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12 Two political action committees recently formed to support candidates in the race for contested seats on the Eanes school board.
Local resident Phil Howry registered fellow Westbanker Ron Yokubaitis as treasurer for the Eanes Education Alliance on April 8. The Eanes Education Alliance PAC maintains a website at eaneseducationalliance.org and supports challenging candidates Sharman Reed and Colleen Jones.
The Friends of EISD PAC formed on April 22 in support of incumbent candidates Mike Monnig and James (Kal) Kallison. The PAC issued fliers recently advocating support of a new elementary school proposed for a tract of land on River Hills Road owned by the district. The flier quoted the incumbents in statements supporting the building of the new school in their neighborhood attendance zone and provided early voting and Election Day location information.
According to the PAC, voters in the Valley View Elementary School attendance zone want the new school to alleviate the up to 90 minutes some young students spend traveling the eight miles on buses to and from their campus each day.
One of the founders of the Friends of EISD PAC, Scott Urdahl, said he and others founded the organization to provide accurate information on hot-button issues like the new elementary school, the repurposing of the current Valley View Elementary School campus to administrative offices and the issue of transfer students in the district.
The Friends of EISD PAC contests information contained in an advertisement run by the Eanes Education Alliance PAC in the Westlake Picayune on April 22, including the claim that all the new construction under consideration for an upcoming bond would cost the district $1.11 million a year to maintain in the future. Urdahl said that figures recently made public by the district show increased maintenance and operation costs for all projects being considered, as possible bond items would raise the M&O costs by about one third of that amount – $383,400 per year. The district estimation for the increased M&O cost of the new elementary school is $289,000.
The difference in the widely different estimates of the repeating strain on the M&O budget come from the use of two different formulas. District M&O director Les Reddin developed a $3.07 number as the average M&O cost per square foot for current district facilities. Multiplying that figure by the estimated increased space from proposed facilities plus the cost of additional staff members needed to maintain those facilities leads to the district’s calculation of increased M&O costs.
The statistics listed on their website show a total district M&O cost of $9,509,412 for 2009. That includes the salaries of employees with M&O job responsibilities. They divide that cost by the total 1,396,594 square feet of facilities used in the district to arrive at an average M&O expense of $6.80 for the district. Using that cost multiplier, some of the expenses already incurred by the district for existing facilities would to the new structures and shared equally between all buildings.
A simplification of the two figures would term the $383,400 figure as a cost increase, and the $1.11 million figure as a total operating cost. But that is an oversimplification, said board member Clint Sayers, who believes the $3.07 per square foot M&O cost is understated.
“The new square footage doesn’t operate in a vacuum,” Sayers said. “The M&O cost for new space has to be tied back to the total costs of plant M&O budget for the district. It’s not fair not to allocate all expenses to all square footage.”
Urdahl disagrees. He said he has looked at the documentation behind the district’s figures and believes it to be sound.
“At some point, you either trust the professionals to do their job, or you don’t,” he said. “You look at the figures provided and decide if you need more information, but you let the people who calculate those numbers for a living do it.”
Well, since the Friends of Eanes didn’t file their paperwork in time to comply with the election laws and run an ad, it was very accommodating of the Picayune, which has not done its own due diligence in reporting on school board activities, to give it free space. Is the story on the private coffees to persuade key parents to support the bond issue coming out before the trustee election? Oh–and thank you for giving EEA equal space–we wouldn’t want to think you might be reporting objectively!
The numbers the district is providing don’t add up. Just like when they told us we’d have 6,000 kids in WHS by 2004. We need due diligence by our board, our community newspaper and our voters. Trust, but verify. And by the way, it’s been said at several board meetings that we’ll be out of money in less than three years. Voters may have to attend a meeting themselves to find that out–it’s not being reported here!
Why have we never asked why the bus routes are so long?? The district has crunched those routes for efficiency. Couldn’t we operate two extra buses to help?? Even if a new school were to be approved and built it will take several years. It sounds as if there is an immediate need that our District has failed to address. It sounds like our District has failed to address a lot of immediate needs. However, they put some really snazzy new signs up at the High Schhol so the fire department could find it.
