Letter: Voters should align their vote with belief in the current superintendent
To the editor,
As the former Chief Business Officer for the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District, I had the pleasure of working with Field Gibson, Dr. Kathleen Hall, Tim Gearhart and Matt McClish. These four were very active and involved school board members in their interactions with me regarding the requirement to have a balanced budget and to make progress toward the building of the reserve to a minimum of 10-percent.
Under the direction of Superintendent Chris Williams and this Board of Trustees, programs were instituted which made PRJUSD the only district in the county with growth. Parents and students wanted to attend schools in the district due to the positive learning environment, innovative programs including after-school middle and elementary school sports, one-to-one computer programs where 6th to 12th graders are issued a District Chromebook Computer. Students at Paso Robles High School also have the ability to get Cuesta College credits by attending numerous Paso Robles High School classes.
The existing members of the Board of Trustees have spent a lot of time being trained by the California School Board Association as well as meetings at PRJUSD in the office of the CBO to get answers to their questions. In my 26 years of school business experience, the current Board of Trustees at PRJUSD has been more involved and asked more questions than any other district I have worked for, even one where I was brought in to get local control back after being taken over by the State of California due to fiscal insolvency.
When I started working for PRJUSD in June of 2016, the draft budget needed a lot of corrections with only days in which to do it before the deadline for the Board of Trustees to adopt it. A budget with a small deficit was proposed for adoption with a promise to continue to work toward a balanced budget at 1st Interim. This was not good enough for an alert board and I had three board members in my office on the morning of the board meeting talking to me about how it was not acceptable to have any deficit.
The board conditionally approved the budget (as required) and a balanced budget was presented to the board by their next meeting. This board had very strict budget requirements and close fiscal oversight.
Through no fault of this board, audits uncovered an error made by me and my department in overestimating the Average Daily Attendance as well as some past accounting practices with resulted in reduced revenues and severely affected the current reserve levels. At the time this miscalculation came to light, I took responsibility for it as I was the Chief Business Official and was responsible for the fiscal budgets, budget assumptions and all fiscal reporting.
Many positive changes have occurred at PRJUSD in the last 4 years. Educational programs changed to align with the needs of the students which we are there to serve. This led to staff relentlessly working to create top-notch programs with the vision of Supt cabinet and support of this board to make Paso Robles Joint Unified School District a world-class organization. In this time of challenges for the district, consistency is needed at the superintendent and board levels to maintain steady leadership to carry the district through the current difficult times while still maintaining focus and resources on student needs and programs.
The State of California and oversight by the County Office of Education place requirements and restrictions on budgets. These requirements and restrictions are not within the control of the local school board.
If the voters in PRJUSD decide to go in another direction by replacing the members of the current Board of Trustees up for reelection, the recent gains in student programs and the resulting growth in student population, may revert to declining enrollment and less student opportunities that the Board of Trustees hired the current superintendent to change.
I do not believe that the community of Paso Robles could expect better oversight by a School Board than they are have been and are still currently receiving by Field Gibson, Dr. Kathleen Hall, Tim Gearhart and Matt McClish.
Field Gibson, in particular, spends countless hours reading every page the agendas including the fiscal reports and budgets. His knowledge and experience have benefited PRJUSD and is irreplaceable.
With my 26 years of school experience, I highly recommend the voters consider to align their vote with belief in the current superintendent, his cabinet and the world-class programs that the PRJUSD students now have. Voters are encouraged to reflect back to where the district was 4 years ago, where they are now, and do they want to continue to grow and move forward.
Duane Wolgamott
Retired Chief Business Officer
Paso Robles Joint Unified School District
