Decatur School Board Meets Tonight

The Decatur Township school board meets tonight to adopt the 2011 budget - without having held a single work session on the topic. A set of paper mache stand-ins would be as effective in representing the public interest as are Cathy Wiseman, Dale Henson, Don Huffman, Doug Greenwald, and Judy Collins.

Heaven help the taxpayers of Decatur Township.

More on MSD Decatur's Loan

I recently posted about the Decatur School District flopping a 2009 Tax Anticipation Warrant into a 4-year loan (see "Decatur Superintendent and School Board Abuse Public Trust"). I have been contacting various state agencies about this issue and have received some information that contains some good news and some 'Alice in Wonderland' news.

From the Department of Local Government Finance, I got this explanation of the actions of the school district:

The school borrowed $23 million from a private bank in 2007 in temporary loans. Instead of paying down this loan when they received tax distributions in 2007, 2008 and 2009 – they simply made payments on the loan interest. The school is now attempting to pay this loan off as quickly as possible over the next few years. The loan has not been converted to debt service debt but remains a temporary loan. Only the interest on the loan is included in the debt service fund, which is typical of all temporary loans. Keep in mind that the temp loans (with exception of interest) are being paid back within the limitations of the school “normal – maximum and cap rate” levies.

This debt – both the temp loan and interest – will not be treated similar to a referendum. An approved referendum project or tax levy would be outside of the circuit breaker caps. This debt – as it was not approved in a referendum vote – is still subject to the circuit breaker cap limitations.

The good news part, obviously, is that only the interest on the loan, 2.5%, can be paid from debt service, which is funded entirely from property taxes. The bad news is that Superintendent Don Stinson and the entire School Board, Dale Henson, Don Huffman, Doug Greenwald, Judy Collins and Cathy Wiseman, HAVEN'T PAID THIS BILL FOR 3 YEARS and are hoping to do so within the next 4.

These guys have been spending like sailors in port, and back when economic times were great they couldn't even pay off a tax anticipation warrant when it was due. Now, with the economy in the worst recession since the Great Depression, the chickens have come home to roost. They have no one to blame except themselves.

Decatur Superintendent and School Board Abuse the Public Trust

Last week I posted "Decatur School Board Pulls Superintendent's Arse Out of Fire", where I spoke specifically about the school board recklessly approving the sumptuous parting gifts that Superintendent Don Stinson handed out to retiring Administrators. Those golden parachutes were granted without prior board approval, against standing board policy, not required by any contractual obligations, and totaled over $800,000 plus an ongoing $100,000 in annual health insurance payments. The board recklessly supported Stinson's spending spree nearly one month after 3 of the 5 had already taken the cash and gone.

In that entry, I mentioned that this was the second time in July that the Board had approved action taken by Stinson without prior board approval - which is required as Stinson does not have the authority to approve finances, that lies with the Board as granted by state law.

The first time in July was even more egregious than the $800,000 in parting gifts divvied up between 5 people.

The short story is that on July 13, 2010, the Board approved Stinson's unilateral action to flop a tax anticipation warrant (often called a 'temporary loan' in Decatur's school district) into a four year loan. But, there is so much more to it than first appears.

A little background. Let's take a couple of minutes to talk about property taxes and the route that the money takes from your pocket to the school district and other governmental units in Marion County. Every year during budget season, each taxing unit sets their budget and figures out how much property tax revenue they need to fund that budget. The tax rate is calculated from the total amount of property tax revenue required, divided by the total value of all property in the school district (called the 'assessed value'). The County Treasurer sends out a bill twice a year to collect these property taxes. Once the money is collected, the County Auditor mails a check to the school district for their portion. The school district then can spend that money.

The last few years have been unusual in that Governor Daniels ordered Marion County, among other counties, to do its determination of the 'assessed values' all over again. This took time. The delay in determining the assessed value caused a delay in determining the tax rate which caused a delay in sending out the property tax bills, which caused a delay in paying the property tax bills, which caused a delay in sending the property tax revenues to the school district. But the school districts, and other taxing units, still had to pay for their operations during the delay. So, they got short term loans called 'tax anticipation warrants', which this district often calls 'temporary loans'. The school district would eventually receive the property tax money; they would just receive it about one year late. The TAW would be repaid once the County Auditor sent the property tax check to the district. It is kind of like a payday loan. As soon as you get your paycheck, you are supposed to go in and pay off your loan.

