{"id":45154,"date":"2013-11-01T15:30:28","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T22:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=45154"},"modified":"2015-02-14T22:51:32","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T06:51:32","slug":"candidate-responds-to-palmdale-school-district-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2013\/11\/01\/candidate-responds-to-palmdale-school-district-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Candidate responds to Palmdale School District response"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nancy<\/a>
Nancy Smith is rebutting the Palmdale School District\u2019s rebuttal of a \u201cBudget Analysis Presentation\u201d she made before union members on Oct. 23.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Nancy Smith, former Palmdale School District Superintendent and candidate for Palmdale School Board in the Nov. 5 election<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

[Below] please find my rebuttal statements to the October 24, 2013 press release by the Palmdale School District regarding the PETA and CSEA \u201cBudget Analysis Presentation\u201d on October 23, 2013.<\/p>\n

As the main presenter at the meeting I want to be perfectly clear that the Palmdale School District Press Release totally misrepresented what was said during that meeting. I have answered each of their accusations that was directed at my analysis.\u00a0 I have provided documents that are downloadable to the entire community and noted that all of those documents are Palmdale School District Board Approved documents that they filed officially with the Los Angeles County Office of Education, the State of California and the community of Palmdale School District.<\/p>\n

NANCY SMITH\u2019S REBUTTAL TO THE PALMDALE SCHOOL DISTRICT<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Palmdale School District wrote:<\/strong><\/p>\n

On October 23rd PETA and CSEA presented their narrow version of an analysis of the Palmdale School District budget.<\/p>\n

Nancy Smith\u2019s Response:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The only thing that was narrow about the budget analysis was that I dealt with only the general fund and the misrepresentations made by the district about the financial shape of Palmdale School District.<\/p>\n

Palmdale School District:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs. Smith presented a slide show in which she accused the District of being too conservative in budget development.\u00a0 She stated her information was taken directly from Board approved financial reports; however the \u201cfacts\u201d she presented were artificially contrived since they were presented without context and with no designation between restricted versus unrestricted monies.<\/p>\n

Nancy Smith\u2019s Response:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I never accused the District of \u201cbeing too conservative\u201d, I said that they had misrepresented the financial condition of the Palmdale School District and told the public, employees, Los Angeles County Office of Education and the fact finders they were broke, when they are not.\u00a0 There were NO ARTIFICIALLY CONTRIVED FACTS, THE NUMBERS CAME STRAIGHT FROM BOARD ADOPTED AND APPROVED REPORTS.\u00a0 Their financial reports adopted in March and June were so inaccurate that they most definitely constitute lying to all of the constituents.\u00a0 I also differentiated many times the difference between unrestricted and restricted funds during the presentation.\u00a0 The context was well documented with all backup for the analysis posted to the website at the time the presentation started at 5:30 pm that evening.<\/p>\n

Palmdale School District:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs. Smith\u2019s primary accusation was the appearance of over-estimating budget amounts that were never adjusted.\u00a0 In fact, the District budget is officially reviewed and adjusted four times each year, at minimum. She never acknowledged the 25% lost revenue imposed on Palmdale School District as a result of the Great Recession that California has suffered the past 6 years.\u00a0 This alone resulted in lost revenue to Palmdale School District of more than $125 million dollars<\/p>\n

Nancy Smith\u2019s Response:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I did not accuse the District of an \u201cappearance of over-estimating budget amount\u201d, I used factual information that they actually did over-estimate budget amounts.\u00a0 The ADMINISTRATORS that did the adjustment during the year obviously did not do an accurate job in making those adjustments. The $125 million was already taken into account when the District presented its financial numbers and had nothing to do with the actual ending balances for the current year.\u00a0 Those balances are based on what was actually received in revenue and what the District actually spent during this school year.<\/p>\n

Palmdale School District:<\/strong><\/p>\n

She failed to mention the generous contingency language the District included in the current labor agreements that automatically restores salary reductions and furlough days should the Unrestricted Ending Fund Balance increase and\/or new unrestricted revenue be received.\u00a0 She failed to mention that Palmdale School District is one of the few districts in the State that has managed finances so well during the past 6 years that salary reduction or furlough days were not imposed.\u00a0 She failed to mention that the reductions imposed for 2013-14 have been fully restored and that we have already restored 11.2% of the 12.2% salary reduction intended for 2014-15.<\/p>\n

Nancy Smith\u2019s Response:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fact that\u00a0 \u201c the generous contingency language the District included in current labor agreements\u201d means very little when you consider that there was no need to impose on the teachers or threaten the classified staff with over 400 layoff pink slips if they didn\u2019t agree to take the salary and benefits cuts.\u00a0 It should also be noted that the teachers and classified had lowered their health benefits plans, teachers accepted larger class sizes and that many classified positions were\u00a0 laid off or had their work hours severely reduced.\u00a0 The reductions imposed for 2013-14 have not been fully restored; an email went out to employees saying that the salary portion of reduction would be restored if several events come together by the first interim report later in the year.\u00a0 There was no restoration of the imposed 9 furlough days for 2013-14 in that email unless additional monies become available.\u00a0 THIS IS NOT FULL RESTORATION!\u00a0 Also the health benefit cuts imposed on the teachers has not been restored and there is no mention of that in the email.\u00a0 The District provided inaccurate numbers and the fact finder still recommended a health benefits cap of $16750 with a 50\/50 split of increases above that amount.\u00a0 The Board of Trustees chose to implement harsher caps than recommended by the fact finder even though they knew they had adequate money to meet their obligations.\u00a0 How much taxpayer money did it cost the Palmdale School District in legal fees to make this imposition?<\/p>\n

Palmdale School District:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Palmdale School District staff has worked diligently to protect the classroom by taking full advantage of the flexibility options offered by the State and ARRA monies provided by the Federal government.\u00a0 We have intentionally developed a healthy Ending Fund Balance to use specifically to maintain our labor base with as little disruption as possible.\u00a0 The Board of Trustees have made difficult decisions to ensure fiscal solvency for the Palmdale School District that has resulted in increased test scores and new programs for students.\u00a0 It is unfortunate that Mrs. Smith has chosen to assault the good things that have taken place at the Palmdale School District.<\/p>\n

Nancy Smith\u2019s Response:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have no problem with the Board of Trustees \u201cdeveloping a healthy Ending Fund Balance\u201d.\u00a0 Just be open and honest about it and don\u2019t tell the community you are broke and can\u2019t meet your obligations when you can.\u00a0 The Board and administration declared in two different documents sent to Los Angeles County Office of Education, State of California and the fact finders that they could NOT meet their obligations.\u00a0 These unnecessary cuts have been very disruptive to the labor force, students and parents, so if the intention was to not be disruptive the board failed miserably.\u00a0 I never attacked any of the programs the district has been providing for students.\u00a0 Again this is smoke and mirrors and an outright lie about what I said during the presentation with factual documentation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

–<\/p>\n

Disclaimer<\/span>: The views expressed in this article are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The AV Times.<\/em><\/h4>\n

Email letters@theavtimes.com<\/a> to submit a story to Your Issues | Your News<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Previous related stories:<\/p>\n

PSD responds to allegations of budget mismanagement<\/a><\/p>\n

Unions, former superintendent claim budget mismanagement in Palmdale School District<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nancy Smith, former Palmdale School District Superintendent and candidate for Palmdale School Board in the Nov. 5 election [Below] please find my rebuttal statements to the October 24, 2013 press release by the Palmdale School District regarding the PETA and CSEA \u201cBudget Analysis Presentation\u201d on October 23, 2013. As the main presenter at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,1480],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}