Coupeville Sports

Does the 2023-2024 budget reflect Coupeville’s strategic plan? Opinions vary.

We are not broken, but we need to fix things.

In the wake of efforts to pass a budget for the 2023-2024 school year, there is considerable anger bubbling just under the surface in the Coupeville School District.

Anger that, in many ways, feels justified.

It would be easy for district administrators and school board members to heave a sigh of relief in the wake of passing the budget, assuming everyone will go back to singing kumbaya, jointly working together to implement what is in that budget.

That would be dangerously naive.

People have still lost jobs.

And the majority of those budget cuts claimed positions which directly impact student safety and well-being.

A Dean of Students with 19 years in the trenches and countless teenage lives changed for the better.

An athletic trainer who helped Coupeville enjoy the most injury-free sports year I can remember in 30 years of writing, while also inspiring young women into following her career path.

Paraeducators who are the first, and last line, of defense, of positive reinforcement, of making sure each child gets the most from their day and returns home safely to their family.

There is a face behind every cut. Do not forget that.

With those cuts, and others, public perception, justified or not, is that the budget prioritizes a food service program which has lost money every year except when the state paid for free meals across the board at the height of the pandemic.

As administrators, as board members, I don’t know if you truly realize how close you all came to having this turn into something much nastier.

To having the anger not be an abstract thought, something you read about in letters to the board or in first-person accounts here on Coupeville Sports, but a reality of your daily life.

Life is different if they picket your houses.

More restrained voices won out this time when those discussions arose. They might not always.

Now, we don’t have multiple active lawsuits in play, as appears to be the case at a nearby district whose sports teams vie with the Wolves in the Northwest 2B/1B League.

And our district passed a budget Thursday, beating the state deadline, largely because to not do so would unleash chaos.

Whether that chaos, while painful, might have been beneficial in the long run, is a debate that will continue to play out.

I was one of only three people not on the school board or part of district administration who sat through two budget workshops and the budget hearing.

During those six-plus hours, I was conflicted.

I looked upon good men and women, people who I believe (or want to believe) are in those positions because they want to help Coupeville students reach the highest levels of achievement.

As in any group, there were disagreements on how best to reach that goal. Some were vocalized, though almost always couched in politeness.

I’m not saying the people in that room needed to scream at each other or take advantage of the fact Prairie Center had an ongoing sale on throwing-size tomatoes.

It would have been entertaining, certainly, as I sank deeper into a sea of half-understood financial figures and acronyms.

And I do believe a little righteous anger unleashed often has its place.

As The Real World taught my generation “This is the true story, to find out what happens, when people stop being polite, and start getting real.”

Sitting in the audience I was not allowed to scream “That is some righteous bullshit,” lest I get booted out to sit in the parking lot, no matter how many times those exact words burbled up inside me.

There is a reason I would not fit well seated at the “adult” table in these matters.

Coupeville’s school board directors and its administrators have an ability to operate in that world in a way I do not, and let’s give them credit for that.

While still wishing one or two would unleash a public “that is some righteous bullshit” when appropriate.

Such as when the answer to how some revenues in the new budget will be realized essentially comes off as us being told “It’s magic.”

But anyways.

What I witnessed, in my opinion, is a budget process which has to be fixed.

You can NOT send board members a revised budget at 11:30 PM on a Tuesday, when the budget workshop is 18 hours later, and the budget deadline is four days after that.

That is insanity, and all the excuses in the world — no matter how legit they may be — don’t change that.

Yes, the Finance Director is relatively new to the district.

Yes, the transition to the Qmlativ platform has made the budgeting process harder.

Yes, there are 1,001 real-life financial issues affecting school districts everywhere, not just in Coupeville.

It doesn’t matter.

You can NOT give board members 18 hours (or more like 10-12, if we accept most people sleep during the night…) to crunch hundreds of pages.

And this was not a one-time thing.

Every step of the way in the budget process this year, it felt as if the board was being forced to scramble, to work from behind, to try and do their due diligence without being given proper time.

Don’t come to me with excuses. I sympathize, but it doesn’t matter.

Fix it.

Secondly, all involved need to do a better job of keeping the taxpayers — their ultimate bosses — in the mix.

The district, at every level, has a PR problem, but with a little work, it could be improved.

Communicate with us, the great unwashed public.

You believe this is your best budget, that these decisions have to be made — sell it to us or don’t be surprised when social media chatter rips you a new one.

I understand you also have to have room and freedom to do your job, but if you are not willing to explain your decision making — well before we’re five minutes from seeing the budget approved — the blowback will only grow.

A lot of people do not feel their concerns were truly heard, no matter the post-game platitudes.

That has to be improved.

Also, read the room.

When your budget is about to slash jobs — again, real people, not just numbers on a spreadsheet — informing us you’re being honored by other administrators for those very budget cuts kind of goes over like a public fart.

Just sayin’.

Finally, let’s make it about me.

Someone out there, someone with a better understanding of financial matters, of how school districts operate, needs to step up and launch their own blog.

I’ve spent my scattershot journalism career primarily writing about sports and movies. I very specifically made the choice not to train for covering these matters.

You can start a blog literally for free or spend a few bucks as I have to give it at least a hint of a professional sheen.

Someone comes in and focuses on budget matters, on financial doings, on how the sausage is made at a time when money is tight everywhere, I’ll promote your work.

Then happily go back to watching a triple feature of Death Car on the Freeway, Night of the Killer Bears, and Swing You Sinners.