On Nov. 28, 2022, the Norman Board of Education unanimously approved a $353.9 million bond package which will appear on the Feb. 14 ballot. Voters are being asked to approve a property tax revenue stream to pay for a list of proposed projects, including maintenance, building repairs, classroom technology, as well as expansions of existing buildings and new facilities. Almost two months later, the district’s financial advisers informed the board that the site budgets for the two high schools were reversed.
The posted agenda for the special meeting on Jan. 23 states: “The original version had an inadvertent typo or "scrivener’s error" that transposed the dollar amounts for the Norman High School and Norman North High School project line items. However, the project language for both sites was correct as shown.”
Reversing numbers is easy to understand. It is harder, however, to understand why the board didn’t catch this error.
At face value, the board approved two grossly inaccurate site plans: the Norman High site plan was $8 million too low and the Norman North site plan was $8 million too high. The budgets were not even in the ballpark of the proposed project plans. Did the board have enough information to assess the adequacy of the budgets?
The funding disparity between Norman High’s budget, $10,256,000, and Norman North’s, $18,227,000, budget was conspicuous. It is reasonable for site spending to even out over bond cycles. The original 2023 package would have resulted in back-to-back bond cycles where Norman North would get a combined $14 million more than Norman High. This should have raised a few eyebrows.
Fortunately, the board was able to revise the bond proclamation in time to comply with public notification requirements of the Bond Transparency Act of 2017. This was done at a special board meeting which was posted well in advance of minimal posting requirements.
Support for bond programs, particularly 10-year programs as the 2023 package proposes, is built on trust. The extent to which the district can reasonably be expected to deliver the proposed projects depends on the credibility of revenue projections and project cost estimates. The reversal of the high school budgets suggests room for improvement.
What steps can be done to build confidence and trust? The board could add a step in the bond proposal process by creating a committee of diverse individuals to review the proposed package before bringing it to the board for approval. Public town halls before final board approval would also be helpful.
I urge the board to implement mechanisms that will increase accountability and oversight.
This story was edited by Jillian Taylor, Alexia Aston and Karoline Leonard. Grace Rhodes and Francisco Gutierrez copy edited this story.