The public has a right to assume that a 'tax anticipation warrant' will be paid off as soon as the tax money has been received.

Well, Don Stinson got Board approval on October 14, 2008, to arrange a TAW for the upcoming calendar year, 2009. The Board minutes state:

"Dr. Baer asked permission to begin the process for pursuing temporary loans in the amount of $23,000,000 for 2009. He explained that because of the status of the state budget and the fact there has been no collection of property taxes it has become necessary to borrow against local tax monies. At present, the school corporation is not scheduled to receive any property tax money until June of 2009. Mr. Huffman moved that the Board approve begin the process of pursuing temporary loans for 2009. Mrs. Wiseman seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously."

It is questionable whether the district should ever have taken such a large loan or TAW, since the State Department of Local Government Finance only authorized them raise $18 million from property taxes in 2009. There is still an outstanding issue here on the $23 million, but it is not the main point of this blog entry. On January 13, 2009, the TAW was finalized and the $23 million was received by the District.

In June, half of the $18 million authorized for property taxes would have been sent to the school district by the County Auditor, and the rest sent in December. So, by the end of 2009, the district had $18 million in order to pay back the TAW. They should have paid it back then.

But, they did not.

The public has a right to assume that a 'tax anticipation warrant' will be paid off as soon as the tax money has been received.

On December 8, 2009, the Board approved a 6 month extension of the TAW, pushing the due date to June 30, 2010. The minutes of that meeting state:

"Dr. Baer presented a Resolution for a Tax Anticipation Warrant Rollover to 2010. He explained this was the same process used in 2008 and this would allow repayment of debt to be carried over to the end of June 2010. Mrs. Wiseman made a motion to approve the Resolution. Mrs. Collins seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously."

The money to pay back the 2009 TAW had been received by the school district during 2009, but it was not used to pay off the loan. Instead, on July 13, 2010, the Board approved turning $19 million of this $23 million TAW, or "temporary" loan, into a 4 year loan. Please note the date -- July 13, 2010. The 2009 TAW was due on June 30, 2010. The resolution passed by the Board on July 13 states that:

"...on June 30,2010, the School Corporation executed and delivered to Regions Bank, ...documents evidencing the extension of the final maturity of the Obligations to February 15, 2014..., and [Regions] has accepted the Extension."

The School Corporation did not have the authority to give such "documents evidencing the extension" because there had not been any Board action to create such documents. Again, Don Stinson acted unilaterally, usurping the authority of the Board... and the Board again pulled his arse out of the fire.

What does all this mean to the taxpayers? This means that the school district should have paid off the 2009 TAW with the property taxes paid by residents in 2009. Instead, Stinson and the Board will make you pay even more taxes to pay off the new 4-year loan. YOU ALREADY PAID THE TAXES, but you will have to pay them a second time.

The public has a right to assume that a 'tax anticipation warrant' will be paid off as soon as the tax money has been received. The public trust should not be abused by keeping the money and floating another loan to pay off the first one and then foisting the tab for the new loan onto the backs of the taxpaying public. Its called "robbing Peter to pay Paul".

Where has the money gone? $18-23 million is very serious money. Where has it all gone?

In the end, it is also a devious and underhanded way to get the Decatur Taxpayer to pay more money to the district without ever having had a say. There was never a public hearing, the public notice was uninformative, and there has not been a referendum to increase our property taxes over the next 4 years. Roughly $5 million more money will have to be raised EACH YEAR, which will cause a roughly 25% increase in school taxes.

No vote. No hearing. No say.

The school board, Dale Henson, Don Huffman, Doug Greenwald, Judy Collins and Cathy Wiseman, have allowed our school finances to go from really bad to unsustainable. They are allowing Don Stinson to raise cash by not paying off our loans, when the money was available to pay off those loans. We are now in hock twice for the same money. This is reckless. And to approve this fiscal disaster two weeks after Stinson usurped their authority, is to have totally abandoned all responsibilities that they have as elected officials to serve the public interest.

Stinson and the Board were reckless in getting a $23 million TAW, when $18 million was all the State of Indiana authorized them to raise in property taxes for that year. Stinson and the Board were reckless in not paying off that TAW in June of 2009 or January of 2010, when they had the money from the taxpayers to do so. Stinson and the Board were reckless to turn that 2009 TAW into a four year loan, making the taxpayers pay yet again for loan. This last point is where they have totally abandoned the voting public; they made a grab for more money and hoped the public would not notice that they never had a say on whether or not they wanted to give the district more money.

