CalProEd's 4 minute Address to the FVSD School Board During Public Comments 4-21-22:
Good evening students, teachers, community members, board members, and cabinet members.
My name is Michelle Boudier. I am a junior high math teacher in the morning and advocate for students and taxpayers most afternoons and evenings. I host a website “CalProEd” where I post my credentials and research, and chronicle my activities. I was invited here tonight by a community member to share my research with you.
Please know, all the data I assemble is public information as posted on EdData. What is new is how I assemble the data. I record the revenue, spending, and savings patterns over a decade of time.
The view is a complete shift in focus and blatantly reveals the weaknesses of focusing on budgets and the General Fund rather than budgeting according to actual spending patterns involving all the district’s funds. Worst-case scenario, next crisis around the corner, sky is falling, rainy day budgets never come to fruition. LOOK AT THE REVENUES!!!
Revenues are at an all time high. Over the last decade, Fountain Valley School District has had a 65% increase in revenues, from $45 million taxpayer dollars annually to $74 million taxpayer dollars annually. COLA for the decade is almost 30%. Has the district passed the cost of living increase on to its teachers and classified staff? Be the heroes your entire community is desperate for!
Restricted money conversations are silly. Since 2013 , when the LCAP was enacted, little if any money has come to the district truly “restricted.” The three relatively small pots of money that remain restricted are: Special Education, Foster Youth, and two Native American Youth programs. Special Education budgets most often cut into the General Fund, so there shouldn’t be any restricted funds left unless the district had a special project or obligation it could point to.
Otherwise, it is incumbent upon a school district as good stewards of taxpayer dollars to spend the money it receives on its students. This board can repair the district’s credibility and easily move any money past boards have “restricted” back to the General Fund with simple resolutions.
Then, Foundation could ask for donations in good faith again;
The parcel tax conversation would go away;
And teachers and staff would get the salary increases intended for them without having to go to board meetings, or wear certain color shirts, or make signs, or strike.
Your district’s total reserves have quadrupled in the last decade. I can’t imagine that was the district’s intent, but that is what focusing on budgets does.
But you are not alone. Most California school districts are in a similar position, all following Association of California School Administrators’ and the California School Boards Association’s guidance forcing teachers and the community to play the “Shell Game.”
Today I ask you to take a different path. Think for yourselves. Look at your actual spending.
Since 2011, the district’s General Fund Ending balance has more than quadrupled from $4.9 million to $23.9 million, as has the district’s Total Funds balance going from $30.9 million to $120.5 million. That’s right, the district’s 2021 Total Fund Ending Balance was $120.5 million taxpayer dollars, with $74 million in General Fund revenues, that’s an actual reserve of 118.5%!!!
Actual numbers and historical patterns tell the real story and allow stakeholders to make intelligent decisions.
If the district changed the focus to actual numbers, your community would hail you as heroes spearheading the fight for their children!! And they would be right to do so. Imagine what the district could do with all the money it has socked away! What the students could do!!!!!
It's a logical fix. Districts have moved, "restricted", dollars from the General Fund to other funds by resolution with a simple majority vote, so they can just as easily move the money back to the General Fund by resolution with a simple majority vote.
I implore you to transfer back all but the truly restricted portion of the $120 million taxpayer dollars you have available to spend back to the General Fund.
Please know I plan to work with your community to do just that, and I invite you to a follow-up Zoom meeting I have posted on Eventbright entitled “Fountain Valley School District Finances: A New View'' next Thursday from 7-8pm.
As current board members, you are perfectly positioned to make the paradigm shift, to be your community’s champions. Return the millions of taxpayer dollars to the table, to the students, and to the classroom. Your community needs you to clear the slate and restore their faith in their public school system.
And finally, please accept my speech including my website information, CalProEd.org/google sites, to include in the minutes of this meeting.
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.
Truly,
Michelle Boudier
CalProEd/ theMBFIX