District 4 Democrats target school budget

In three-candidate forum, contenders question system spending; Navarro defends attacks on process

Many questions referenced the $300 million deficit the county is facing and how the candidates plan to fix it.

All candidates agreed that cutting redundant or nonessential positions or agencies within the county would be a good start, and that raising property taxes — with income tax rates in the county at the highest level permissible by the state — would have to be considered.

Ryan criticized the school system’s spending and growth that has led to a $500 million increase in expenditures between 2004 and 2008, despite stagnant enrollment.

‘‘Even though the amount of students in our county school system isn’t growing, the number of staff is growing. That doesn’t make sense,” Ryan said.

He later added: ‘‘Some of those increases in staffing are responsive to the increased needs of some of the students attending the schools, but some of those are just, frankly, adding more staff because they think it’s a good idea.”

Navarro, the Montgomery County school board president, said an increase in low-income and students in English for Speakers of Other Languages classes necessitated the increase in staffers. The importance of keeping the county school system among the best in the country was important, Navarro said, and those efforts should validate the expenditures.

Kanstoroom said a lack of transparency in the school system’s budgeting process poses a problem for managing a deficit. He said because the school system only offers a full year-end report and monthly reports that include only summary data, the specifics of how money is being spent is unknown.

‘‘The school system won’t give us the detailed data of what comprises that half a billion dollars,” he said when questioned on the system’s spending. ‘‘They give us summary data but they don’t give us who the checks are written to, what the checks are for, for what services and in what amounts.”

Later in the debate, Navarro said the school system is under more scrutiny than any other agency, undergoing examination from state and federal organizations.

‘‘MPCS is the only agency in the county that gets audited by the state — right now there is a year-long audit — and this happens to all the school systems around the state,” she said, adding that the Board of Education Audit Committee and the County Council’s Office of Legislative Oversight also examine areas of the school system’s finances. ‘‘In all of those circumstances, everything has shown that the investment has been appropriate. I know that the school system is an easy target, but it’s the only agency in the county that has that scrutiny.”

One question did refer to the candidates’ feelings toward Schools Superintendent Jerry D. Weast, who reportedly hosted meetings with the teachers’ union at his home, encouraging an endorsement of Navarro.

Kanstoroom said Weast’s ‘‘loyalties were misplaced” and it ‘‘underscores some of the problems we’re seeing with this administration.”

Navarro questioned the validity of the allegations, which appeared in the April 2 Gazette.

‘‘What is written in the papers is not necessarily true,” she said, adding her disagreements with Weast were ‘‘well-documented” and her position on the school board would not necessitate any improper outside influence with the unions.

‘‘That is not absolutely what took place,” she said.