Stinson and the Board have acted without honor. They have abused the public trust.

Decatur School Board Pulls Superintendent's Arse Out of the Fire

Nearly one month after 3 Administrators retired from the MSD Decatur Township school district with wads of cash, extra years of service purchased from the State Teacher Retirement Fund, and a promise of paid health insurance until Medicare picks them up - all clearly prohibited by School Board policy and not a part of any contract - the School Board ratified the unilateral action by Superintendent, Don Stinson.

Remember these names -- Dale Henson, Don Huffman, Doug Greenwald, Judy Collins, and Cathy Wiseman.

I have called them a rubber stamping school board numerous times. But, to continue to do so is to do a disservice to rubber stamping school boards everywhere. They are eyeball deep in fiscal recklessness that makes their past behavior pale in comparison and should make every taxpayer in Decatur Township extremely nervous.

Dale Henson, Don Huffman, Doug Greenwald, Judy Collins, and Cathy Wiseman are now equal players with Don Stinson in running our school district into the ground. For the second time this month, the school board has unanimously approved unilateral action taken by the Superintendent without prior board approval. For the second time this month, the school board has unanimously thrown fiscal responsibility out the window, making the fiscal morass we are in far far worse than even I imagined it could or would be.

For this post I will discuss the action taken last Thursday, July 29, 2010, at a special meeting of the Board. Just as I speculated (see "Suddenly - Decatur School Board Calls Special Session"), the purpose of that meeting was to legalize the retirement packages given by Don Stinson to retiring Administrators Jeff Baer, Dave Rather, Pat Jones, Gary Pellico, and Janet Larch.

I have already shared with you the retirement package information (see "Decatur Administrator Severance Packages Really Sweet") that amounted to over $800,000 this year and, additionally, up to $100,000 in coming years for ongoing health insurance costs. I also shared with you the 2004 Board policy that specifically banned this type of retirement package (see "Decatur Administrator Severance Packages in Contradiction of School Board Policy"). This was part of a statewide effort to become more fiscally responsible and buy out the retirement promises made in contracts, but for which no money had been set aside. It cost Decatur taxpayers at least $8 million to buy out these unfunded liabilities.


But, Don Stinson gave his retiring pals some great parting gifts anyway. And the school board unanimously pulled his arse out of the fire, tossed the taxpayers arses into the fire, and approved these retirement packages - EVEN THOUGH 3 of the 5 LEFT THE DISTRICT nearly a MONTH before.


The agenda for Thursday's meeting simply said "Staff Report". Surprise Decatur. Not only did they approve Stinson's unilateral action, they increased the severance package for Jeff Baer by $1000, and for Gary Pellico by a whopping $22,030.66. Nice job Dale Henson, Don Huffman, Doug Greenwald, Judy Collins, and Cathy Wiseman.

We can't afford to keep Lynwood open as an elementary school, thereby increasing class sizes, but we can give these 5 people over $800,000 as a parting gift -- on top of the contract buyouts we paid for in 2004-2005 -- on top of the money we have been putting into the Indiana State Teacher Retirement Fund for them every year since -- on top of the money we have put into three other retirement funds for each of them every year since -- and which was rightly banned by School Board policy and which was not a contractual obligation.

Remember this Decatur taxpayers. Remember this Decatur parents.

Remember these names: Dale Henson, Don Huffman, Doug Greenwald, Judy Collins, Cathy Wiseman, and Don Stinson.

Below are the retirement packages awarded, as reported in the Resolution adopted Thursday:

	Added ISTRF Contribution	Health Insurance	Life Insurance
Baer	$149,966.50	$19,284 / yr	$365.00 / yr
Rather	167,733.55	16,428 / yr	365.00 / yr
Jones	160,727.87	16,428 / yr	365.00 / yr
Pellico	170,472.14	16,428 / yr	365.00 / yr
Larch	100,895.36	19,284 / yr	n/a

Decatur School Board Feasts Just Before Putting Teachers on the Street

Prior to last night's regular meeting of the MSD Decatur Township Board meeting, the school board and the Superintendent, Don Stinson, feasted on a catered meal. Three carts of steaming hot food were wheeled into the meeting room at the Gold Academy for their dining pleasure.

