I must agree with Jennifer Henrie (Observer letters May 28) that greater transparency regarding the fiscal management of public schools is needed. With this in mind I have been checking the financial statements of School District #83 and note that in the past three years there has been significant increase in employee expense accounts.
The totals for administrators and other personnel earning over $75,000 per annum add up to $293,515 for 2010, and $429,006 for 2013, totalling $660,542 for all employees. This is an increase of some 30 per cent over this three-year period. I must question why is there so much growth in expenses at a time of restraint?
Administrators receive generous compensation, benefits, pensions, 40 days vacation and 10 days professional development yearly.
Do they also require tens of thousands of dollars in expense accounts? Students, parents and taxpayers deserve clarification. Please?
Opportunity for education is not created or controlled by those who benefit most, or most directly from it. It is provided by society for the next generation, by adults for the immature and funded by community members – be they rich or poor.
Only in a healthy, far-sighted, and altruistic society can education prosper.
Indeed we must guard against politicization or the unwelcome influence of organizations which consider only their own, narrow self-interest. Instead we must continue to listen to divergent views and arguments with open-mindedness, and foster the constant search for knowledge and co-operation.
However hard this may be.
Tony Lewis
