Board workshop discusses increased transparency

By Kathryn Cross
Staff Writer

The Manhattan Beach Unified School District hosted a Board workshop on Wednesday night to review and discuss the district’s procedural changes and expenditures.

It also addressed the overestimated budget revenue from the 2013-14 budget and discussed ways to increase transparency to the public.

MBUSD Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews led the workshop and presented an overview of the district’s financial actions over the past six months. According to Matthews, the workshop was held to improve budget transparency between the public and the district.

“I thought the workshop was respectable, and many voices were heard,” Matthews said. “We learned throughout the process that when something is not transparent, we want people to let us know.”

The workshop addressed the overbudget of the 2013-14 budget that the board presented at the Sept. 17 Board of Trustees meeting. During the last school year, the district budgeted to spend $61.98 million but ended up only spending $54.9 million.

“Some factors that led to this are outside of the district’s control,” Assistant Superintendent Dawnalyn Murakawa-Leopard said. “We may be able to address some going forward.”

At the workshop, Matthews presented suggestions to improve budget transparency, including a monthly publication of purchase orders, adding the director of fiscal services position and posting all budgetary documents on the district website.

“It’s hard to make the budget as accurate as possible with the way the California school budget system works, but we think we can do a better job with it,” Matthews said.

The workshop also featured an opportunity for public comment. These comments focused mainly on improving transparency and where the funds should be allocated. Two MBUSD parents who have shown continual interest in MBUSD budgetary concerns, Kim Lesserman and Melissa Stein, wrote an email to MBUSD parents encouraging attendance at the workshop.

“The board is making progress in de-mystifying the budget, but I want them to give the public more transparency,” Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers’ Association President Shawn Chen said.