This is just moments before they were to vote to lay off 61 teachers, even though 20 agreed to retire early. (I am so stunned by this news that I have submitted an open records request to verify that they axed so many despite their claims of caring about the education of Decatur's children.)

Back to the great catered meal that the Dale Henson, Judy Collins, Cathy Wiseman, Don Huffman, Doug Greenwald, and Don Stinson shared. How can a decent person spend even a penny of taxpayer money on such things - moments before putting other decent people into the unemployment line and leaving their family finances in shambles? How can they even swallow?

There is a reason that the phrase "Let them eat cake" has survived for over two hundred years. It has become the epitome of people who are so ignorant of the situation in the real world around them, that they cannot comprehend the excesses of thier own world view.

The excessive teacher RIFs, the unconscionable treatment of the bus drivers and custodians, the unwillingness to sell excess properties to help buffer the impact of digging out of a financial mess these folks created - these are all clear demonstrations that the Board and the Administration are ignorant of the situation in the real world around them and that they cannot comprehend the excesses of their own world view. These catered meals for the Board just before lowering the boom on other human beings is their version of "Let them eat cake".

Is There a Board Meeting Tonight?

I just came back from the Decatur Library. Did anyone hear of a meeting of the Decatur School Board tonight? When I went into the Library I saw Dale Henson's car outside of the Central Office. When I left the Library I drove past and his car was gone, but I saw Greenwald and Huffman in the Board Room. Anyone have any info????? Saw a Caddy, but I don't know what kind Stinson drives.

Decatur School Board Feted With Catered Executive Session

If you were worried that the drastic cuts being leveled at the Metropolitan School District of Decatur Township was going to negatively impact our School Board - fear not. They continued their tradition of having Executive Sessions as catered affairs. School cafeteria workers catered and served the Board and the Superintendent, Don Stinson, last night. As a extra special treat, the School Board ordered a special cake to be baked especially for Stinson. Isn't that sweet.

Ahhh !! Its a good life if you're Don Stinson, Dale Henson, Don Huffman, Judy Collins, Cathy Wiseman, or Doug Greenwald. No sense pinching pennies just because you are about to lay other people off.

Nepotism Should Be Banned

The next School Board to be seated in MSD Decatur Township should immediately establish a policy that bans nepotism. Hiring relatives gives the appearance of favoritism, cronyism, and outright payback, to the community and to the employees of the school district. Banning nepotism is a small price to pay for a demonstration to the overall community that all employment decisions in the district will be above reproach - only the best qualified will be hired.

We all know about the current state of affairs in the Decatur School District. Lets start with the School Board. Dale Henson, to my knowledge, has never had a relative who was hired while Henson has been on the Board. That is good. Doug Greenwald, to my knowledge, has never had a relative who was hired while he has been a Member of the Board. That also is good. Cathy Wiseman has had at least one son on the payroll since being elected. Judy Collins has a daughter on the payroll. And, most famous of all, Don Huffman has a grandson on the payroll - which actually necessitated the ouster of an employee from his position to accomplish. Hiring relatives gives the appearance of favoritism, cronyism, and outright payback.

Now lets turn our attention to the Administration. Candice Baer was hired into a position created just after she lost her job as Superintendent of Center Grove Schools. Candice is married to Assistant Superintendent for Business, Jeff Baer. Hiring relatives gives the appearance of favoritism, cronyism, and outright payback.

Now, I will presume that all of these folks are highly qualified individuals who could have gotten a job in any School District in the land. Well, then let them. Employing relatives of highly placed individuals brings baggage with it. Unnecessary baggage. Nepotism is banned by law in other units of Government and should be banned in School Districts as well. Until State law bans nepotism in School Districts, the School Board should create a policy banning it in our District.

Here is what I would propose for a policy.

Any individual may run for and be seated on the School Board if their relative was already an employee of the District at the time of that person filing to be on the ballot.

After filing to be on the ballot or after being seated on the Board, no relative of a School Board member may be hired by the District until one year after that Member leaves the Board.

No relative of any Administrator (central office or building level) may be hired by the District while that Administrator is employed by the District and for one year after that Administrator leaves the employ of the District.

No relative of the leadership of the Teachers Union may be hired by the District while they are in positions of leadership and for one year after they leave those positions. Nobody in a leadership position of the Teachers Union may be hired into an Administrator position within the District for two years after they leave that leadership position.

