It is more than a little unfair and quite problematic that the Central Kitsap School District moved a public discussion on the nature of their budget problems behind closed doors when the discussion got ugly.

The move to a closed session also delayed the public’s access to the proposed 2012-2013 school district budget, which was to be presented to the board during the June 20 meeting and is expected to contain cuts to some programs. The public meeting was driven behind closed doors when board members questioned the superintendent’s handling of knowledge about the loss of millions in federal funding dollars.

The first presentation is now August 8 with board adoption expected on Aug. 22, effectively cutting out any time for the public to review and respond.

The loss of that federal aid led to much of this year’s budget shortfall and the problems with the 2013 budget, which is still somewhere between $700,000 and $900,000 out of balance. The discussion is a very public one and it is a stretch of state public meeting laws for the board to take the entire discussion behind closed doors as already done.

The board then called a special meeting Wednesday evening, after our deadline, and was expected to again discuss behind closed doors the issue that was originally raised in public – what the superintendent knew and why it took so long to tell the board?

We believe that the school board should move the discussion, warts and all, back into the open light of a public meeting so that the public might have the best possible chance to understand where their elected school board members stand on the issue(s) that derailed the budget timeline before the district produces its rosiest version of events.