Last night the PTO and Corda met to drum up the scare tactics that will be used to rally support around the inflexible budget requests. Thus the stage is set for the final show down Wednesday at the Public Hearing scheduled by the BET.
According to both the Hour and Advocate about 50 people turned out for the PTO/BOE meeting Monday. I think that’s a relatively small turnout. Perhaps Corda was reading the tea leaves and that’s why he sent out Opdahl, who single handidly has wasted millions of the tax payers money, to drum up some scare in the atheletic departments. How can this guy say with a striaght face the following (from the Hour):
“We’re not prepared to say we’re going to cut here or there or anywhere,” Opdahl said. “We’re not dedicated to cutting $250,000 from the athletic programs or any other program. We have to reconcile the budget first, and right now we’re far from that.”
Opdahl said the Board of Ed is looking into other areas where cuts might be made, including special education. But he hinted that athletics might be the one to take the brunt of the $5 million hit.
“I have two grand-kids coming into high school soon, and they’re both athletic. I don’t want to see programs cut any more than anyone else,” Opdahl said. “Our kids only pass through high school one time, so we have to try to give them the best experience possible. But we have to look at the whole educational package, not just one area of it.”
I think the key graf there is that they “haven’t reconciled the budget”. Well then, what have you been doing the past months in preparing the budget? Other school systems, don’t seem to have these difficulties preparing budgets.
Feel free to use this thread as an open one to discuss anything you have on your mind.
