachers in those schools aren’t getting the job done, then make changes sooner rather than later. The system owes it to the kids to see that they get the best instruction possible.
•••
The Auburn City Council is in the process of setting its budget for the coming fiscal year. With that, citizens will soon see if the council can get a handle on its overspending, or if the city will continue to bleed money.
For the last four years, the town has been living off reserves. Each of those years, Auburn has spent more money than it has taken in and made up the shortfall by dipping into a huge amount of reserves it accrued during the boom years. But those reserves are now beginning to run low and the town can’t forever continue to spend more each year than it takes in. That math just won’t work forever.
So far, the city council has been oblivious to that reality. It’s a rare city council member who can read a budget or financial statement, much less understand what it means. Most just sit on their thumbs and never ask any questions.
The real problem is that the town has too large of a police department for the size of the community. Some 50 percent of the town’s general fund goes to that one department.
This is a common problem in many small towns and eventually, the reality catches up. Anytime a single department consumes half of a city budget, there will be financial problems in the town. Officials often try to mask that by adopting higher taxes, fees and utility rates, but that doesn’t alter the fundamental issue that one department is simply too big.
No city government likes to hear that, but the reality is what it is. And when the money runs out and city council members begin to whine, they will have nobody to blame but themselves for their lack of due diligence today.
Mike Buffington is co-publisher of the Barrow Journal. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
As for the ticket revenue, you may want to go and see the REAL amount of revenue it brings in...not much. As far as where the officers sit, again go and do your homework. Officers try and stay visible to the areas where most of the accidents occur. Go get ALL facts before posting things you know little about.
But...call it an excuse, as I know many will, but one of the contributing agents that is so often overlooked or not even considered is the makeup of students tested from year to year. I'm speaking for one of the schools that had "dramatically worse results" in math this past year in 5th grade. That particular cohort group has scored lower than the norm for the past three years on standardized tests. It is no surprise that that group contributed to the major difference in scores from the year before. Every year teachers deal with a conglomeration of many different cognitive levels and obviously altogether different students. Numbers of students with disabilities are different from year to year, as are ELL students--even ones who have just entered an American school with no understanding of the English language who are required to take the Math portion of the CRCT. There are many variables to consider before jumping to the conclusion that the 5th grade teachers aren't "getting the job done." That assumption also indicates that the administrators at these schools are subpar for not recognizing the "poor" teachers--if that is indeed the case. Couldn't be further from the truth. Administrators at these schools are top-notch and, rest assuredly, are able to identify any low-performing teachers and take the necessary measures to ameliorate the situation to ensure "all kids get the best instruction owed to them."
Yes, there is ALWAYS room for improvement in all aspects of education. Teachers and administrators are constantly meeting to discuss ways to improve instruction, address the needs of all learners, and set goals for success. Teachers go to sleep and wake up thinking of better ways to get their students to understand. It's a continuous process and just as in poker sometimes you are dealt better hands than others. Unfortunately, teacher morale continues to drop lower each year as "teachers feel helpless with repect to the publication of their students' test scores, causing them emotional distress and incessant badgering in the media as if they were the only ones who influenced these scores." (Haladyna, T.M. (2002)Essentials of Standardized Achievement Testing: Validity and Accountability) "By the end of this decade about half of the current teachers will retire." Hmmm....It's 2012 now. I already know of one teacher who "folded-em" because of Haladyna's very reason. And she was a darn good YOUNG teacher.
Let me make one thing explicitly clear. Standardized tests in and of themselves are not bad things. They are useful when diagnosing a learning problem, but shouldn't be the sole factor for determining success of student learning or passing a grade. They should be ONE assessment among several that determines whether a student is progressing or not. They should be used, in limited capacity, to assess how well schools are doing.
The key is finding balance in using the scores effectively and remembering that we are dealing with real people (students with varying issues) and not JUST cold hard numbers.
I can tell you for certain that that is not the case in this area.
I looked up on collegeboard.com data about the SAT and the site actually reflects the same data that we see here in Barrow county. That is, minorities do not do as well as whites. It states it right on the site. I would also argue to Mike that demographics plays a much bigger role in test taking than instruction. Sure, instruction and a weak curriculum does matter, however time and time again the socioeconomic status of students is the number one indicator of how a school as a whole will do.
Isn't that the Barrow way? Get get caught pulling some insider deal, wasting taxes, stealing land, stealing services, sex etc...
All you have to do is wait out a cycle and all those issues will become irrational fears blown out of proportion. Why you don't even have to show up for the meet n greets because everyone know Lampp is a "Good Old Boy". Same goes for Brown.
Why even if things are still too "Hot" (Garrison), you can run the county from your office with your Airport BOC in place.
I wouldn't be surprised by what gets soft pedaled next time around...
As far as leadership at BOE, yes changes are needed. These families and students will in Barrow County long after she is gone. Vote out the incumbents to start the change.