Del Phillips Writes a Letter to Jim Vaughn

Well, really, it is a letter to the entire community. But it addresses the concerns raised by "one commissioner."  And guess who it is?  Jim Vaughn.

Here's the letter:

Last night the County Budget Committee approved our 2012-13 General Purpose Budget and passed it on to the full County Commission for consideration.
This budget contains $2.5 million in reductions from the needs-based budget initially approved by our School Board on July 17, 2012, including a $935,000 reduction in personnel that the school system will be carrying out over the next few weeks. These cuts are in addition to over $3.3 million that was cut from last year’s budget.
I am disappointed that despite all our efforts to communicate accurate,up-to-date information about our budget and basic accounting processes, the people of Sumner County continue to receive inaccurate information and accusatory comments from our funding source. Many of you may have received such information last night from one County Commissioner.
In order to balance this year’s budget, our School Board allocated $5.3 million from our final reserve fund, the maximum amount that can be used by state law. The available reserve amount that can be used for funding is always an estimate until the year-end financials are closed. We are very fortunate that this year’s final reserve balance was positively impacted by a combination of expense reductions/savings and the final revenue amount.

Please note that we did not receive the final revenue amount from the County until August. Please also note that until the final actualization of last year’s savings were realized and until the County gave us our final revenue, we were unable to determine a final reserve balance. Without this final reserve balance, we did not know what would be available for 2012-2013 spending.


It is also important to point out that just like in years past, the original budget presented had an estimated reserve balance until the books were closed and final numbers realized. This has always been the procedure for the School System and the County General. Nothing changed this year. I am proud to say that our System, operating on last year’s $188,375,680 budget, closed its fiscal books before our County General, operating on a $46,377,920 budget.


Until our County Commission realizes our need for a long-term sustainable solution, the funding will continue to be inadequate. Layoffs will continue to be inevitable, and the need for transparency will grow.
I have said all along, that conversation is good. This year’s budget process has started a conversation that will be continued until a long-term, sustainable solution is reached.

However, it saddens me that when we should be having a conversation about our district’s future, we are instead forced to discuss what student services to cut.

It is easy to get caught up in the political rhetoric. This blame game takes the focus off of the issue at hand – which is fighting for our students to have the best education possible and fighting for our teachers to have the resources to provide that education.


We began in August of 2011 communicating the needs of this system. I feel we have done so in a professional and thorough way. Our County Commission had every opportunity to fully fund our budget. They did not. Let me encourage you to not let this take the focus off of what is important, our students.

Our students deserve the adults and leadership of Sumner County to be professional, proactive, and responsible. Our ultimate goal is to provide the best education possible for every child in Sumner County.

Your Director of Schools,

Del R. Phillips III, Ph.D