Your Taxpayer’s Assn. is looking forward to a new era in our dealings with the Martin County School Board. We are still hopeful given the potential created by the new faces on the School Board and a new superintendent. Unfortunately, recent actions by the existing Board and Administration are certainly giving us pause.

We have long been pushing hard for televising of School Board meetings to allow the public to easily see how their elected officials utilize their approximately $300 million annual budget, administer hundreds of millions in assets and set policies that shape the future for our children and communities. After years of stiff resistance the Board and Superintendent finally agreed to TV coverage IF private donations would cover the cost and County Administration would enter into a three year interlocal agreement to carry delayed coverage on MCTV (Comcast channel 20). Apparently the private funds promised have been slow in arriving, elections are now virtually over and enthusiasm for the idea, especially among Board members, is drastically waning. Our organization has already donated $1,000 toward the estimated $7,000 start-up and first year cost and is prepared to donate/loan more if required. While we do not agree that this cost (appx. .000037% of the operating portion of their budget) should be borne by private donation, we believe it is worth it to give those footing the education bill an opportunity to see how these funds are being spent.

We were also concerned over the retiring superintendent/board’s actions in submitting/approving a three-year contract for her assistant to continue in his position. We have nothing against this individual and every reason to assume he is doing a fine job, but a one-year contract is the historical norm. . The new superintendent might well want him continued for at least the normal one-year period to provide continuity. However, we firmly believe that the newly elected superintendent should have the leeway to select his/her own staff. She/He should definitely not have their hands tied on selection of their number two for ¾ of the elected term before he/she even takes office. This appears to be a deliberate slap in the face by the existing Superintendent and Board that would be considered unethical and certainly not tolerated in private industry, or even most civil service scenarios.

School districts are not a business, but business principles can make them more efficient and in the long run, more successful. We have all heard the old adage that we cannot run government like a business because they each serve different needs and purposes. The old saying may be true, but those that manage the government — whether they are bureaucrats or elected leaders — certainly can/should be willing to adopt successful business practices. When times are lean — such as now — those leaders must stretch every dollar as far as possible and be willing to adopt policies that may be different from previous custom.

The Martin County School District can, for example, adopt practices that use competition to get the most benefit for education for the least dollars. America’s economy is based on the principle that competition will deliver the best product/service at least cost to achieve the greatest efficiency. In fact, businesses that do not innovate and compete for goods and services will eventually fail. Schools also need to innovate to harness the efficiency of competition. In this way they can potentially spend the fewest dollars possible to accomplish their primary mission: educating our children.

Outsourcing is a key tool that should be considered as a primary method for creating competition and cutting costs. The basic premise is that if you can deliver services such as janitorial, food service, and transportation at the lowest rate this will allow more dollars to go into the main focus: teaching. Decisions should not be made simply for the sake of privatizing, but used where scarce dollars can be saved and used in other ways to more effectively accomplish our District’s primary mission.

This is not to imply that schools can simply wave a wand and watch the savings from competition appear. It requires a lot of heavy lifting on the part of our School Administration and Board and these efforts will probably meet stiff resistance from those that have a stake in maintaining public sector jobs. We may also see political fights — potentially ugly — over simply seeking competition for items such as which company provides health benefits. These actions could be seen as an affront to organized school employees and they may pull out all the stops to impede such initiatives. Health benefits, and their providers, after all, are still negotiated at the bargaining table. Just because a district has proof that savings can be found in competing health insurance premiums, they must still be agreed to at negotiating time.

In summary, to achieve a fiscally healthy School District we believe their new Superintendent/Board should immediately focus on the following initiatives:

• Minimize administrative and plant maintenance costs
• Reform collective bargaining practices
• Outsourcing of non-instructional services
• Manage employee health benefits more effectively
• Structure capital costs more effectively
• Consider the advantages of a year round school schedule

There is a lot of heavy lifting required to achieve a successful business, too. But successful business owners figure out a way to make it work, and our School Districts can too. If a board requires additional expertise in these areas they should seek the advice of those who have, or had, employees and customers depending on them. We have many of those type individuals among our Board and members. As always, we stand ready to help if asked.