73° F
News / Schools
Eanes school board eyes district’s TexPool investment strategy
Thursday, February 4, 2010
|
|
7
Eanes school board members have opted to delay proposed changes to the district’s investment policy and strategy in favor of waiting for information on specific investments in the Texas Association of School Board’s TexPool fund.
During a public meeting on Jan. 27, Larry Kaiser, head of the district’s business department, told trustees the district had earned $916,441 interest on all funds during the 2008-2009 school year. The funds were invested in a local government investment pool, TexPool run by Texas Association of School Boards.
“We have stayed within governmental investment pools; our primary focus is safety,” Kaiser said. “The financial market is still weak. We are better off at the current time staying with short term rates rather than long term investments.”
Board vice president Paul Stone, president and CEO of Clearshot Capital Partners, said the investments in the pool aren’t nearly as conservative as he would have expected.
“These are not conservative; certainly, if you look at 2008, they are not.” Stone said. “It really catches my attention.”
Stone said he was concerned that 60 percent of the TexPool funds were in commercial paper.
“We want to understand the suitability of those investments,” agreed board member Clint Sayers.
Stone, Sayers and board member Robert Durkee all told Kaiser and district Superintendent Nola Wellman that they wanted more information on investments and the state law that governs them.
Board member Ellen Balthazar said she did not feel the board should attempt to micromanage the district’s investments and that she was comfortable that the TexPool funds were being overseen adequately.
“We [are] a small board with an individual small investment,” she said. “I am just wondering at what level we would need to second guess those [investment] decisions on a smaller scale.”
Stone said he wanted to know the standards that govern the TexPool fund.
“I would be stunned if we were the only [school] board sitting here asking these questions,” he said. “If someone stops me in the grocery store and says, ‘I hear you have 60 percent invested in paper. Are you crazy?’ I’d like to be able to say something better than, ‘Well, I don’t know. We’ve been told it’s safe.’ I would like to be able to provide a little more detail than that.”
Board members delayed reviewing and modifying the district’s investment policy until Kaiser pulls together more information on the current TexPool fund.
District curriculum and instruction head Bill Bechtol gave board members good news as he summarized a 20-page Academic Excellence Indicator System report reflecting student performance and campus profiles. He told the board that the district had maintained exemplary ratings during the 2008-2009 school year as a district and for each campus. The district earned 11 Gold Performance Acknowledgements for the time period for AP/IB results (2007-2008), college admissions (Class of 2008), college-ready graduates (Class of 2008), recommended high school program (Class of 2008), Texas Success Initiative ESLA, Texas Success Initiative mathematics and commended on reading/ELA, writing, mathematics, science and social studies.
Bechtol told board members that a high percentage of Westlake High School students take advanced placement exams and are successful in earning college credit for their efforts. Almost all students are passing Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exams and a continually increasing percentage of students are reaching commended levels in most subjects, Bechtol said. He said the AEIS report confirmed that the district staff is highly qualified and doing a better job of preparing students for college than their average counterparts in the state.
During their meeting last week, district school board members also approved a May 8 trustee election for Place 6, currently held by Mike Monnig, and Place 7, currently held by Balthazar. Both three-year board terms expire May 31. Both incumbent board members will throw their hats in the ring for an additional term, the third for Monnig and the fourth for Balthazar. Monnig said he had work he wanted to finish and would run for at least one more term.
“I feel like I still have more to contribute, and it is really a labor of love for me,” Balthazar said.
A concurrent special election will also be held to fill the Place 5 seat vacated by Gail King last August. The board appointed retired University of Texas in Arlington educational leadership and policy studies assistant professor James Kallison as an interim replacement until the upcoming election. Kallison said he will seek election to the seat for the two-year remainder of King’s three-year term.
“It is important that we continue the process of developing a master plan,” Kallison said. “This process started two or three years ago, but the board has never put a definitive stamp on how it wants to continue for 10-15 years into the future. Once that is done, we can more easily determine the elements that need to go into a bond process.”
Kallison said the district continues to be constrained by the current school finance system.
“It is very important that we match our limited resources to the goals of the district,” he said.
Early voting for the school board elections will begin on April 26 and run through May 4. Saturday is the first day to file for a place on the ballot. Filing continues through March 8.
The job of school trustees is due diligence–to ask questions. Anyone who doesn’t have the stomach for that, especially if they’ve had no children in school in years, should retire. What “work” does Monnig have left to finish? If he hasn’t accomplished it by now (especially since agreeing with the administration seems to be his most outstanding role–he rarely makes any comments at board meetings), maybe he, too, should ride gently into the night. Both are great people and volunteers, but it’s time to let parents of current students serve on the school board. What has Kallison done since his appointment? Nothing of any signficance. Maybe degrees don’t necessarily translate into action. We need new, energetic trustees who are dedicated to their role and representing us, the voters of this district and the children of this district.
It is interesting that Kallison says we have limited resources and wants to preserve them when he is pushing for a new Elementary school that we do not need and cannot afford to operate.
One has to question how Balthazar, who has a day job as the executive director of Any Baby Can, could so consistently vote in ways that continue to allow EISD to avoid its responsiblity to children with special needs. If her labor of love is to continue to allow the Administration to ignore its legal obligations with respect to ADA, and to support the administrations continuing efforts to remove services from children who need them, then perhaps she either has the wrong day job, or she leaves her concern for the disabled at work. We need someone who won’t rubber stamp, we need someone who can’t wrap her head around the obligation to overesee the district’s investments. Stop Ellen. Please stop now.
The board is a clique. They annoint someone to run when a seat opens up and then put all of their energy behind that candidate. If someone runs who is not part of the clique, forget it. They have no chance to win. There have been some excellent candidates over the years who haven’t won election because they are not part of the in-crowd.
Yes, Kallison has been disappointing for those who hoped for a board member with the desire to help the children in this district who are currently left (way) behind. He’s a place warmer and supporter of the status quo. And Monnig? Another Yes Man for the administration. If it doesn’t involve the fire department or sports, he is silent as a stone. And Balthazar? “Labor of Love?” Really? Rather disingenuous because as board member of an organization (Any Baby Can) with a mission of helping at-risk children, you could not be less of an advocate for the children in this very district with special needs.
It seems incredible to me that any public school trustee would say that is it is micromanaging to understand the investment strategy for the district’s money. It is not only the board’s responsibility to set policy; they are charged with making sure that policy is followed as well. When someone with Paul’s experience, in a few moments, says that the investments are “not conservative” then the rest of the board should perk up immediately and say “get those people in here to explain themselves” because the POLICY is to only invest in conservative instruments, not “oh, I’m sure all is okay.” Our board does not understand the role of a policy maker at all: once you set it, you have to enforce it. As long as we have people like Ellen and Mike on the board, we will have administrators who exploit the fact that the guarders of the henhouse are totally asleep. Thanks Paul for being awake. And please, let’s get new people on this board.
This board has been so afraid of “micromanaging” that they have failed to manage at all and have become trustees for the superintendent, not the public.