Speak Up or Prepare for a Disaster

This next week will be the public's opportunity to comment on next year's School operating budget.  The BOS is only allowing people to speak once.  Here is the schedule:

February 25, Wednesday
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors: 6 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors Meeting Room in the Government Center, 1 Harrison St. SW, Leesburg

 

February 26, Thursday
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors: 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors Meeting Room in the Government Center, 1 Harrison St. SW, Leesburg

 

February 28, Saturday
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors: 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. in the School Board Meeting Room, School Administrative Offices, 21000 Education Court, Ashburn

 

If you support funding for the schools, please come and speak. In ten years, only ten persons have come to the School Board's meetings to ask that the School's Budget be cut. This year, we had a gentleman come and ask us to increase the health care co-pays. That was done.  If the Board of Supervisors doesn't hear from you, they'll assume its ok to "Butcher" our educational programs.

 

Comments

[Loudoun Insider]

What a bunch of hyperbolic propaganda!

Did you or Hatrick keep a list of how many LCPS employees dutifully showed up and spoke at these meetings as "encouraged" by their superiors?

[g.stone]

Now the rest of the story:

Read about this at: www.NovaTownHall.com

Connecting the Dots: Budget Deficits, School Spending and the Quality of Life in Loudoun County.
March 1st 2009 by G.Stone

Budget Deficits and School Spending

Our county budget deficit although painful, does present us with an opportunity to correct the disproportionate distribution of funding among the various agencies that make up Loudoun County Government. Presently there exists a disparity in the allocation of tax revenue amongst the various county agencies that if left as is will continue to negatively affect the overall quality of life in Loudoun County.

Over the last decade or more, Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) has grown beyond its mission. Years of saying yes to all of those things that would be nice to have, layered amongst those things that are critical, has resulted in a school system that is simply too expensive to maintain in its present configuration. The time has come for fiscal responsibility. Concerned taxpayers more interested in the realities of our budget than propaganda from entrenched interest groups must get involved.

Including its debt service, the School system is some where in the area of 75- 78% of the counties total yearly expenditures. Their FY 2010 proposed budget is over $787 Million. To put this in context relative to the total budget, all thirty three remaining agencies are expected to operate on a proposed budget of about $ 370 Million. Based on their own budget presentation, LCPS spends 70% of all local tax dollars collected.

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors asked all agencies to provide spending reductions of 5, 10 and 15 % within their agencies. LCPS under the direction of Dr. Hatrick prepared those scenarios as requested and then submitted a fourth proposal to the Board for a Zero percent reduction. This proposal yielded $ 11.9 Million in reduced spending, against the backdrop of a $ 200 Million dollar deficit. Classifying this as disproportionate would be an understatement. This is in no way shared sacrifice on the part of that agency that commands the largest share of the budget. Again, they are approximately three quarters of our budget yet are coming to the table with less than $ 12 million dollars. While our county government is awash in red ink, LCPS is offering a 1.5% reduction in spending.

Dr. Hatrick’s proposal is unrealistic in the current economic climate. The LCPS proposal compounds our problems onto the next budget cycle while at the same time placing enormous stress on the other agencies that make up our County Government.

Quality of Life in Loudoun County

Many of us remember the deteriorating conditions in Sterling Park and surrounding communities in the eastern part of the county making the news last summer. Reports of shootings, rapes and gang violence were common in the press. Zoning infractions were on the rise. Illegal Aliens migrating to the eastern part of our county from other jurisdictions placed an additional burden on those county agencies required to provide order. County agencies and elected officials alike were struggling to find answers to an avalanche of citizen’s complaints. The Board of Supervisors convened emergency meetings at Parkview High School in an attempt to address residents concerns.
Our Sheriffs and Zoning Departments lacking the required resources to effectively deal with these issues at the time are now asked to reduce their budgets in the face of the current deficit. These are not the agencies where reductions in spending need to take place.

The proposed budget allowing Loudoun County Public Schools to avoid proportionate shared sacrifice is wrong and fiscally irresponsible.

Contact by email, phone, and fax every member of this Board of Supervisors. This is the time to demand that Dr. Hatrick come to the table with real reductions. Not only is it time for LCPS to make honest contributions towards our deficit, but embark on a path of real reform creating a school system operating within the confines of a much changed fiscal landscape.

[BlackOut]

LI, you are really stretching if you are using g. stone as credibility.

I assume you also think the Economic Development Council and the Chamber of Commerce was coerced by LCPS. Stone thinks so.

Maybe Stone is a starting point for your education on this issue, but you should also try and broaden your sources. To include opinions from the other side of this debate. Otherwise, it appears you're just winging it. I think visiting TRs site and reading his insights and opinions is a good start. Somewhere between stone and TR is probably a good happy median.

[Loudoun Insider]

BlackOut, you once again assume way too much with me. I have very good inside sources in LCPS that let me know some of the BS that goes on their on a daily basis. The EDC and CofC are populated with generally well off businessmen who aren't having huge problems paying their taxes and other bills. regardless of what the budget is, there is always room for improvement. Your incessant whining that everything is just A-OK is tiresome.

[BlackOut]

LI, what an insult to the 1300 members of the Chamber of Commerce. So you discount their collective declaration because they are "generally well off businessmen"? A vast majority of those 1300 are small business men and women and are neighbors of both you and I.

They're active, informed and involved. They care,they pay taxes and hire local products of our school system. And you think they are irrelevant because they can pay their taxes? Maybe you should get out and talk to some of these business leaders, they are struggling along with the rest of us.

How you can discount this group is beyond me. You're following the lead of several of our Supervisors who also discount this group.

It's no wonder eyes roll when folks start considering how Loudoun treats local business and economic development.

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