Public School Budget Amendend without Due Process
Brad Pollack suggested it might be a “Fast One" being pulled on the taxpayers of Shenandoah County when the Board of Supervisors voted to amend the Shenandoah County Public Schools budget request without a formal request from the Shenandoah County Public School Board. A spirited exchange ensued between Pollack and Karl Roulston after Pollack's statement. At the very least the whole process was confusing to citizens, and to Board Members alike. Supervisors Josh Stephens, Dennis Morris, and Pollack showed surprise that this was occurring and Stephens even voiced his concerns over something being amiss.
The budget process had been moving along with a 5% flat pay increase for Public School Employees being adopted by the Board of Supervisors. Things got quite controversial after School Board Chairman Marty Helsley and District 2 Board Member Cyndy Walsh spoke at the Public Hearing held by the BOS asking for more money to be allotted to the Public School budget and the 5% flat pay increase being passed by the Board of Supervisors . A motion to amend the budget was made at a subsequent Board of Supervisors meeting, was voted upon, and passed to increase the Budget without a formal request from the School Board as a whole. Instead it was orchestrated by one School Board member. That school board member was Chairman Marty Helsley. Helsley initiated conversations individually with several of the Board of Supervisors members in order to lobby for an increase in the SCPS budget. Citizens voiced concern after learning about this, some recalling the actions by some school board members which excluded one school board member during the name change decisions on the Southern Campus. That school board member ironically was Helsley himself. Helsley stated that it was " not a conspiracy” and that “I didn't mean to stir up anything and did so in good faith. I went to bat for our employees”, as part of his statement and apology during the April 27 School Board work session. District 5 Member Brandi Rutz had a different view on the issue. She stated that” we have procedures and while I can appreciate and, she is sure there are folks that are Ok with Mr. Helsley falling on his sword because he wants to go to bat for them, we have procedures. We have it for a reason. She said three years ago this Board changed the names of schools in eight days; it cost the taxpayers $350,000 and they are still ticked off about it. She said we are paying back the IRS $140,000 for money that we took erroneously, again under the pretense that it is probably going to help our employees. She said at what point do we do the right thing?”
Cyndy Walsh voiced “that she thinks the Board of Supervisors took her public comment from the hearing and took what Marty (Mr. Helsley) was saying and put it together. She said that neither one of them asked the Board of Supervisors to do that. She said the only comments she made were in public. She said it was at the public hearing and then it was at our Board meeting when she asked whether the step had been left out unintentionally. She said that was it; it was just one of those things that happens. She said there was no conspiracy. She said there was no "us" talking in the background and making a deal. It just happened”. The confusion seemingly began after The SCPS Board voted for a 6% flat pay increase with no step raise included. After the vote, Cyndy Walsh had asked about the step increase being left off mistakenly. School Board Member Kyle Gutshall had suggested it may have been left off inadvertently. However, there was no formal motion or discussion of making any change to the adopted budget. This is when the controversial and independent actions by Helsley ensued. Board of Supervisors Chairman Karl Roulston said that Helsley had texted asking him to call Helsley and that when he did, that they discussed an increase in the SCPS budget in order to increase the pay further than what had been asked for. “A step increase was not discussed, however", stated Roulston. Mr. Roulston did, however, bring up the step increase when asking the Board of Supervisors for the $661,000.00 needed to fund the increase and implied the School Board had mistakenly left off the initial request. During the April 18 meeting, Roulston and Pollack jousted and argued over comments and due process. (The entire meeting can be viewed on the Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors website). The process was hurried according to Roulston in order to make sure that the budgets were finalized before the county tax bills were to be sent out. Had stated that there was “No ill intent” and that he felt “ it definitely could have been handled better”. Supervisor Tim Taylor said exactly the same thing adding that “we continue to learn and will handle things better in the future”.
District 1 School Board Member and Vice Chair, Dennis Barlow commented that” it was hammered into us that we do not act as separate entities on the Board. We act as a Board corporately.” He said,” we make decisions as a group and then those decisions are enforced. He said we were told many times over that we, especially the chairman, have to keep that concept of neutrality and keep that concept of uniformity, foremost. He said there was enough time to call a separate meeting. There was time to call us and talk to us, but he said he did not hear about this until it was a done deal”. That certainly shows how certain School Board Members were left out of this process. A process that in the end is being paid for by the taxpayers of Shenandoah County.
Regardless of the confusion, the variance from procedure and dissension amongst elected board members, the Shenandoah County Public Schools were given the additional funds which resulted in an overage of their requested budget of $89,000.00. Superintendent Melody Sheppard reports that those excess funds have not been destined for a specific purpose as of yet.
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