In Whitewater, on Monday afternoon, there was a public hearing on the proposed Whitewater Unified School District budget. On Tuesday, there was a newspaper story, entitled Whitewater has budget hearing about the meeting. The story reported that “[t]wo members of the community attended….”
Is it any wonder that a meeting, held during the workday, would have poor attendance? The consequence of limited attendance, of course, is the opportunity to contend that the public had an invitation to attend, and declined that invitation. From these poor numbers, one might falsely conclude that the budget is uncontroversial, or actually has significant support. (If one wanted to claim universal support, one would go a step farther, and instead of holding the meeting during working hours, would hold it on a holiday, or at two o’clock in the morning.)
I have no idea how most people feel about the proposed budget; I do know that a meeting held during working hours, with limited notice, is a bad habit that Whitewater often uses to skirt discussion of potentially controversial matters.
There are few people in town who haven’t seen this approach before. It’s old-hat by now.
If the budget matters so much (and it does), and if it makes sense (I’m not sure), then one would think that district officials would be proud to discuss it with plentiful notice, and at a convenient time. A convenient time for ordinary, working people.
Here are a few points to consider, for next year:
Announce the hearing prominently on the main page of the district’s website. Here’s a screenshot of the school district website, with a listing for that same day the budget meeting was held:
A public hearing on the budget might have been listed, at least along with these entries.
Place the entire budget proposal online, on the district’s website. The district has a colorful, professionally designed website. I’m sure there’s plenty of server space for public documents, including a proposed budget.
The first place a public document about a budget should appear is on the website of the public body to which it pertains. No one should have to hunt for it, or ask for it — it should be available for review as a matter of course. It’s simply a throwback to another era to write, on the top of a budget proposal, that “The Budget in detail is available for public inspection at the Central Office.”
Why not publish it prominently on the district’s website, before the hearing?
There are even more important matters than this. I’m sure there are those who would contend that discussion of the budget involves a dispute between children-supporting educators and cold-hearted, anti-intellectual troglodytes.
I disagree, of course. And yet, I’ll also contend that there are far more important matters than the budget. Substantive work (that is, teaching and principles of the district) matters far more.
Added to substantive teaching, and also important, are policies that involve substantive principles of fairness, equality, and other American ideals. Although these principles are not part of a single curriculum, they matter more than simpler issues. (That some policies are substantive is easy to see. A policy that affords a person time to respond to an allegation is more important than a policy that requires he use a specific font when writing in reply.)
If the budget process isn’t more open and accessible, it speaks poorly of the chance to consider other substantive issues, often controversial, that are even more important.
Still, I am an optimist — Whitewater will be out of this habit someday.