Time To Step-Up And Do The Right Thing

Oct. 21, 2016

Let’s put this in perspective. We all heard our Republican presidential candidate claim he was going to build a wall along the Mexican border with a big door, and that Mexico was going to pay for it. That should have been a non-starter for a presidential campaign but here he is, still saying it, and still in the running.

Shift that locally to our Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District (TBAISD), which wants to build and maintain a “rainy day fund” at the expense of local school districts and taxpayers. TBAISD is statutorily charged with directly or indirectly supplying services and transportation to our area’s special education students and collects local, state, and federal taxes to do so. When the annual dust settles, however, only $3.5 million of the $45 million collected annually from taxpayers is making its way through the ISD into local special education classrooms.

These special ed students rightly have mandated services that must be provided to them by each of the ISD’s member districts. It is their moral and ethical responsibility as educators and administrators to teach all kids based on their needs. In order to do that, the state has designated the TBAISD as the fiduciary for either delivering those services or passing on the monies to let local districts deliver them themselves; those are not ISD funds to hoard or divert. Even local district elected school boards are not allowed to tell the ISD to “keep the money and we’ll pay for the services ourselves.”

It’s all in the numbers (Fiscal 2014-2015 from TBAISD): -$585,168 Kalkaska, -$599,000 Benzie, -$448,238 Kingsley, -$247,698 Suttons Bay, -$264,756 Mancelona, -$315,781 Elk Rapids, and -$3,008,034 for Traverse City Area Public Schools. These deficits are for special education funding in the budgets of seven of the 16 districts that TBAISD serves. $5,468,675 of special education fund deficits in these seven districts alone. Every district in the ISD is running their special education programs at a fund deficit with those monies subsuming in excess of 2.5 percent of their general fund expenditures. The other relevant numbers, $34 million and 54 percent, represent the total cash reserves of the TBAISD and the amount of stockpiled cash the ISD has in comparison to their annual fund expenditures. All of this is being done with taxpayer monies dedicated to providing special education services to our most vulnerable students. It is being horded while their member school districts fight to stave off state control (should their general fund reserves reach five percent).

The ISD sits on a 54.5 percent fund balance while more than half of their member districts have fund reserves of 10.6 percent or less. As mentioned, when only $3.5 million of the $45 million (annually) from federal, state, and local taxpayers is making its’ way past the ISD into local special education classrooms, ISD member school boards and taxpayers ought to be asking hard questions of the TBAISD board members.

Take Kalkaska Public Schools for instance: A major tax mistake creates a $900,000 hole in their budget. They now consider cutting staff, relocating students, closing an alternative high school, and curtailing new initiatives with an uncertain financial future; but do they question the nearly $600,000 owed to them by the ISD? No. The same silence is coming from many member districts in the ISD.

This situation has been in place for at least ten years, or for almost one quarter of the time the current ISD board president has been on the board, and the entire time that the current superintendent has been in charge. In fact, for a board that has never been publicly elected, many past board members served for over 20 years, the current chair now approaching an incredible 40 years. I believe they all care deeply about the students and about providing quality services to those children with special needs. What isn’t clear is if they share the same urgency about their responsibility to fund those very services.

So where do we go from here? For one thing, demand change.

1. Have ISD board members publicly elected. No more “insider trading” as the ISD picks and chooses their own board candidates. (TBAISD decision)

2. Institute term limits on the ISD board positions and shorten the terms from 6 to 4 years. (State decision)

3. Implement a ceiling on fund balances with specific, realistic targets for capital and operational expenses. Consider 10 percent for the operational fund balance and $10 million for future capital projects (which they have already budgeted for) (TBAISD decision)

4. Stop the spending of $30,000 on a marketing specialist to “sell” this fund balance hording to the districts taxpayers. (TBAISD decision)

5. And most importantly, immediately disburse the special education funds to TBAISD member districts based on their current special education fund deficits. Make them whole by accepting responsibility to provide and pay for those services. (TBAISD decision)

This is critically important for our region.. The kids who can least afford it are caught in the ever-expanding net of “rainy day financing” and deserve our attention. We need to pull ourselves away from presidential politics and focus on our local future, educating all the children of this area.

Scott Hardy is a current Traverse City Area Public Schools board member as well as a member of the Grand Traverse County Planning Commission. He is a lifelong Traverse City resident and a past member of the Traverse City Commission, Downtown Development Authority, and City Planning Commission.