Beaufort County School District makes budget public after The Beaufort Tribune news article

The Beaufort County School District made public its upcoming $175 million FY 2010-2011 budget on its web site Friday, May 7, following revelation by The Beaufort Tribune that the district had failed to present the budget at two public hearings on the budget it held earlier this week on Hilton Head Island and in Beaufort. The Beaufort Tribune also revealed that the school board had adopted the budget even before holding these two public “hearings”. Approval came at the board’s May 4 meeting, the day before the first public hearing.

The school district’s web site on its home page now contains, as of late Friday afternoon, May 7, a link to the budget. The link is the result of a request on Friday by The Beaufort Tribune for the budget, which was not presented at either of the public hearings held by the school district on Wednesday and Thursday.

The link at the district’s web site now also shows the PowerPoint slides that the district presented to the public at the meetings this week, as well as the PowerPoint slides that the district presented to the school board at a work session on April 23 and to county council’s finance committee on April 27.

The Beaufort Tribune is investigating whether the school district revealed the actual budget document to the school board members at the work session or to the county council finance committee members at its meeting. Failure of the district to present the budget at the public hearings raises the question whether the district also withheld the actual budget document in its presentations to those two elected public bodies.

For the information of the public, we present here the documents the school district yesterday, May 7, made available to the public via the home page of its web site:

Budget Presentation April 23, 2010 to Beaufort County Board of Education
Budget Presentation April 27, 2010 to Beaufort County Council Finance Committee
FY 2011 Budget Overview May 5-6, 2010 to public at two public hearings
Preliminary Budgeted Revenues and Expenses, dated May 7, 2010

Related posts:

1. Public hearing on FY 2010-2011 school district budget today
2. School district acknowledges role of The Beaufort Tribune in informing public
3. Editor’s comment: School board “hearing” on “proposed budget” failed to show budget and was not a hearing
4. Editorial: Beaufort County School District ignores Riverview Charter School
5. State oversight agency says Beaufort County’s public school system is “below average” and “in jeopardy”, trend is downward