Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Aileen Seedorf Letter to the Editor re District 300
To the Editor:
The sky is falling! Or so District 300’s student enrollment projections would have you believe.
Before its referendum, Huntley School District 158 projected 1,329 additional students attending school this year. Actual enrollment was 558 fewer.
A few years ago, District 158 projected 10,000 students this year. The actual number is 3,000 fewer.
A District 300 paid consultant’s report uses 1996 statistics (Appendix A-6) to state an unrealistic enrollment projection may happen in five years. District 300 then transformed this into a “will happen” cornerstone of its financial referendum plans.
Unrealistic enrollment projections generate unrealistic needs for too much money. Here’s how they can be used to easily manipulate a school district’s financial projections.
State payments to a district for a student’s actual attendance lag by a year. Assume District 300’s rapid increase of 1,440 students per year (7,200/5 = 1,440).
This will automatically generate a deficit. How? By showing the expenses of educating 1,440 kids, but without the general state aid for their attending school that year. It’s a recipe for instant financial crisis.
Three reasons it’s extremely likely District 300’s student population won’t increase by 7,200 in the next five years: the new homes won’t be instantly built and occupied. Mothers won’t give birth to 5-year-olds ready to enter school in those new homes.
District 300’s average daily attendance in 2004-2005 increased by 46 students (independent auditor’s report pg. 60). How believable is a 46 student attendance increase one year and a 1,440 student explosion the next year?
Administrators who use Chicken Little-like numbers to exaggerate and manipulate financial projections should be expelled from their school districts.
There should be a zero tolerance policy toward irresponsible administrators getting parents and children unnecessarily riled up. Irresponsible exaggerations from top school administrators, however rationalized, shouldn’t be tolerated.
Aileen Seedorf
Huntley
The sky is falling! Or so District 300’s student enrollment projections would have you believe.
Before its referendum, Huntley School District 158 projected 1,329 additional students attending school this year. Actual enrollment was 558 fewer.
A few years ago, District 158 projected 10,000 students this year. The actual number is 3,000 fewer.
A District 300 paid consultant’s report uses 1996 statistics (Appendix A-6) to state an unrealistic enrollment projection may happen in five years. District 300 then transformed this into a “will happen” cornerstone of its financial referendum plans.
Unrealistic enrollment projections generate unrealistic needs for too much money. Here’s how they can be used to easily manipulate a school district’s financial projections.
State payments to a district for a student’s actual attendance lag by a year. Assume District 300’s rapid increase of 1,440 students per year (7,200/5 = 1,440).
This will automatically generate a deficit. How? By showing the expenses of educating 1,440 kids, but without the general state aid for their attending school that year. It’s a recipe for instant financial crisis.
Three reasons it’s extremely likely District 300’s student population won’t increase by 7,200 in the next five years: the new homes won’t be instantly built and occupied. Mothers won’t give birth to 5-year-olds ready to enter school in those new homes.
District 300’s average daily attendance in 2004-2005 increased by 46 students (independent auditor’s report pg. 60). How believable is a 46 student attendance increase one year and a 1,440 student explosion the next year?
Administrators who use Chicken Little-like numbers to exaggerate and manipulate financial projections should be expelled from their school districts.
There should be a zero tolerance policy toward irresponsible administrators getting parents and children unnecessarily riled up. Irresponsible exaggerations from top school administrators, however rationalized, shouldn’t be tolerated.
Aileen Seedorf
Huntley
# posted by Cal Skinner : 7:47 AM
