Bonner Trustees Whittle School Budget New Plan Freezes Salaries, Cuts Administrative Staff, Leaves No Money To Open New School

After patrons objected for nearly an hour to a proposed budget - one the state said was $1 million in debt and illegal - Bonner County school trustees agreed to trash the plan.

Instead they adopted a budget drafted at the last minute that freezes all salaries, cuts administrative staff and leaves the district with no money to open or operate a newly built elementary school.

The scaled-back budget caused some terse, heated debates and the plan was even rejected once. It finally was approved before midnight Monday when school district business manager Steven Battenschlag threatened to quit if a budget wasn’t passed.

“Tonight you need to adopt a budget. If not, I’m outta here to another place. I’m not doing another budget,” Battenschlag said, opposing a trustee who wanted another budget that required a levy to provide for school needs.

By law, the district needed to adopt a budget by June 15. Battenschlag said he would personally call the state if the district violated the deadline and “you won’t get another nickel,” he said. Trustee Blaine Stevens, who initially voted against the scaled-back budget, changed his vote as did Teresa Asbill and the budget passed. It still puts the district $159,000 in the red, but that is less than the nearly $500,000 deficit the district now faces.

Trustee Bill Osmunson was the lone vote against the budget. He called it pie-in-the-sky and a “flexible, nebulous jelly bean.”

“Passing a budget we know full well we can’t follow, that’s about as slippery as we can get,” Osmunson said. “I feel to vote yes for this is unconstitutional.”

He criticized the state for not coming up with a budget for the district and the board for not having a plan to reduce the deficit.

Battenschlag pointed out Osmunson wasn’t asking about a deficit-reduction plan when he voted to change the budget last month and put the district half a million in debt. “Why weren’t you saying then, ‘Where is the plan?”’

“It sounds like at least we are headed in the right direction,” said Mike Boeck, a member of a school board-appointed committee that recommended budget cuts.

Boeck was upset with Superintendent Max Harrell, however, saying his first budget included few if any of the cuts the committee spent weeks drafting.

Harrell’s plan gave about $600,000 more to special education programs, creating most of the $1 million deficit in the proposed budget. Boeck called board members and urged them to reject Harrell’s proposal.

The state Department of Education also sent a memo to Harrell and the board saying the proposal lacked cuts, a deficit-reduction plan and violated state law.

Trustee Stevens said the memo critical of the district should have been privy and not seen by the public. It was supposed to be discussed in private by the board and the state.

Boeck disagreed. The board asked the state to come in and advise the district. The state supported cuts in administration, salary freezes and not opening Kootenai School. The school is almost complete but the board said it will rely on a levy to generate the money to operate and furnish it.

“I really don’t know why he (Harrell) wanted to even pursue the budget he had with a $1 million debt. That didn’t make good sense,” Boeck said.

The most disappointing thing, he said, was Harrell did not give any advice to the budget committee or attend the meetings.

“In my view he is the one who should have led the budget process. Not one time did he come down to defend his program during the budget committee meetings,” Boeck said. “He walked in for a few minutes, sat back in the audience and turned around and left.”

Harrell was not available for comment Tuesday. He was involved in depositions for a lawsuit pending against the school district.

Some patrons at the meeting wondered why the board spent an hour on Harrell’s budget proposal when the board already knew it was illegal.

“They wasted people’s time and energy presenting a budget they knew they were not going to accept and they already had another one prepared,” said Joan Head, president of the teachers’ union.

She scolded trustee Bill Osmunson and special education director Bob Howman for being unprofessional at the meeting.

Osmunson shouted at Head to “wake up” and pay attention. He also noted the district was inundated with lawsuits and most of those suing were in the audience.

“He’s talking about lawsuits but didn’t mention the one he has filed against the district,” Head said. Osmunson has a multimillion-dollar suit leveled against the district and state, saying students are not provided a thorough education here.

An angry Howman blamed woes in his department - the loss of extra funding, and his late filing of reports - on Battenschlag.

“I’m telling you, brother, all the problems we had were starting with $500,000 less (in the special education budget) to meet requirements.”

Howman and Battenschlag eventually were quieted by the chairman’s gavel. “What happened at that meeting was proof we do not have strong leadership in this district,” Head said. “If people watched that meeting they would be in shock.”

, DataTimes