Adele Bovard Superintendent of Webster Schools on Maggie’s allegation that Schools’ have a slush fund
Adele put together a solid presentation on the impact of Maggie’s unF.A.I.R. plan to the Webster Central School district. I’ll try to post individual clips of the salient points.
Here is the first - Her response to Maggie’s allegation that schools have slush funds. Yes, according to Maggie, the schools are sitting on a pile of money that is simply waiting for the county to reallocate it.
More fiction and nonsense from Maggie Brooks. Where did she get that idea? From her crack budget team?
Here is the deal. Every school district has a reserve fund. It is designed to protect the integrity of the education program. It is like a saving account. It smooths the financial ride when the state budgets are late (Ah, the Pataki years), or in case there is a major equipment failure or other unforseen event. School Budgets are passed when? In the month of May with a promise of State aid. What happens when that aid is late or does not happen?
What happens when our County takes money out of school budgets AKA the “F.A.I.R.” plan in the middle of a budget year?
First, listen to Maggie say the all the county schools are sitting on 4 million dollars in a “slush” fund. This from her faux town hall meeting.
Note that is not 4 million per school it is a supposed total across the county. The same math says there is $50 million in reserves in the Water Authority. Or the Siemens contract is 12 Million. But let’s focus on the 4 milli0n dollars for all Monroe county schools.
Now listen to Adele Bovard - superintendent of the Webster schools (I recreated the slide and the audio isn’t the best - sorry)
Pay attention at the 2:05 mark - listen to the story about her previous job when they needed the reserve fund.
Folks - a reserve fund is an insurance policy. It is used every year to smooth out the budget and ensure the financial integrity of the education programs.
Repeating fiction that the schools have a slush fund is like saying - Our health insurance policy is don’t get sick. It works until you get sick - then you could die. It is as simple as that.
Our kids should not be tossed under the school bus because of this fiction presented by our County Executive - Maggie Brooks.
So if Morelle and the MCDC are asleep at the wheel, at least the schools can articulate opposition to the Republican leadership. Too bad those who are supposed to be doing it aren’t bothering.
It’s important to note that School District unencumbered reserves are limited by state law to 2% of their operating budget - about a week’s operating costs. That’s all the wiggle room they’ve got before they have to start balancing the county shortfall by cutting programs.
Also, they’re limited to the school budgets passed by voters in May - they can’t just raise taxes out of the blue.
I really like the link you made to the WA’s true slush fund. Sharp thinking.
Adele Bovard is on her game. If a mind her sharp were running the County the past few years. I’d be willing to bet we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.
Of course unlike the politicians, Adele is a person who has maintained her commitment to what she believes in: helping kids.
Carmen Gumina & Adele make it just a little easier to live in Webster these days; especially knowing that Maggie, Minarik and Dave Malta are here dragging down the competence, civility and humanity meters.
[...] strikes me is these School district administrators - Bovard in Webster, Manaseri in Brighton, and Maffucci in East Rochester are now engaged in full contact politics [...]