Several of the current School Board members were helped into office by PACs. This is nothing new.
Given the fact that the district boundaries for elementary schools were redrawn at least 5 years ago, all of the people who currently have children attending Valley View knew that that was the school their kids would attend. They purchased their homes knowing that fact and now are raising a fuss. The district can’t afford a new elementary school just like it couldn’t afford a new high school several years ago. This reminds me of people who buy a home near an airport and then start to complain about the noise.
It strikes me as odd that the only explanation of how EEA came up with their figure for the increased M&O cost associated with certain bond proposals (3X more than staff calculations, mind you) comes from from Clint Sayers, an incumbent board member. Does anyone else wonder what Mr. Sayers’ connection is with EEA?
Hey “No New Elementary”:
I didn’t know that once I bought a house in a certain place and got some experience with my kids’ schools that I was not allowed, as a taxpayer and parent, to voice issues and suggest solutions to the School Board and Administration. I really did think I was within my rights to do that without it being called some sort of a foul. Silly me, I feel such a fool now.
I don’t know what the true M&O costs are of the various projects being considered but I do question Mr. Sayers’ version of what these numbers should reflect for purposes of evaluation. For internal cost accounting purposes, of course you want all facilities and projects “fully burdened” where everything is apportioned their fair share of shared or general overhead.
But here, we are trying to ascertain the specific “INCREMENTAL” M&O costs of each and every project under consideration. In order to do that, you don’t spread or average any costs – you simply determine and add up all of the truly ADDITIONAL discrete costs any proposal facilities will create. That way you can determine whether the district can or will choose to afford to add a particular project or facility.
I don’t know if Mr. Sayers is playing a game to influence his agenda or if he simply lacks some business acumen – in either case it should be disconcerting for all of us taxpayers, regardless of our own specific opinions on the bond-related issues.
Clint Sayers has committed to honest, open transparency in Eanes. As we’ve seen recently with so many issues related to our school district, the truth is difficult for some to swallow. When that is the case, those who can’t stomach information adverse to their wishes and wants simply choose to attack the messenger. Thank you clint for letting the sun shine in on our district’s operations.
Hey Very Sorry,
Like you I bought a house in Eanes ISD thinking that the school district would be great for my children and that, as a parent and taxpayer, I could voice issues and suggest solutions especially if a situation arose in which my child was harmed. Again and again. But silly me, I was wrong too. And now I pay high property taxes and private school tuition too! With the Eanes ISD schools right down the road. And you know what? I smile each and every time I write that tuition check or hop in the car to drive my kids to their private school because I know that my children are safe and well-educated and if some issue arises, there are people in charge who will indeed care, listen and respond. And that’s worth the extra money AND the long drive to and from school each day. I am no longer “silly” in fact … just the opposite. And I vote.
Mr. Sayers is the only board member who doesn’t rubber-stamp Nola Wellman’s agenda. What’s he up to? Representing the public.
I will not vote for a $125 million bond that will triple the administration building in a school district that is not growing.
Clint isn’t running. Thank goodness. If he were, EISD would be pulling out all the stops to elect his opponent. The administration is in control. With the majority seeking Nola’s approval, instead of the other way around, we have a board that has (1) allowed the superintendent of schools to not pay proper property taxes (2) given her a raise after that and (3) decided to cheat both the retirement agency and the public by allowing her to hide $10000 in travel expenses from the public while over stating her salary so she qualifies for a greater benefit in retirement. Thank you Clint. You’re the ONLY current board member that is looking out for the taxpayer. Everyone else seems to have drunk some sort of kool aid.
If Dr. Wellman fails to pay taxes, and then asks for her travel expenses to be reported properly so she can get a bump in her retirement, then isn’t that at least a mild misrepresentation? And if she is willing to hide expenses, fail to pay taxes even after her “error” was pointed out, and asks to inflate her salary so she qualifies for more retirement, what makes the rest of the board think she doesn’t inspire that same sort of creative thinking in her increasingly large staff of administrators?
So what is Clint up to? He’s working for you, although you don’t seem to appreciate it.