The Board needs a Master List for spending prioritization

UPDATE:  In January 2012, the Board passed a list of priorities that can be found here.

Original post from 2010:

I had an epiphany at the May Board Briefing. After listening to sometimes heated discussion over the span of three hours and only two topics, it came to me.

The Board gets programs pitched to them like it is the only new thing on the table. Every month. Where's the Master List of all these new or expanded programs? How can the Board prioritize expenditures if there is no Master List to prioritize?

Maybe they do have one. I have never heard it referenced. They need one, and they need to refer to it at every expenditure discussion. Larry Throm is fond of saying (rightly so), "You can have whatever you want - but the dollar you spend on that is going to have to come from somewhere else. What are you going to take it from?" If the Board does not prioritize, the Administration will - by default or by design, or a little of both.

If they had a priority list, then comments like this from Dr. Hinojosa would not go completely unquestioned:

"Well, as we talked to people about the needs for an OverAge High School, we got a lot of feedback saying, 'Hey, we could really use this type of program for middle school, too.' So we are going to do a middle school as well... We plan to move forward unless the Board is opposed to it."

That one just sailed right on by. No questions, no discussion about where those dollars are coming from. Zip. Nada.

If there were a Master List, someone could have said, "Okay - what are we going to bump down the list in order to make that happen? The dollars have to come from somewhere."