Many people and several groups are claiming credit for having the school budget approved by the voters. Let's give credit to those who really made it happen.

Under the enlightened leadership of the board of education that changed direction this year, Dr. Austin Gavin and Mrs. Rosemary Johnson deserve full credit for fighting a very difficult fight. Lacking any guidance from the then superintendent, the faculty and staff originally submitted a budget request that totaled nearly $73.5 million. They requested an increase of $8,353,591 over this year's budget. That is 12.8 percent. They hadn't heard about fiscal responsibility. They didn't get the message.

Then Dr. Gavin and Mrs. Johnson were brought into the picture. By the end of 12 budget drafts over four months, they had whittled the budget down by $5,478,396! They probably had little help and a lot of opposition from the faculty and staff big spenders. The final budget was only $530,749 higher than a contingency budget would have been. The budget vote issued was about .08 of one percent.

Simultaneously, the board and Dr. Gavin and Mrs. Johnson were examining the school bus transportation issue. Total costs were excessive. Bus driver overtime wages had been noted by board members last fall to be excessive. The management of the transportation system had not been effective. The record shows:

Function	Budget	Actual Expenses
2002-03 Bus Drivers Salaries		$1,011,154
Bus Drivers Overtime		$353,127 (34.9 percent)
2003-04 Bus Drivers Salaries	$1,168,361	$1,065,378
Bus Drivers Overtime	$250,000	$431,220 (40.4 percent)
2004-05 Bus Drivers Salaries	$1,104,674
Bus Drivers Overtime	$350,000	(31.7 percent)
2005-06 Bus Drivers Salaries	$1,125,695
Bus Drivers Overtime	$250,000	(22.2 percent)

When Proposition #3 was approved by the voters to contract the busing, the board's contract with Huntington Coach became effective. This has the immediate effect of reducing the 2005-2006 budget by $1,372,000. This is an immediate savings to the taxpayers.

Thus Dr. Gavin and Mrs. Johnson should be given credit for establishing a budget that is less than that which a contingency budget would have given us. This coming year's budget is only 2.3 percent higher than the current one, an increase of $1,503,195. They saved the taxpayers over $6.8 million ($5.478 possible and $1.372 actual) this year without any reduction in teaching staff, educational programs or transportation services.

Thank you, Dr. Gavin and Mrs. Johnson, you get high marks. Please keep up the good work. There is more to be done.

Paul Early