To work on a school district’s finance team is to hold one of the most thankless jobs in government administration. If the public is talking about your work, in all likelihood, it’s because something went wrong.
Lately, things have gone wrong at Lane County’s two largest school districts. And preventable mistakes cast uncomfortable spotlights on the work of financial leaders at Eugene School District 4J and Springfield Public Schools.
The budget slashing each district undertook this year isn’t any one person’s making. Nor are this year’s steep budget cuts unique (see: Portland, Salem, Bend, Medford). But as Lookout Eugene-Springfield reported this week, flawed assumptions baked into the 4J and Springfield budgeting processes in the past year eroded trust between district administrators, school board members, teachers and the public…