As the dust settles on the state’s financial situation, Morgan
Hill Unified School District officials are rethinking the way they
break the news to parents and taxpayers.
As the dust settles on the state’s financial situation, Morgan Hill Unified School District officials are rethinking the way they break the news to parents and taxpayers.
District officials are looking to reconfigure the school district budget into soundbite form: one to two pages summarizing the district’s $72 million general fund, available online in the near future, according to Deputy Superintendent Bonnie Tognazzini. The current budget is not online.
The board unanimously approved the 2009/10 annual budget during their June 23 meeting, after being presented with a six-page summary version supplemented with a few narratives detailing budget assumptions on state financing.
Soon, though, the general public will be able to view an even briefer summary online at mhu.k12.ca.us. Trustees called it a good starting point, but according to California public interest agencies, the district doesn’t reach the highest standard in providing access to financial documents.
The complete district budget, a 2008/09 version of which was acquired by the Morgan Hill Times after a months-long requesting process that ended in a Public Records Act request, consists of numerical codes and dollar amounts printed on 86 pages of spreadsheets that document, piecemeal, the inner workings of the organization.
Comparatively, nearby Gilroy Unified School District and the City of Morgan Hill keep finances in a budget book. Gilroy Unified’s budget features pie graphs, a boundaries map and a financial overview. The City of Morgan Hill’s budget has the same features, and has won national recognition five years in a row for its presentation.
Staff at both Gilroy Unified and the City of Morgan Hill furnish copies of these comprehensive financial documents to their governing bodies and copies are available to the public. Morgan Hill’s complete operating budget is online, too.
For the school district, however, staff presents PowerPoint summaries to complement the state-mandated reports that the board receives in lieu of a budget book.
California First Amendment Coalition advisor James Chadwick said, “When (school board members are asked to approve the annual budget, they should have a document that accurately contains the information that a budget contains, income and expenses that are going to be covered. With just estimates, a snapshot – it’s kind of hard for me to see how anybody could approve a budget (with just that).”
Aside from the board knowing what they’re approving, Joel Montero, CEO of the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), said the document is an important communication tool for a district. FCMAT gives financial advise to educational agencies.
“It’s the board’s responsibility to make sure the district’s priorities are communicated through the budget document, because that document tells the community what’s important to that particular organization. That’s done in different ways in different communities, but normally, if you put – and this is not a slam on Morgan Hill – if you put (the district’s budget summary) in the hands of a typical mom and dad of a third grader, in this technical format, it’s not going to make a lot of sense to them.
“If the public is not asking for that, that’s another issue. Most boards respond to requests from people. When times are tough, you need to do more in terms of communicating where you are as a district,” Montero said.
California Taxpayers’ Association spokesman David Kline agreed.
“It’s been our experience that the details matter,” Kline said. “The taxpayers should have a chance to see where every dollar is being spent … (The district) should make every attempt to make it as presentable as possible, realizing that the average taxpayer is not an accountant, and has a job and family that takes most of their time. They don’t have countless hours to go over spreadsheets that are not presented in an accessible way.”
Tognazzini said she got positive feedback for the community budget forums in the spring, during which she gave detailed presentations on the district’s financial situation. But explaining Average Daily Attendance, for example, in person versus in print are very different things, she said.
“Most of the people wouldn’t understand a lot of the details. When you give such a volume of information, I think they feel like it’s done intentionally so people won’t understand … Black and white numbers are hard to understand.”
When Tognazzini first came on board 17 years ago, the district had a budget book in place that she was very proud of, she said. But, there were about five people who used it and it took $4,000 and countless staff hours to produce, she said.
Montero was hesitant to criticize Morgan Hill Unified’s financial communication practices, and he wasn’t surprised with the format that Morgan Hill’s budget takes.
“I see a lot of districts (with boards) that approve a technical document, but then at the budget time, present PowerPoint presentations. I’d be hardpressed to say one more method is done any more than others. It’s all over the waterfront, local community by local community.”
Clovis, for example, has a good, user-friendly public budget format, he said.
“But the community in Clovis demands it. They demand it of the board, and the board demands it of the staff.”
Trustee Shelle Thomas said she wasn’t sure a majority of the board would back spending the time and money on creating a more complete, palatable budget document. She wasn’t convinced that it would be a good use of resources, either.
“It would be nice if there was something. But I can go in at any time, and if I have any questions, the budget department can answer them. But actually seeing it?” Thomas said, adding that she does feel educated when making decisions.
Thomas said while now is a good time to try to understand the district’s finances, she wasn’t sure that devoting manpower to a budget book effort was the way to go.
Thomas said there are public forums already, and the online budget summary will help. She said the district might also consider using EDtv, the district’s new television channel, to get budget information to the public.
Board of Education Vice President Bart Fisher said the online budget summary is a good starting point, and he hopes budget formatting is a part of the discussion as the district looks for a new leader. Superintendent Alan Nishino, who retired June 30, will end his interim term Aug. 30.
For some trustees, having a user-friendly budget would go a long way in remedying the district’s oft-criticized communication style. Even if a palatable school budget took hours of staff time and created more criticism from the public, the advantages would be worth it, Fisher said.
“I would prefer we get into trouble for being too open” than for being too closed off, he said.
The first-term board member noted that the position is largely learn-as-you-go, and if there were a comprehensive financial document available, freshman trustees would be brought up to speed faster.
Across town, the City of Morgan Hill’s finance staff follow hundreds of Government Finance Officers Association guidelines in order to qualify for the association’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award.
Jimmy Forbis, the city’s budget manager, said he didn’t think the city would save much time by not following the association’s guidelines. It’s the actual balancing of the budget that’s difficult, he said.
“The document is me proving what I do,” Forbis said of the city’s budget. “It shows in several different ways what we’ve done, at the service level.
“It makes it easy for other people to read. You have to keep in mind who’s your reader. It would be easy to just use a lot of technical jargon – but we’re writing it for the residents and the city council.”
Fisher said he hopes the summary is a jumping off point.
“I would hope we would evolve from this reactionary style … to a point where people can come to us with their questions with a little information under our belts. To have that level of dialogue and appreciative inquiry, not with people coming in and clubbing us in the head with some of the data, but really trying to solve problems.”