No relative of a head of Security, Transportation, or any other department headed by a non-administrator, may be hired by the District while that department head is employed by the District and for one year after they leave that position.

Qualified people can find a job in a nearby District. Public trust in the system is eroded when nepotism is allowed to flourish as it has in the Decatur School District. A 'no nepotism' policy created by the new School Board would improve this District and its reputation.

Decatur School Board to Meet Tonight - Be Afraid Taxpayers

Brace yourselves Decaturites. The Decatur School Board meets tonight. They will meet in Executive Session behind closed doors beginning at 5:00 pm, followed by their regularly scheduled monthly meeting at 7:00 pm. The Executive Session is advertised as being for the purpose of discussing "a job performance evaluation of an individual employee". By law, that is all they are supposed to discuss for that hour and a half. Word is that the regular meeting will be moved to the High School Cafeteria as they expect a large crowd. If you are going, enter at Door 10 on the southwest corner of the High School Building.

On the agenda, which never lists action items, Patron Comments precede the discussion of Superintendent Stinson's proposal for changes to District finances and structure. Of course, this order of business limits the ability of community members to make cogent remarks as they cannot be sure what proposal will be put forth by the Superintendent. But, this is the usual course of things. If you plan to attend and make comments, be sure you sign up to do so as I understand the Board members can get rather snippy if you get out of line and do not sign up to speak.

If the School Board was truly interested in the community's opinion on these matters, they would let Superintendent Stinson announce the favored proposal and then give the community a month, a week, or even a day, to read about it and formulate their comments before the Board voted on the proposal. But, I'm guessing they will just vote on it tonight and not avail the community of the details before then.

Tonight's meeting is perfectly time for placing a referendum question on the May 4 Primary Election ballot. To place a referendum question on the ballot, the exact wording of the question must first be voted on by the School Board and then sent on to the City-County Council for certification at least 60 days prior to Election Day. For this timeline to work, the Council must act on the certification at its February 22 meeting and therefore introduce the issue at its February 1 meeting, which is the next meeting on their calendar, having just met last night. This is the last meeting of the School Board prior to February 1.

Any referendum question would ask the voters to approve an increase in property taxes to cover the financial mess Superintendent Don Stinson, Assistant Superintendent Jeff Baer, and the rubber stamping School Board members, Dale Henson, Don Huffman, Cathy Wiseman, and Judy Collins have gotten us into. Board member Doug Greenwald is getting a pass from me as he only joined the Board in July of 2008 and to my knowledge his only aggravating vote was on Don Stinson's extravagant contract that propelled him to the second highest paid Superintendent in Central Indiana and likely the entire State of Indiana.

Again, the School Board likely will not give the community any time to consider and comment on a referendum question being placed on the ballot. Likely they will haul out those trusty rubber stamps and just vote on it tonight.

Methinks a referendum has been the true aim of much of the work on enrollment and hand wringing over the finances, because anyone could see this coming ever since the property tax caps passed the Indiana Legislature in 2008. They'll close Lynwood Elementary School and lay off teachers. This will tick off the teachers. They'll change the remaining Elementary Schools and the Intermediate School to Grade 1-6 schools, increasing class size when absorbing the Lynwood students. This will tick off the teachers and any parent who realizes it will negatively impact the quality of education their children get in Decatur. They will allow any child to attend any Elementary School making transportation to and from school a nightmare -- they may even require parents to do most of the transporting or pay a huge fee for the school bus service. This will tick off the bus drivers, the parents and the kids. They will instigate fees for kids to participate in sports. This will tick of the parents and the kids. Meanwhile they will eliminate Candice Baer's position in the Central Office as a token loss in the Central Office ranks, even though she is already said to be leaving due to the acquisition of a new job elsewhere. The Central Office will be moved to the palatial and spacious digs over at the old Concentra Building. The Administrators will NOT be ticked off -- they will be even better off.

All of this ticking off of people will increase the chances of passage of the referendum. Passage of a referendum would sink Decatur Township's hopes of coming out of the recession along with the rest of Marion County and will sink the Township's hopes for move up housing and business location in our community for decades to come. Not that Don Stinson really cares about any of that.

I expect the Mooresville-Decatur Times will cover the meeting. If so, look for an article in either Wednesday's edition (which would be a very tight deadline for them) or in Saturday's edition of the paper. The online edition is password protected and available only to those who have subscriptions. So, be sure to pick up a copy and see what the proposal was and how the meeting went.