School board members at odds over budget

PALMER — A Mat-Su Borough School Board meeting heated up Wednesday evening after an exchange between board member Jim Colver and board President Sarah Welton ended with Welton calling for a five-minute break before storming out of the room.

The pair argued over what district spokeswoman Catherine Esary called philosophical differences when discussing the fiscal year 2009 budget.

At issue was the program-based budgeting used by the school board. The board’s process breaks the district’s budget into packages, essentially grouping together funding in categories prioritized by various committees. Esary said the board typically votes on each package in its entirety and doesn’t dissect packages as Colver seemingly wanted to during the budget’s final approval.

“It’s a rational means of meeting stakeholder visions, and also the board’s visions,” Esary said.

Colver said he sought to take apart one of the packages to attempt to fund an employee position the board really wanted. That’s where Welton stepped in, saying that it was not the way the board works when approving a budget.

As the argument between Colver and Welton became heated — Colver saying he could dissect a budget package, Welton saying he could not — board member Cheryl Turner sprang to Welton’s defense, chiding Colver by saying the president had made a ruling.

Appearing frustrated by the exchange, Welton banged her gavel, called for the intermission and left hurriedly to a back room. Other members of the school board, including Colver, sat for nearly a minute before beginning to mill about.

After the brief intermission, the board reconvened to continue debating the budget.

“I would like you to study the process,” Welton said, urging Colver to respect the budget process.

The eventual change saw the board — with Colver in opposition — approve moving an enhanced operation and maintenance package below a special education funding package in ranking order.

The main motion, approval of the FY09 budget, passed unanimously.

Asked following the meeting whether she thinks relations are becoming strained on the school board, Welton said she doesn’t believe so.

“I don’t hold grudges,” she said.

For Colver, recent tense meetings of the school board are a sign of change.

“I think you’ve got some of the older board members who kind of see things from a different angle than some of those who are more recently elected,” Colver said.

As for program-based budgeting, Colver said he is not a fan of the board’s current process.

“The PBB budget process needs an overhaul,” Colver said. “It’s a magic show.”

Colver takes specific issue with the board’s delegation of the budget to subcommittees, something he said board members should chair and be actively involved in.

“There was three times as much deliberation and contemplation of spending priorities for the $2.2 million in energy grant than the entire budget,” Colver said, referring to a one-time state grant the district received for the 2008 budget year.

The board hasn’t mentioned changing its budgeting process, and Welton said the program-based system is much better than the previous method of being handed budget books and calculators by the district.

Colver doesn’t mince words when talking about the PBB process, however.

“In my opinion, the [program] based budgeting needs reform and I think we will have to fix it,” Colver said.

Earlier in the evening, and following weeks of postponement, the school board voted unanimously to carry the remainder of an energy supplement allocation — about $800,000 — from the state into fiscal year 2009.

The move came a day after the Mat-Su Borough Assembly voted to partially waive an ordinance mandating the school surrender half its unspent funds at the end of the fiscal year to the Borough’s school site selection fund. While the school district will still have to give up 50 percent of its unspent operating budget — amounting to about $500,000 — the assembly is allowing the entire energy supplement to stay with the district.

Wednesday’s board meeting is the last until August. The board typically takes July off. The next school board meeting will be at 6 p.m. Aug. 6 in the Palmer High School Upper Library.

Contact Michael Rovito at michael.rovito@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.