Huckleberries Online

Briggs: Student Strikers Ill-Informed

Posted by DFO

May 5, 2009 8:56 a.m. • 14 comments

dick haugen interviews hazel bauman

Steve Briggs, the district’s chief financial officer, said the students had their facts wrong. Though a “pay to play” system was discussed months ago, it is no longer being considered, he said. Briggs said the district’s activities budget will decline from about $1.66 million this school year to about $1.47 million next school year – a cut of about $187,000. As a result, the activity director positions at both high schools will be reduced to half-time. Other cuts will not be as severe as described by the students, Briggs said. The recently passed levy devotes $1.3 million annually to the district’s activities budget. That money remains intact and makes up the majority of the money for activities throughout the district, Briggs said/Alison Boggs, SR. More here.

Question: Do you think the striking students were acting on good information? Or are administrators right in downplaying the cuts and stating that everything will work out?

14 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Digger on May 05 at 9:55 a.m.
So is Dick Haugen back to work for the S-R again? Or is that an old interview?
poolman on May 05 at 10:08 a.m.
A school levy should be intended to finance capital work e.g. improvement of infrastructure, assets, etc. Basically things that can be depreciated on a schedule. Activities, salaries or what I would call expenses should be financed through normal cash flow - which I assume is a set budgeted amount that comes from the state and is based on enrolment numbers, tax revenue in the district and the state’s overall budget. If the state is forced to reduce the schools budget based on all of the factors involved, the school needs to deal with that and cut costs as needed to meet the new budget. However, they should not finance expenses with levy money – only capital work. If the kids don’t understand this concept then yes – they were wrong.
DFO on May 05 at 10:15 a.m.
>So is Dick Haugen back to work for the S-R again? Or is that an old interview? — Digger.<

Dick conducted that interview this morning for KJRB, which has a contractural arrangement with the SR to provide air time at the bottom of the hour for our news programs. Dick and Dan Mitchinson are our main guys who produce the broadcasts. They’re assigned to our marketing side in the Spokane office. In other words, the same guy signs both of our paychecks.
Digger on May 05 at 10:26 a.m.
Okay - last I heard he was part of the last round of layoffs. Didn’t know he made it back.
scootermom on May 05 at 10:41 a.m.
If Faux News can get thousands of people to teabag for a day, why are we surprised that a couple dozen students would stage a protest based on inaccurate or incomplete information?
redman on May 05 at 11:14 a.m.
At this point I have no confidence in SD 271 administration.
Phaedrus on May 05 at 12:10 p.m.
A school levy should be intended to finance capital work e.g. improvement of infrastructure, assets, etc.

And they are.

This was a supplemental levy, something Idaho school districts are forced to rely on because of the state legislature’s practice of continually short changing education. If the State of Idaho actually valued education and proved it by funding schools at an appropriate level then districts would not be forced to put the squeeze on property taxpayers just to make ends meet. Don’t blame school districts, blame our great uneducated legislators.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.