THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 21, 1995 TAG: 9505200011
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
With Sid Faucette's departure, the Virginia Beach School Board will need to choose a new school superintendent carefully, and wisely. That means choosing in consultation with a committee of parents, school personnel, citizens, businesses - representatives from each of what VBEA President Vickie Hendley called ``the stakeholders'' in the city's schools. For Dr. Faucette leaves these ``stakeholders'' a system in disarray and doubts about the ability of the board both to keep a superintendent and to keep proper tabs on him.
This is the same board that on the whole has failed to hold Dr. Faucette to accountability and accounting standards educators, parents and taxpayers expect. It's the same board that has heard and dropped hints of recurring budget problems, particularly this past year, but seemed loath to allay increasing concern.
Dr. Faucette's tenure has been marked and marred by questionable budget decisions, abrupt changes in plans, policies and direction, extensive changes in personnel, and serious if muted discontent within the school sys-tem.
His tenure has been accompanied by students' declining performance in crucial areas, rising dropout rates and an edifice complex that rivals Cheops' appetite for pyramids yet leaves ever more students taught in trailers despite millions budgeted for classroom additions, and a facility leased with unbudgeted funds standing half-empty for more than a year.
Given the downside to the Faucette legacy, the School Board should:
Start a search for a superintendent that does not rely on any one nationwide-search firm and does not ignore applicants close to home.
Find a successor to the internal auditor who quit weeks ago, and ensure that he/she reports directly to the School Board, not through the superintendent.
Authorize an immediate outside audit of school finances. A superintendent sure of his stewardship would welcome it. Any new superintendent and auditor worth their degrees would demand it.
Continue consultations between the schools' finance office and the city's Department of Finance. City Finance Director Patricia Phillips has done yeoman work in aiding the schools' chief financial officer, Mort Smith, in this difficult period.
Reconsider the board's initial disdain for City Manager Spore's recent suggestion that city and schools consolidate financial services. Recent history is argument enough to deny the School Board power to tax and police itself. On the contrary, recent history persuaded City Council to resume school appropriations by category, which limits transfers among school accounts, rather than lump-sum, as Dr. Faucette requested and got. The most recent outside audit of school accounts noted an overreliance on transfers among accounts and recommended better budgeting practices.
At stake is not just the stewardship of some $400 million in taxpayer funds. At stake is the education of the Beach's 75,000 public-school children. But citizens' confidence that their schools' officials are doing what they say they are - that is, ``what's best for the children'' - is directly tied to citizens' willingness to fund them. And what's best for the community - school accountability, efficiency and effectiveness - is best for its children, too. by CNB