Letter to the Editor:
All of us should be concerned with the management of the Burbank Unified School District.
Student test scores are continually disappointing overall. The BUSD has failed to institute a cell phone policy despite the requests from parents, teachers, and staff who are aware and concerned about how disruptive cell phones are to learning. The current and past Superintendents have been dragging their feet for years.
Also of great concern is the waste and mismanagement of the District’s finances by the top managers and the School Board. As an example, the current Superintendent received a $50,000.00 raise over the last (fired) Superintendent on his first day. In addition to this large raise, the Superintendent was granted $10,000 to do anything he chooses for “continuing education” annually. This means if he should so choose, he could go to Hawaii for a seminar and we would get the bill. This perk has never been offered to any other employee. The decision to do this is a clear indicator that the elected BUSD board is out of touch with the economy and the budget they were elected to manage. The BUSD also allows the top administrators to exchange vacation days for cash, something that has never been done by previous elected boards.
Of equally great concern is the decision to place a bond (new tax) on the November 5 ballot. This bond (new tax) with interest will cost the citizens of Burbank 1.1 billion dollars. This is the biggest bond in the history of Burbank, more than all other bonds combined. The citizens of Burbank have been generous in the past supporting our schools approving two prior bonds. These prior bonds have been mismanaged with wasteful spending, mismanagement, and the acceptance of poor quality, substandard work according to BUSD’s own admissions. This should give us all great pause in the ability of this Board to make sound decisions. The two most senior board members have been making poor decisions for a combined 21 years.
I am a retired General Building Contractor and Realtor with over 40 years’ experience in the various trades. I have repeatedly stood at the podium of many BUSD meetings and asked for a tour of the schools for the purpose of showing and identifying the needs of the proposed bond. Even after offering to sign a liability waiver and release, my request was denied. In light of that denial, I requested a video be made so all of us can see what the claimed deficiencies are. This request was also denied. It was my suggestion the Board place on the agenda the bond topic for every meeting until election day so that the public and the Board can engage in questions and answers. This request was also denied. I have wondered why the person in charge of facilities, Mr. Maxwell, has not appeared at every meeting to give a report on the state of our facilities and answer questions. My request to have Mr. Maxwell appear has also been denied.
The district paid $512,000 to a company called Perkins Eastman to do a needs assessment. The report was over 500 pages long. Hundreds of pages were design standards (filler). Many dozens of other pages were a history of our schools. Dozens of other pages were the ethnic makeup of our student population (more filler). Members of Perkins Eastman, when delivering the report to the BUSD stated “you are lucky, your schools are overall in good shape.”
According to BUSD’s own argument in the voter information guide, we have “… outstanding local schools…” They further state in the same publication “… our facilities have been well maintained,…”
In my opinion the true goal of this bond is to free up the remaining funds that are currently being used for facilities and maintenance to be used for salaries. That simple.
All of us must financially live within our means and make sacrifices in this difficult economy. Why should the BUSD be any different?
This bond is an added new tax that will make everything more costly for everyone in Burbank. Passage of this bond will cause the price of everything to increase, from the cost of goods, rent, homeownership and everything in-between. No expense will be spared from increase. This has the potential to lead to more homelessness, more crime, and more unneeded misery for many.
Please join me in sending a message to the BUSD leadership: In this difficult time for all and with shrinking enrollment, a better way for all of us is to run and maintain a smaller district is with less employees. By the way, we currently allow 1,700 students that do not live in Burbank to attend BUSD (and the desire of BUSD to allow more), whose parents will pay NO PART of the direct assessment tax.
This new bond tax is different form the last attempt at a parcel tax. In the last attempt at a new parcel tax, there was a provision to exempt senior citizen property owners. This new bond does NOT contain that exemption. ALL property owners will be forced to pay.
The way to send this message is easy: VOTE NO.
A message to all property owners: One of the two BUSD bonds we are currently paying on is about to expire. A NO vote will cause your property tax bill to GO DOWN. Can you use the extra money at this difficult time?
For all of the above reasons, please vote NO.
Joel Schlossman
Burbank
