Our Challenge

Mr  Butch Eversole sent me an email on October 6 expressing his concerns for himself, his family and the district. I reproduce my reply here and beneath it, the original email. I think these are great questions born of real concerns and deserve a wide audience.

Mr Eversole,

Thank you for your email.

First, allow me to preface my replies with an assessment of the economic environment we face. We must plan and act within that environment; we cannot ignore it.

The economy is in the second phase of a double-dip recession. Over the past ten years or so we as individuals, as governments and as a country spent money we didn’t have. Beginning in about 2007, we tried to spend our way out of debt by printing and borrowing even more money. It hasn’t worked.  It can’t work. Economists predict, at the worst end, hyperinflation and a deep depression. Today real unemployment, measured as it was measured in 1980, is at about 22%–close to the historic levels of the Great Depression. The percent of people engaged in the workforce has dropped to 1979 levels.

The state legislature in recent years has overextended itself as well. Sen Kent Lambert, who sits on the Joint Budget Committee and who has endorsed my campaign, did a marvelous job of balancing the budget this past session, but he acknowledges that more cuts are to come. How much we don’t know.

District 38 overextended itself as well, particularly in building and staffing a second high school. They have incurred costs that we now have to deal with. We have not been terribly effective in dealing with these issues in the usual way: it is time to try something else.

That’s why I’m running for the school board. Typically, government decision makers balance the budgets in a short term way: cutting teachers and teacher salaries in bad times and hiring on more teachers in good times. This is what happened to me when I taught in District 20. Worse, hiring and firing  teachers is without regard to the quality of their teaching. As the last hired, I was automatically the first fired.

It is patently unfair to teachers to expect them to bear the brunt of these funding issues–especially when you consider that teaching is the core of what we do as a district. It only considers current spending–the operating budget–without considering the capital balance sheet; that is, the plant and other capital resources that the district owns. Think of it as past, present and future:

- the past is the investments we’ve made in real property and we still have to maintain it.
- the present is the operating budget and we have to fund it
- the future is the resources–our reserves and our staff–that we’ll need to operate next year and beyond

We have to address all areas. Balancing the budget on the backs of teachers is not only bad policy, it hurts the district in the long run. IT is not fair to anyone: not teachers, students, parents or taxpayers.

How do we get out of this situation? Waiting for the economy to get better is the wrong answer. The better answer is to do what Americans have always done: innovate. Build a better school district–one that has a net gain of student enrollment due to choice, not a net loss. Build a budget that focuses on our core mission of educating our students and using our resources most efficiently and effectively. One that is more resilient and not so much at the mercy of the ups and downs of revenue sources that are out of our control.

I’ve been in situations like this before: first in the military draw-down in the 1990s and then in the post-Dot Com downturn in the early 2000s.  This can be done. There will be pain but we can minimize it. Anyone who paints a rosy picture is lying to you to get your vote. I will never do that.

I have posted this answer on my website, acmaurer.info, so that others may benefit as well. Please feel free to share my response, in it’s entirety, with your friends.

Again, thank you for expressing your concerns. Together,  we can build a better Lewis-Palmer School District.

Best regards,
Al
On 10/6/2011 9:06 PM, Butch Eversole wrote:

Mr. Maurer,

I have a few questions regarding your stance and thoughts on issues as a candidate for the LPSD Board of Education. I hope that you will have the time to provide answers, and I thank you in advance for your time.

My wife and I are extremely vested in D-38.  We are both teachers in the district (I’m at PRHS, my wife is at LPES), our 2 children are in 1st grade at LPES, and we own a home in Woodmoor.  Last night, we were able to watch just a bit of the Information Night via the webcast.  Your comments have generated some questions and, frankly, some concerns from us.  I apologize if any of these questions were answered last night, as I didn’t get to see the entire event.

To further preface my questions, I hope you understand what teachers in this district have faced in recent years.  While we have been on a well-publicized pay freeze with the same salary for 4 years now, our take home pay has actually decreased.  Our out of pocket insurance premiums have risen. Stipends for some extra duties have been adjusted.  Even with the small “bonus” we received last month, my annual salary is less than last year–without even taking into account increased insurance premium deductions each month.  Further, teachers at all levels have more students.  Teachers at the high school level have more classes, and more students in each class.

Your comments and answers last night seemed to reflect a plan to further reduce district spending without the need for tax questions on the ballot.  How/where would you make cuts in the current district budget?

Do you have a plan to increase teacher compensation?  If so, how?

What is your plan to address the maintenance and capital improvement issues that have been neglected in recent years?

How can/should LPSD be funded?

Thank you again for your time.  I look forward to your responses.

Regards,

Butch Eversole