Fiscal caution should apply consistently at Chandler Unified School District

Rod Wielkie

Submitted photo/Rod Wielkie

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OPINION — Fiscal responsibility is among a school board’s most important duties. It must be applied consistently.

At its Sept. 9 meeting, the Chandler Unified Governing Board approved school resource officers for Payne Junior High and Perry High School. Board President Patti Serrano cast the lone dissenting vote, as she had on an August agreement covering nine Chandler middle and high schools.

Serrano cited budget cuts and the possibility that grant funding might not cover future overtime, raises or other variables.

Yet the two Gilbert officers were estimated at about $295,355, the same amount anticipated from the School Safety Program Grant, leaving an estimated district cost of zero. If costs exceeded the grant, CUSD and Gilbert would split the difference. The Chandler agreement used essentially the same structure.

Uncertainty is not unique to school safety. In May, Serrano supported a $2.4 million stadium-lighting conversion, based on projected energy savings and a first-year purchase of the SchooLinks platform, for $182,065.

Those expenditures may have legitimate purposes. But each depended on assumptions about future costs, usage, savings or benefits. Serrano accepted those projections while rejecting a school-safety agreement over a possible future overage.

As a former federal agent, I know safety needs are often invisible until they become urgent. School resource officers respond to threats, assist during emergencies and build relationships with students before problems become crises.

If Serrano has philosophical objections to police officers in schools, she should say so plainly. But if the objection is strictly financial, the explanation does not hold together.

Fiscal caution is not credible when applied selectively. If uncertain future expenses are acceptable for software and stadium lighting, the board president should explain why they become unacceptable when student and employee safety are at stake.

Rod Wielkie is a retired federal agent, military veteran and former middle school social studies teacher. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to azopinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.