SCANDALOUS PGCPS BUDGET.

QUESTIONABLE BUDGET WITH NO ACCOUNTABILITY NOR TRANSPARENCY. 

Children no longer come first. If you notice the PGCPS website, “Children come First” logo has been taken off under Superintendent Hites orders.

According to confirmed and liable sources, Reform Sasscer Team has learned with great shock and utter dismay that, all PGCPS schools turned in their projected budgets to Dr. William Hite’s appointed subordinates this past week (early November 2011).

Every PGCPS school is now operating under “student based budgeting” which is being managed by Jeff Kang (jeff.kang@pgcps.org)

According to Dr. Hite’s newsletter, to PGCPS staff and on his blog “Getting into the budget”:

“School communities must have a greater voice in how their schools are funded. That is why we are rolling out our new Student Based Budgeting (SBB) program, which allows school administrators, parents, and community members to guide the decision-making process for how school budgets should be spent. This new process, done solely at the school level, essentially gives the school community more authority over their school budgets, encourages innovation and enhances school effectiveness”. From blog titled “Getting into the Budget”.

The above statement is simply untrue and is “bull crap”.

If you go to any PGCPS school and ask faculty, parents, students or community members if they had any input in the budget, the answer will undoubtedly be NO.  Teachers will tell you that the principals decided on their own how to spend the money. No faculty, parents and community members  were allowed to give input or recommendations.

Principals, off the record, will tell you that they have less money and received the same amount of dollars from last year even if they had the same number of students and same number of free/reduced lunch, special education, and MSA below basic including advanced students.

That is to say, we have a ploy here being perpetuated by Dr. William Hite Jr and his subordinates. They created a  pretense that everyone has input, but in reality they do not. All decisions rest with the principal and his/her “favorites” on the staff. The schools are being squeezed, but if you go to Dr. William Hite, Matthew Stanski or even your board member they will put the blame is on the principals.  William Hites also states in his blog “They were to confer with the community [and] make decisions about how to spend money and staff the school.” At the end of the day, the kids are getting a very unfair deal.

Once again, did you notice that the PG County Public Schools (PGCPS) took the “Children Come First” logo off the system’s website? Students no longer come first. Only William Hite EdD matters.

A good example of wasteful spending is the “middle college” program. The system pays $3 million for a program that benefits 100 students – $30,000 a student.  There is also a secondary school in PGCPS with about 200 students whose budget is $4 million.

Finally,  we need to make children come first once again and more than ever before and elect a new Supritendent. Dr. William Hite should resign immediately as a suprintendent and without delay.  (William Hite Jr  EdD is pictured below).