ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.
“The best things in life are free. But you can keep them for the birds and bees. Give me money. That’s want I want…” — Barrett Strong, 1959, written by Barry Gordy
It was more than four years ago that Wayland Board of Education newcomer Toni Ordway read the school administration the riot act about the district’s financial condition and railed against its bond rating declining. She insisted the fund balance, then pegged at a dismal 7.5 percent, be raised to double digits in the next couple of years and then targeted 12% the year after that.
Mission accomplished and then some.
The board just last month was told that the fund balance now stands at 15.79%. And that’s not all.
After getting its collective clock cleaned in an ail-advised millage request of more than $55 million, the board took a step back and crafted a much more reasonable $19.2 million request that was approved narrowly a year afterward. The results were a middle school addition, new tennis courts and roof repairs at the high school.
Then came the news that the latest project’s costs came in under budget, paving the way for another “want,” artificial turf on the football and softball, baseball and soccer fields. It was very doable without going back to taxpayers to ask for more money. The turf was one of the proposals that had to be axed in the overreaching more than $50 million request years before.
Because of quality stewardship of the district’s money, a bag of tricks that includes refinancing bond loan percentages and keeping project costs low, Wayland Union Schools now is getting a sixth grade wing for the middle school, badly needed tennis courts, a variety of renovations, roof repairs and artificial turf for athletic fields to make them less at the mercy of inclement weather.
Even better, last year the school board was able to hand out nice salary raises to teachers and staff, improving morale.
You might say the district, after many struggles a handful of years ago, has been on a roll. You also might ask who deserves the credit. It isn’t the State Legislature, despite its willingness to say so.
From where I sit, a good share of the kudos goes to two women near the top of the administrative chain of command — Finance Director Pat Velie and Director of Instruction Theresa Fulk.
To be sure, the entire staff deserves praise in working as a team to improve the local school system, but these two seem to have helped change the culture I was suspect about in days gone by. There seems to be more of a spirit of cooperation and “we’re all in this together” attitude rather than the “my way of the highway” approach to solving problems.
Velie has impressed me with her role in getting Wayland’s financial house in better order and Fulk was the ringleader of the iPad academic program for students.
Obviously, I am an outsider and not privy to the inner workings of our local schools, but as I have tried to tell people for a long time now:
“I report what I see and hear. And sometimes I comment about it.”
COVER PHOTO: Barrett Strong