May 25, 2007
Copyright 2007 by Micki Nellis
Permission required to reprint

The Summer Leadership convention for school board members is June 14 -16 in San Antonio. The Cleburne ISD School Board always attends these events. The event is put on by the Texas Association of School Boards (tasb) and is always scheduled soon after the May elections. It’s billed as training for new school board members and presidents. See the site at http://www.tasb.org/services/lts/events/summer_leadership/index.aspx

According to the brochure at http://www.tasb.org/services/lts/documents/2007_finalbrochure.pdf, a Platinum sponsor of the event is the SHW Group of architects, engineers and planners, http://www.shwgroup.com. Think of commercial firms appearing at school board conventions to exert influence toward building new schools. (Perhaps they even offer tips on getting bond elections passed.)

Cleburne ISD has no new school board members. Three have already served one year, and others have served from three to six years each. All have already been to new board member orientation and leadership conferences – some have been several times.

Taxpayers can expect to pay around $10,000 for this year’s jaunt. First off, the enrollment per person is $315. Take that times seven board members and a superintendent and that is $2520 just to attend the sessions.

Then there’s the room rent at the Mariott Riverwalk of $165 per night for a single, or $181 plus tax for a double. Three nights is $495 per person, times eight people equals $3,960 for lodging alone. That’s if they don’t take their spouses. The literature says they are required to make their reservations through Convention Housing Management, a California company.

State guidelines for lodging in Texas call for paying no more than $85 for room and $36 per day for meals. (See http://www.window.state.tx.us/comptrol/texastra.html for the State guidelines.) That would be a total of $2904 for eight people for lodging and meals, contrasted with the expected $6285 this year.

Ironically, just this week we got a flyer from the Texas Press Association for the annual TPA convention in San Antonio June 21-23, just one week after the School Board convention. Room rates for the TPA convention at the Crowne Plaza Riverwalk in San Antonio are only $119 for a single or double, $123 for triple, and $139 for a quad.

Then there are meals. The enrollment fee includes continental breakfasts and lunches, but dinner is extra. Who knows what that will cost. If the past is any guide, $50 per person per dinner is within expectations. That’s around $1200.

Then there’s travel expenses. Each board member is paid mileage and parking, usually valet parking. It’s ironic that board members claim it is a violation of the Open Meetings law for two or three to ride together, or for them to take a school-owned van, yet they can spend all weekend together without violating the same law.

Last year mileage expenses were $140.58 per person, or about $1125. This did not include the valet parking costs. Mileage fees to San Antonio are set by the state at $104.26 according to their chart at http://ecpa.cpa.state.tx.us/mileage/Mileage.jsp which calculates the distance and allowance from Cleburne to San Antonio.

Last year each school board member received a check for $248.58 for mileage and per diem, according to the school’s vendor payment files posted at CleburnePolitics.com. That’s $1988.64. Keep in mind that breakfast and lunches were included in the enrollment fee.

This year it will all add up to about $10,000 for three days. It is very hard to see the need for this expense since all of the board members have previously attended at least one of these conferences. Let’s hope they actually do get something out of this, other than being influenced by advertising and lobbying from the Platinum sponsors, the architects and planners group.

The math goes like this: $2520 for registration, $3960 for lodging, estimated $1200 for food, and estimated $1125 for mileage. That totals $8805. Then if you add on incidentals you’re pushing $10,000 for a 3 day trip to San Antonio for eight people.

See a commentary by Harold Gentry on last year’s conference and suggestions on saving money at http://www.cleburnepolitics.com/School/New School Board Attends Leadership Training; $4163 to Taxpayers in Lodging Costs.html

P.S. The conference to bring people current on new laws is separate, with an additional admission fee.