Budget Time! Pass it so you can see what's in it...

Budget Time!  And 5 minutes to do it...

You folks in Cleburne really need to start attending school board meetings, so that you can see the process they have for voting on budgets and bond info the size of the U.S. tax code.  The school board members will be given huge stacks of information that would take an office of lawyers weeks to go through, and then are told, 'You have a half hour to peruse this, and then vote on it'.  

Right.

Now, if your school board was doing it's job, these folks on the school board would tell the administration where they could stick it, and that they need 30 or 60 days to look through all this stuff before they vote on it.  But that doesn't happen.  And because it doesn't happen, your school board IS NOT acting as a set of checks and balances against an administration run amok.  This means your administration can ram through any fiscal policy it sees fit, which usually will result in things like, higher taxes for YOU, overpaid administrators (No!  Say it ain't so!), and TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY SEVEN THOUUUUUSAND DOLLAR HOT DOG STANDS.  

C'mon people.  I thought Texas was full of folks who believe in public representation in local government.  Instead, the fiscal side of your school system there in Cleburne is being run like any banana republic dictatorship throughout history where the folks in charge pillage resources from the public (that'd be YOU) and then spend the money any way they want.   

Sure, you as a taxpayer, property owner, and voter may vote on that bond issue for $10 million, $100 million (that one's coming soon!), or whatever amount the administration feels they can get away with, but once that bond is approved, since the school board is basically sleeping on the job, YOU HAVE NO SAY IN HOW THE MONEY IS SPENT.

Ok little Johnny, here's the grocery money, now off to the store with you!  Aw, and then little Johnny comes back and you find out he spent all the money on candy and stuffed toy unicorns.  THAT is your current school administration and school board, folks.  

Start going to the school board meetings.  Ask questions about how taxpayer money is spent.  And bring a calculator, because as we found out recently, you can't rely on your local newspaper or your school administration or school board to give you the correct information on tax increases, as this tax bump being discussed currently was reported as only a 2% bump in property taxes, when in fact it will be over 12%.

Seeing as how Cleburne ISD has just about the lowest educational marks in the state, maybe that discrepancy can be explained away by all of those folks being Cleburne alumni?  I'm sure the administration would NEVER try to be misleading about how they plan to raise taxes or spend that money once they get it.

"That is NOT a wolf in sheep's clothing Fred, he's just an ugly sheep.  I think he's totally legit.  He does have awfully big ears though.."