School board member wants more workshops on budget
Seeks to make it more participatory
With just a few days left in 2019, the Pittsburgh Public Schools were stuck with a budget that faced a massive funding hole.
Its cause comes from the school board adopting a $665.6 million budget for 2020 but declining to approve the 2.3% property tax increase that the district wanted to help fund it. This, as board members argued over where the additional revenue would go, items that could still be cut from the budget and why a millage hike was necessary.
The problem was solved when the board passed a more moderate tax increase as a compromise during a special legislative session five days before the start of the new year — avoiding a possible district shutdown — and school administrators adjusted the budget accordingly.
Several board members at the Dec. 27 meeting where a new 1.2% tax increase was passed, though, expressed frustration that the budget remained unresolved until the final days of the year. Board member Pam Harbin said she would introduce a resolution that would make budget creation a more yearround and participatory process as a way to circumvent similar issues in future years. At a school board meeting later this month, she said, she will ask for three more workshops throughout the year where the public and board members can address budget concerns.
“I think this would give three more opportunities for community members to come in and speak about the budget and not wait until it’s in the adoption phase, which to me is too late,” Ms. Harbin said Thursday. “That was my frustration with the adoption process this time. Changing things at the last minute I think is messy.”
The school district released its budget proposal to the public in November, and some school board members complained that they did not have enough time to do a “deep dive” into its specifics. The board also had three new members sworn in in December, including Ms. Harbin.
The board held its lone budget workshop of the year on Nov. 19. Ms. Harbin said she wants additional budget workshops to be held in
March, June and September.
Pittsburgh Public Schools spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said the district has an opportunity to work with the board on budget issues at monthly business finance committee meetings. But she said it’s up to board members on the committee to determine how they want to utilize those meetings.
School board President Sylvia Wilson said after the Dec. 27 meeting that she felt board members had chances to seek clarity and provide input on the budget.
“I really do feel that there was much opportunity to have a lot of input into the budget; we didn’t just look at it in December,” Ms. Wilson said. “One of the things that I’ve said to the school district [is] when you have new people coming on it’s already going to be difficult for them to transition into being a board member, but they need to understand what the budget is about. There were many opportunities for workshops and sitting down one on one and in small groups to have a better understanding of the budget.”
Ms. Harbin said she was still working to finalize her resolution.
Board member Sala Udin, who was critical of school administration during the budget approval process, said he would reserve judgment on Ms. Harbin’s resolution until he is able to read it himself.
He said he would like any such resolution to not just make the process more open, but also to aim it toward keeping the district accountable for items such as no-bid contracts, travel expenditures and, most importantly, student performance.
“It’s not just a matter of transparency,” Mr. Udin said. “If that’s all you’re going to do, then it’s a diversion from what the real problem is. The real problem is lack of accountability on the part of administration.”
Ms. Harbin said her resolution could do that.
“That would give a board member like Mr. Udin the ability to say at this workshop, ‘Show me how much money is being spent in this area,’” Ms. Harbin said. “It is in the budget. Every line item’s on there, and every board member had a chance to ask if they didn’t understand what was in each line item . ... I think this way there’s more of a public conversation, and I find that when the conversation is public you can change what the focus is going to be.”