Time for D304 to touch rainy day fund

The Geneva school board recently indicated it will reduce a bit the coming increase in taxes by applying $3.2 million from excess reserves in its education fund. Our outstanding debts are horrendously high, mostly due to construction of new schools, while closing some existing buildings, most of which is due to a referendum in 2007, based on what, in hindsight now, appears to have been questionable judgment and or too much faith in paid consultants. Too late now to belabor this, the deed is done, and the piper now must be paid.

What bothers me is we have another reserve for “rainy day emergencies” as some call it, partly mandated by law. Our reserve is significantly greater than the minimum required, and it now totals some $47 million.

If these economic times and high taxes are not “rainy days,” what is?

Why is it we are not using a large part or all of the excess reserves over and above the legal minimum, to pay down debt, and thus save millions of dollars of current and future interest on the debt?

It is beyond time when we need to curtail spending. Employee costs are by far the major component of spending, and we both believe the number of employees in nonteaching jobs needs to be analyzed and downsized to fit the true needs to run the schools efficiently and still provide the desirable level of education we all want. In the business world, that would be an automatic function.

I see a corollary between the business world and the operation of our schools, and I assume most citizens do as well. Downsizing our nonteaching jobs is clearly called for but no one seems willing to take on this difficult task. Taxpayers cannot carry the ever-increasing load without the board doing what the situation calls for.

Fred Cregier

Geneva