MCPS is not meant to end up with a surplus. The idea is that all of the funding that MCPS is allocated every year will be spent on the education of that year's group of students.
What would you do with $33,160,000?
http://www.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/9TCSSV637AA6/$file/Mo%20Finan%20Rpt%20141231.pdf
So if they have a surplus why are seniors having to pay graduation fees?
ReplyDeleteThere is no relationship between the two. Senior fees are a SLUSH FUND for the principal. They have nothing to do with the actual MCPS Opearting Budget.
DeleteSenior fees are illegal and the funds collected do not pay for the graduation venue, teacher salaries or school construction. They are a slush fund that is never, ever reported in any public budget document.
It's called extortion.
It is frankly not a slush fund. Ask any business administrator for a run down of what is paid for with those fees. They are set with the class officers and pay for caps, gowns, senior picnics, the extra fees charged by DAR, officer sashes, and other items. Not a principal's slush fund!
ReplyDeleteI truly appreciate much of what the MoCo PC shares, but this is just inflammatory. Please, all is not negative.
Excuse us?
DeleteSenior picnics are NOT in any way, shape or form required for graduation! Officer sashes? Are you serious?
Guess what? We have actually investigated these fees and found LUNCHES and BUSES purchased for staff convenience! Sorry! Those are not required graduation fees that students must pay in order to graduate!!
You want INFLAMMATORY? That's MCPS seniors being DENIED tickets to homecoming, prom, graduation and being denied diplomas because they don't pay these illegal senior fees!
How about the business administrators show the public where these illegal fees are accounted for in the MCPS budget? We'll wait.
And what's up with the schools that do NOT charge these illegal senior fees? How on earth is it that a child at one school can graduate for free and at another school a child has to pay $120 to graduate? You want to explain that?
You bet this is inflammatory. It's an outrage.
Can I just have some paper clips, tape and sticky notes? I'm a teacher. I don't think I should have to buy them.
ReplyDeleteCan I just have some paper clips, tape and sticky notes? I'm a teacher. I don't think I should have to buy them.
ReplyDeleteI want to see money shifted so that it funds more school based positions and less administrative positions.
ReplyDeleteDo associates need 2 executive director assistants (paid as much as school principals) and administrative managers? Do there need to be so many directorships? These positions make as much as school based principals who run entire buildings. Why not supervisory positions? Are all directors doing the work equivalency of a school principal? MCPS has over titled and is over paying for work that in the past would not have cost taxpayers at near the rate we are now paying.
School budgets are at the absurd because we have just accepted that all spending is a must. We need more accountability for programs (let's see measurable results) and to re-examine job titles vs. work reality.
"MCPS is not meant to end up with a surplus. The idea is that all of the funding that MCPS is allocated every year will be spent on the education of that year's group of students." I disagree with this notion. It is common practice at school districts around the country to run an end-of-year surplus in order to avoid cash flow-related financial disruption as the result of unexpected outlays & ect. The criticism of the school district and transparency is warranted (and I absolutely agree that line item revenues like the "senior fee" should be called out in detailed budget reports available to the public), but criticizing an accounting best-practice is not. Indeed, the 1.3% surplus balance is arguably too low - experts say at least two months-worth of operating funds should be held in reserve.
ReplyDeleteYea, go tell that to the libraries that had to cut hours, the Ride-On bus routes that were cut, the police that were cut back and all of the other County services that have been cut back over the last 15 years, so that MCPS could end up with a surplus?
DeleteSorry - it's not flying here. It's not an accounting "best practice" - it's hiding cash and over funding this one county agency to the detriment of all others.
And, you clearly do not understand the Maintenance of Effort law in Maryland. Under that law when MCPS has a surplus it changes the way the system must be funded in all years going forward.
Not a "best practice" by any stretch of the imagination.