To the Editor:

The voters of the Berne-Knox-Westerlo district are being asked to select two new school board members on Feb. 23.  Ed Ackroyd is one person that is prepared to deal with the difficult issues that will face the new members as soon as they join the school board. He understands from past experience the budget process, and just as importantly he understands the dynamics of a five-person board.

Those new members will be joining the existing board of three at a very critical point in the year. The development of the annual budget for BKW will now begin in earnest.

In past years, a group of residents who were selected as members of the Budget Review Committee, would have already been at work along with school administrators, school board members, district residents, bus drivers, teachers, and others, for at least a few months.

They would obtain as much information as possible about the budget development process. Their meetings were open to the public and well attended. Committee members had the opportunity to get answers for residents from the school board, and to pass on to school board members serious concerns from the public.

It was an open and transparent process — not a process that all school board members or administrators were always comfortable with, but most could see its value.

At no time during the many years I served on the review committee did any members not understand that it was the school board that had to construct and vote to pass the final budget, and tax levy, and that the voters had the final say. The committee was advisory only.

The committee, which has existed since at least 2009, was recently disbanded by the school board. After some residents voiced concern over the elimination of the budget review committee, the school board has decided to wait until the new members are elected to revisit the issue.

In my mind, the new members will need to be people who know their own minds and can get up to speed quickly. The existence of the budget review committee is only one part of a larger issue that new members will have to decide.

Should the BKW School Board continue to move toward more transparency, and trust the residents to deal with facts, or slide backward?

To me, believing that eliminating a resident budget review committee will increase communication is an indicator that at least some members of the board of education seek shelter from the people they are supposed to represent. The committee was an addition to the process, not a subtraction. 

Ed Ackroyd is one person who can help move toward transparency.

Joe Golden

East Berne

Editor’s note: Joe Golden is a former member of the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School board. He and letter-writer Helen Lounsbury are siblings.