Budget deserves careful review

To the editor:

The 2008-2009 preliminary budget for the Cape Girardeau School District was delivered to board members June 25. This prevented board members from having adequate time to review budget changes and ask pertinent questions, and prevented staff from having adequate time to answer questions in advance.

A budget of this size and complexity requires a minimum of 30 days of review. This would have required the board be given the budget May 30 to approve it for the fiscal year beginning July 1. This was not possible given the fact that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education did not provide critical information needed to calculate the budget until June 20. Until a new budget is approved, the district will be operating under a provisional budget -- standard procedure in just such a circumstance.

Misty Clifton and the staff involved have worked very hard to draft a sound and accurate budget. Past coding and accounting errors were scrutinized, and funding formulas have been verified. We as board members owe it to them, the community and ourselves to be comfortable with the content of the budget before the budget is approved.

My motion to remove the budget approval from the agenda in no way reflects a lack of confidence in the quality of the proposed budget. It merely reflects the kind of due diligence the community has asked for. Personally, I intend to provide just such due diligence in order to provide a sound budget to our stakeholders.

TONY L. SMEE, Member, Cape Girardeau School Board