I get asked a lot about how it is the Mineral County School District claims to be poverty stricken yet it rains money for things like payroll clerks. The answer is really who, not how. Diane Rodriguez works her magic to make it look like broke on paper.
My post yesterday I talked a lot about the health insurance. One thing that many people don’t realize is that the budget relies heavily on “estimations”. As a result, Diane Rodriguez inputs an astronomical number into the per person cost to place hold on funds, then cries poverty like clockwork.
Most recently Diane took the already astronomical $10,000 figure she was using and added 7% to that. That would be acceptable if the number was anywhere close to that. When I was at the school I did the math and discovered that the actual percentage of the amount she sets aside used is only about 85%. It result in a very large amount of money being hidden in the health insurance cost.
Diane Rodriguez also likes to put a 6.2% cushion on stipends for staff that aren’t subject to social security. She never was really able to explain why she does that. She always told me “in case it gets withheld” which leads me to believe that payroll does it accidentally and then its easier to let the money vanish than to fix the mistake. Most school employees know that full time employees are not subject to social security.
Then to make sure isn’t any money for needed services, she over estimates the wages of staff. She is correct that vacancies should be budgeted at the high amount because never sure if will be a tenured employee or brand new that fills the slot. The issue is she never goes back and reconciles the difference. She simply lets tens of thousands of dollars sit for the entire school year.
That folks is the secret sauce to Diane crying poverty to staff and then pulling a rabbit out of a hat when money left over. The problem with her methodology is school funding has changed. If these tactics continue, the state will start taking back money.
Under the new pupil centered plan, the State of Nevada has capped the amount that can magically appear in the end. Apparently when districts lack services, supplies, and staff that results in a larger ending fund balance year after year it is rightfully taken back since didn’t do what they were supposed to. I explained that hundreds of times and Diane Rodriguez kept insisting even though the law they can’t do that. Guess we will see!