MARK KIESLING: Valpo schools face quandary in shortfall

Who screwed up in Valparaiso?

Was it the School Board, as board member James Jorgensen plainly said when talking about a $3.2 million shortfall the district is now facing?

"We screwed up," Jorgensen said, by not moving earlier to slash spending a year ago to avoid depleting what is popularly known as a "rainy day" fund set aside for inclement financial weather.

That's a lot of candor. I was going to say it is a lot of candor for an elected official, but it almost slipped my mind the Valpo School Board remains one of the few in the state that is still appointed.

Still, an admission like that took a lot of guts.

But Valpo resident Christopher Pupillo instead wanted to lay the blame at the doorstep of the governor's mansion, saying Gov. Mitch Daniels has failed to keep his promises to support public education.

So did the Valpo School Board screw up by failing to be far-sighted enough to cut spending and avoid the serious situation it now faces of having to cut some 8 percent from its budget?

Cuts Jorgensen called "serious and immediate," and which could have far-reaching consequences on programs at the school, staffing and infrastructure improvement.

Well, someone should have seen this coming. The state cut the district's 2011 general fund by almost $2 million. The tooth fairy is not going to leave that money under the pillow no matter how many teeth board members and administrators remove.

Should Valparaiso have pursued a referendum to increase taxes aimed at schools? Other districts, notably Crown Point, have done it to maintain the integrity of the system.

We'll find out more on Jan. 24, when a meeting is scheduled on the subject at Valparaiso High School.

In the meantime, the district is going to have to negotiate its way through a tangled web of red tape, and it risks getting caught in that web like a fly in a spider's net.

For example, last year the district tried to transfer $1 million in salaries and benefits only to be stymied by the "circuit breaker" tax caps on local property taxes.

Not that there is anything amiss with the caps on property taxes. We've seen over the past decade how taxation can get out of hand to support unnecessary and wasteful government.

But it might well behoove the Valpo School Board to consider a referendum to stanch the bleeding, and then we will find out.

We'll find out how committed the residents of Valparaiso are to a quality school system, that is.

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at mark.kiesling@nwi.com or (219) 933-4170.