D211 board member Bill Lloyd posted a very informative short essay on his new D211 blog over the weekend about the impact of the 2005 referendum.
In the short essay, Mr. Lloyd notes that what the district projected it would have in the education fund cash reserve at the end of each fiscal year if the referendum passed, and what it actually has, are two very different things.
The District estimated it would have $19,500,000 as of June 30, 2006.
It actually had $46,300,000.
At the end of January 31, 2007, it had $61,000,000 in the education fund cash reserve (EFCR). The District has tens of millions more in the account already than it projected it would have in 2010.
And yet, as Mr. Lloyd points out, the stratospheric and growing levels in the EFCR did nothing to temper the board’s hunger for a huge new “working cash” bond issue of $53 million approved in mid-2006. The bulk of that $53 million is being spent on construction projects in schools whose enrollment is expected to decline, according to the district’s own projections.
Mr. Lloyd writes:
When it was raised at the board table, the majority of the board was unwilling to discuss the need for borrowing the full $53 million given the revenue windfall the district is taking in through the education fund. Further it did not stop to consider the relationship of the declining enrollment projections and the scope of the construction project, i.e. was the entire project needed or could it have been scaled down given the enrollment projections.
The majority of humans fear conflict and will go to great lengths to avoid it. Mr. Lloyd has to regularly sit around a board table with the other six board members.
We all know that when you state your disagreements in a public forum, you risk various kinds of social ostracism. A situation usually has to be pretty dire before someone will take that risk.
I strongly commend Mr. Lloyd for his courage.
And, of course, for his commonsense ideas of what long-term responsible fiscal stewardship would look like in D211.
