I.C. school board’s budget in disarray

At the April 8 Iowa City school board meeting, school administration unveiled its district budget adjustment summary. Included was a long list of curriculum, sports and other staffing cuts to prevent the district from deficit spending.

We've all heard about the language elimination to seventh-graders, the phasing out of German and elementary orchestra cuts; the general education para-educator, elimination of library staffing and on and on.

One of the only administration hits was highlighted as being a $100,000 savings for not filling the Director of Community Relations position.

This item caught my eye as I have many times commented on this position for many years. As you may or may not remember, the Homebuilding program was eliminated similarly about five years ago to save $60,000.

I have always argued that the money spent for the Director of Community Relations could have been better used to provide curriculum for our students in the construction field.

When the district chose to eliminate this position, I was curious as to how they came up with $100,000 savings because the individual's last published salary was only $73,000 a year. Did this position receive $27,000 in benefits and perks? And let's be honest — they haven't eliminated the position either, just essentially retitled it.

The position is now called Coordinator of Community Affairs and is a full-time position that receives $60,000 a year. So, actually it's a savings of only $13,000.

And who says the administration isn't enduring pain in this budget crisis. We would not need a PR branch of our schools if we maintain our curriculum and provide for the needs of our students.

In the April 13 Press-Citizen, school board president Sally Hoelscher urges residents to contact their legislator about state education aid: 'I think we just have to make as much noise as possible.'

As a citizen, I have tried to make as much noise as possible for the board to examine the consent agenda, which ranges from $2 million to $4 million at each meeting, but president Hoelscher has no interest in it.

It's much easier to complain that we're not getting more money to spend than to closely scrutinize your own spending, over which you have 100 percent control.

And let's not forget what they've spent money on: $500,000 to an unnamed land developer for a road, $154,000 for a contractor's mistake in the City High Fine Arts addition, $172,000 for administrative parking behind the ESC, $78,000 for a test kitchen at the Physical Plant and millions of dollars for 'no bid' contracts to vendors. They still have no policy for competitive bidding on service contracts. How many months of board time and effort was wasted on 'community comment' at board meetings when we should have been discussing areas to save money?

Get your own house in order before you gripe about Des Moines!

• Phil Hemingway of Iowa City is a local business owner who ran for school board in the September 2013 election. Comments: phil@philsrepairllc.com