“Its Distressing”

Its no wonder that the retiring Tim Grover would say this about his spending half the School District’s $14.5 million financial reserve in a single year. Tim was instrumental in putting the 10 percent reserve into place fifteen years ago. That was shortly after Tim’s initial election to straighten out a badly mangled School District. He chose to retire this year after mangling the District once again.

Its hard to know where to begin with this tragic story.

I’ve been kind to our new Superintendent I.V. Foster. He’s absolutely innocent for the creation of the mess he inherited. The criminally guilty Keith Dixon skeddadled before this headline hit the news stands because he was running out of room to lie his way out of meetings with the DNT’s editorial Board. But I’m sorry. Foster’s had a year to figure out what the District’s situation is and he oversaw the spending of half of the District’s cushion in a single year. Here’s Foster’s take:

The fund has dropped below levels required by a School Board policy. The policy says it shouldn’t fall below 10 percent of unrestricted expenditures. There are no sanctions for failing to meet the target, Superintendent I.V. Foster said. It does mean the board needs to be notified and steps need to be taken to fix the problem, he said. Foster was pleased with the audit results because “there were no negative findings,” he said.

“That’s unusual for a district this size,” he said. “It reinforces the fact that we’ve been prudent.”

The fact that the fund is half of the size it was in 2010 isn’t yet cause for panic, Foster said.

“For as much as our fund balance has dropped below expected levels, it really is an imposed financial safeguard,” he said. “A lot of school districts don’t have (a similar policy). They don’t maintain those funds. We’re a lot better off than many.”

A. Foster is pleased, as he should be, that the auditors found no fraud or theft. Big Deal.
B. Foster speaks about the District’s prudence but it was a prudence that ended with Dixon so there is little point bragging about it now.
C. He also points out how “unusual” it was for the District to have such a reserve and then seems to dismiss it by saying it was an “imposed financial safeguard.” Well I’m sorry IV. You’ve spent half of it away. That gives you one more year of cushion after which you will evidently have to start cutting 7 million a year from the threadbare educational program you currently offer.

If IV is planning on leaving at the end of his second year I agree he has no reason to panic. If he sells Central for 7 million this year that will give him one more year to postpone a great calamity. Good luck with that sale. One letter-to-the-editor today suggested we build a water park on the property. Six Flags over Duluth anyone? (The funny thing is that I could see that working. Sorry Edgewater)

Superintendents don’t tend to be financial experts. They need good finance officers to keep them on top of things. But Dixon’s hand-me-down, Bill Hanson, is now Foster’s financial muse. Bill’s contribution to the story was to say all we had to do was sell our unused schools. In other words Hanson has nothing to offer Foster or the District to avert financial catastrophe after the sale of Central.

No wonder Tim Grover chose not to run for reelection.

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