Blah! I don't get messing with programs that are not broken and humming along. I have found as a BOE member that Administration offers up to the Alter Music Programs quicker than any other activity or athletic program. I've sat and for budget preview sessions where administration brings to the table cuts to music and big increases for athletics. Music always has a higher co-pay, funding from parent/boosters than anything we offer. But historically music takes big hits when budgets get sliced and diced so quitting is so risky when giving up tenure.
Worst was when at a PTO meeting I was attending the Principal announced to the dismay of parents that there would not be a Spring Musical, that there was no funding in the budget for it this year by the board. At my instance when we built that budget in the Spring I asked for separate line items for the Musical because the Principal found ways to stick his fingers in the Musical budget and hard to track those expenses. He must have not made the correlation that I was sitting at the PTO round table as I was both a board member but a very active parent. I bit my tongue and said nothing but blindsided the jerk at a BOE the next night. He tried to defend that there were BETTER things to spend that money on like tutoring, field trips, etc. Musical went on as budget for. I was so angry.
When was this PTO meeting?
Here's the thing I found when I was (admittedly not a BoE member) but working with BoE and frankly government people in general.
The term "budget" is a joke to them. It's used as an excuse when they want to do something, and since they are never held accountable to it, it's the eternal excuse to push whatever their own pet project is. Either it was done due to political means, or it wasn't done due to political means...all of which are "magically" out of their control.
I would never make it on a BoE, because the first thing I would require of every "highly" education "principal" is that they submit to me the years budget, in detail. Starting with facility expenditures and ending with, what I would term, "fluff" (staff rewards, incentive programs, etc.)...
I doubt most Principals spend more than a few hours on such concerns. Rather, their role...as they have grown to see it, is to deflect negative attention from themselves (for their own advancement) and to reflect any negative attention back to the board/county/big blob of "not enough money"...
It really makes me want to puke, as the only ones who suffer from this sort of weak leadership (and it's all over) are the children.
Hey, if you want to turn your business from a cheetah to a sloth, that is your prerogative. But, if you want to do so at the expense of children's development?
Yeah...it makes me sick.
(note, I use the proverbial you, not YOU
@Gabe1)
