Heckuva job, Vicki!

After last night's Board meeting, it is apparent that Vicki Phillips and the school board are set on pursuing a disastrous course of action that will eviscerate a once fine public school system. It is reckless management and we need to stop it.

PPS and the Board have known for several years that large budget shortfalls were likely to happen when the i-tax sun-setted, yet here we are once again, unprepared and in total crisis mode. We promised voters the i-tax would be temporary, a bridge to allow us to come up with permanent solutions. The falseness of that promise was revealed when PPS and the Board floated the idea of extending the tax and paid for polling to test the waters. Unsurprisingly, the poll revealed little support for extending the i-tax. After all, we promised voters it would only be temporary.

Why wasn't the issue of stable school funding the #1 priority of this Board and of PPS leadership in general? There is and was no more important issue facing the district, yet here we are once again facing disaster. Why weren't our school leaders hounding lawmakers in Salem, working the hallways at City Hall, bending the arms of recalcitrant corporate partners who depend on a fine public school system but are reluctant to support it with their taxes? Why indeed??

Last night's foolish and ill-timed Board meeting (it conflicted with a highly important education summit meeting called by Mayor Potter, and should have been rescheduled) gave us more of the same tired and bankrupt ideas that can only send us into a deeper downward spiral. I personally have lost faith in this Board and Superintendent Phillips. I do not trust them to do the right thing. It do not trust them to make rationale, fact-based decisions.

As an example, in the context of this looming funding crisis, PPS leadership has been consumed with implementing massive organizational changes at several high schools and throughout one entire cluster (Jefferson). The changes increase rather than decrease resource commitments, yet PPS leadership plunges ahead, knowing that a funding crisis is imminent. It is truly incompetent leadership.

One of the problems is that PPS staff isn't up to the challenge of fairly and accurately forecasting the impact of any particular action it wants to take. Worse, the Board rarely insists on even the most cursory analytical rigor when considering proposals from PPS staff.

This is no exaggeration.

Last year, in proposing several school closures, PPS presented no business cases for the closures. There were no scenario analyses, no attempt to model potential outcomes. In fact, no concrete numbers were ever presented to the Board. Instead, Vicki told the Board that the typical elementary school closure results in an average savings of about $250,000 annually. You would think, then, that PPS would target for closures schools that would offer annual operating savings far in excess of the average of $250,000. But of course, that is not how they think. Instead, they closed two high-achieving small schools with low operating costs. To this day, PPS staffers have not produced accurate numbers for any proposed school closures. And, although they promised to track the results of last year's unwise closures, they have not done so.

Last night, Vicki said more closures will be necessary. I say, get real! Closing school buildings does not save substantial dollars. You are in a real financial crisis. What you need to be doing is planting yourself at the state capital and demanding a long-term funding solution. PPS currently operates just under 60 elementary schools. If you were to close half of them, annual operating savings would only amount to about $6 million. Of course, a fair modeling of such an action would anticipate a mass exodus from public schools and huge class sizes for those kids who are left.

It is time for a change in leadership.

Mike Miller