Thankless job, tough times facing Rapid City school board members

School boards are often made up of well-intentioned members of the community, those with children in the district, former employees looking to make a difference, or retirees who want to give back to their community.

And it can be a huge learning curve for the uninitiated, suddenly immersed in a system surrounded by highly-trained professionals who have made a career of education/administration. It can be difficult to 'speak the language' of career administrators, much less disagree with them.

But that's the kind of independent thinking this community needs from its school board, now more than ever as the district faces what Superintendent Dr. Peter Wharton describes as one of its worst financial crises ever.

The superintendent and the school board admitted they 'rolled the dice' when they added staff, presuming that they would receive more state funding during the 2008 session of Legislature. Considering the weak economy and the governor's track record of education funding, we're not sure how they came to that conclusion.

How do you explain to the parents of this district that you 'rolled the dice' and lost? What kind of message does that send to taxpayers from the caretakers of their school tax dollars? And what kind of message does it send when the district gives out raises of up to 12 percent for its administration, adds teachers and planning time -- and then announces its fund balance may plummet from $8 million to $1 million by the end of next school year unless major budget cuts are made.

Add in that the superintendent and the school board had planned to recommend their budget cuts just one week after announcing details of the district's financial problems publicly, with no real time allotted for public input.

All of this quickly adds up to frustration from within the community. And that frustration won't serve the district well, a district which may be hoping the community will eventually support an opt-out election, which would remove the cap on Rapid City's property taxes and allow more funding for this school district. If this is the way the district manages its finances and listens to the community, it will be a tough sell for the city's taxpayers.

We encourage this school board to become an advocate for the families and the students of this district, and not the administration or the teachers. There needs to be a long-term solution developed for this financial problem, and blaming the state is not one of them.

There need to be reductions within the administrative and teaching ranks, not just realignments. The district will need to reduce/combine the number of elementary schools, as there are several which are well below capacity as student enrollment dwindles. And the school district may need to target even more of its programs next year if the fund balance cannot be sustained.

However, the cuts need to be made across the board. The recommendations next year can't be primarily focused again on cutting programs and closing schools. Every group must sacrifice.

Therefore, we ask this school board - during what has become a crucial period in this district's history - to review the school district's finances/spending closely and be independent voices on behalf of the taxpayers and parents.