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School Board passes the buck on flier cost

The Pasco School Board wants voters to be informed about a board-initiated referendum on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Sort of.

On Tuesday, the board approved the contents of a flier it says can be distributed to the households of the 62,000 students attending district schools. The flier will go home with school newsletters. Except the board wants somebody else to foot the bill for the printing costs.

It's an odd stance considering that it is the board that wants this referendum question answered: Should the superintendent of schools be appointed by the School Board rather than elected?

The flier's benign contents state the district's size, student and employee population, and the number of districts in Florida that elect (43) or appoint (24) their superintendents. It notes that an appointed superintendent is hired and evaluated according to job descriptions and qualifications set by the board. An elected superintendent is evaluated by the voters every four years, and the minimal qualifications are spelled out in Florida's Constitution.

Pretty pedestrian stuff. It should be, considering the name of the nine-member group that authored it is the "Appointment vs. Election Neutral Flier Committee." Its chairman is School Board member Kathleen Wolf, who is retiring after the election.

But Wolf and other board members said their mission is to educate children. Printing costs, they said, would have to be paid by the private sector.

Amye Cox of Pasco Parents for quality Schools and Community took up the challenge and said she will seek donations to get the fliers printed. She estimated the cost at $2,000. Her commitment is commendable.

Let's remember that four of the current board members were in office during the successful Penny for Pasco campaign. Funny, but at the time none of them questioned the district's aggressive role in securing support for that sales tax referendum to build schools. Then the district spent as much as $63,000 of public resources to print campaign buttons, fliers and posters.

Pasco County spent another $17,000 on informational advertisements because it received 45 percent of the sales tax proceeds.

The School Board's actions Tuesday included no such financial pledge to get the word out to the voting public.

It is unfortunate. Amye Cox doesn't have the authority to put the referendum on the ballot. The School Board started this ball rolling, and its members picked an inopportune time to retreat from their responsibilities to educate the community.

[Last modified October 4, 2006, 23:02:15]