Merrill is about to drop another budget bombshell

Twenty-four hours after the Wayne County Board of Commissioners roasted the Board of Education for what they characterized as years of financial inattention and mismanagement — and marveled at the board’s incredibly poor decisions regarding contracts, Interim Superintendent Dr. James Merrill told his principals just how bad the situation really is. 

Bottom line: It’s dire. Everything-is-on-the-table-including-teacher-supplements-and-jobs bad.

The announcement came Wednesday morning during a meeting of every principal in the district.

Merrill’s message was that the district’s financial situation is so messed up that there is no easy solution — not even increasing class sizes and the other cuts suggested when the financial shortfall was first discovered.

The news was not that much of a surprise.

Financial consultant Aaron Beaulieu couldn’t avoid the multi-million-dollar deficit when he looked at the books and crunched the numbers.

Sure, savings from months of remote learning from COVID-19 and state and federal funding made available because of the pandemic allowed him to get the budget a little closer to even. But it did not eliminate the deficit caused by an outstanding $3 million debt to the Food Services Fund and a loan the district was forced to take from the state — with interest — to make payroll earlier this summer.

Merrill also hinted at the financial situation at Monday’s regular board of education meeting, saying that the financial situation was serious and that there were going to be some major choices and decisions ahead — that they would be “felt deeper across the organization.”

You would not have known it from listening to some school board members — or by reading the “news story” released by the district after the board’s June 29 meeting that boasted “financial experts were able to significantly reduce the district’s deficit over the past few weeks by aggressively locating and shifting available funds across budgets. As a result, the district now has approximately $1.8 million in the bank moving into the coming year.”

Merrill is about to paint a whole different picture in a few weeks at the BOE’s October session.

It’s just like the board’s rosy, sunshine description of the Plan B reopening — which was in dire contrast to the comments made by teachers and a parent at the board meeting and the comments coming in from parents, students, teachers and administrators — and board chairman Chris West and board member Ven Faulk telling members of their party and the community that there is no deficit, that it was just “fake news” manufactured by a news organization to dog the board of education. (Guess who.)

Guess not.

We are not sure why West, Faulk and others are still pretending that everything is fine.

We think it has something to do with power — and at least one upcoming election.

And we know for sure it is why the board is spinning the news on their own Wayne County Public Schools News Network and avoiding any real questions from media like the plague.

They don’t want to get asked any questions they don’t want to answer.

The extent of the damage is coming soon — and we will know just exactly what Merrill is recommending.

It will be interesting to see how West and company spin this one.

We had originally planned just to hold on to our tip about Merrill’s meeting today to wait and see what he says when he is back before the board in a public meeting again.

But we decided that you needed to know now.

Why?

Because, despite what you are hearing and the excuse being used about COVID-19, you can attend board meetings. Only some people will be able to come into the board office, and no one can come into the board room itself — odd don’t you think since the board had no problem putting students and teachers back in schools and several of them do not wear their masks in board meetings — but you can be there, in the parking lot, outside or watching online.

You can sign up to go speak your mind.

And you can absolutely ask all kinds of questions via email or by calling your local board member.

This decision is not just about the incompetence of a superintendent or even a board chairman who has had a front row seat to the squandering of a $7 million fund balance and putting the schools in a dire deficit.

It is about the students and the education we are able to offer.

We are going to need to look at everything — including those who have been employed because of who they know rather than what they are doing or have done for students.

There are lots of places to look, and lots of numbers to crunch.

If you are like us, and the county commissioners, you don’t trust the current board to make any decision, not one, about money or this county’s future. 

And just in case you don’t know, the county commission does not oversee the school district. They are not allowed to — by state law.

So while it’s true that the commissioners could provide WCPS with more funding, they did not know anymore about the county schools’ budget situation than you and we did. In fact, we told them some of the worst of it when we reported it.

They can’t know unless the school district tells them. And they weren’t telling anyone. For years.

We found out by requesting documents and seeing the figures for ourselves.

This is mismanagement, pure and simple.

And the board’s recent decision to go radio silent in communications to the community is just one more piece of evidence that we are correct — that this is not really about making things right and being transparent and responsible to the taxpayers who elected them.

This is also not about the kids, not anymore.

And all that sickening pandering about supporting the teachers and administrators that is spewed in board meetings — that is nothing but balderdash.

A board that respects teachers listens to them when they say they are not ready, that they are trying hard to get up to speed on a new program and that they need more time to make the lessons better for the children.

They don’t ignore warnings from those on the front lines about missing supplies.

And they sure as heck don’t respond to a teacher expressing a concern by telling them that they have made their decision and to quit whining and go to work — or imply that they did not work hard enough to get ready to go back to school.

That’s what people who are out of touch and operating on a political agenda and power trip do.

And they don’t, in the face of the collapse of their financial house, keep hiring consultants, keep paying their overpriced attorney and keep making bad decisions about personnel and resource management.

This is not going to be an easy few months in the county schools.

Tough decisions will have to be made.

But the scrutiny that has been placed on the Wayne County School Board cannot and should not let up.

It is not just about the money anymore.

It is about our county’s future.

We will see in a few weeks just what is going to be done about it.

And if you think this is some politically motivated witch hunt, tell that to the Republicans on the board of commissioners who are just as disgusted by the so-called “fiscally responsible” board members who rubber-stamped WCPS into this blood bath as we are.