School budget stirs controversy

School trustee Lindley Auton will ask her fellow trustees to delay voting on the 2006-'07 budget until it can be discussed in depth by the full board.

Auton sent e-mails to trustees and the media outlining her concerns about the budget, which includes salary increases for new employees hired as recently as last month.

Contacted by phone Sunday night, Auton confirmed that one of these new employees is Rance Cobb, a close friend of school board chairperson Sandra Greene and whom Greene has previously introduced as her fiance.

Cobb was hired in May for a newly created administrative position at a salary of $87,600. The pay hike included in the proposed budget will raise his salary to more than $89,000.

According to Auton, the school board budget committee, of which she is a member, has never met to discuss the proposed budget.

"The budget committee has not met at all to discuss this proposed budget," she said. "I received my copy of the proposed budget on May 27, (packet postmarked May 25.) Prior to receiving the budget on May 27, I had asked several times when the budget committee would be meeting, as I do not call the meetings.

"The budget is very complicated and there are a number of items in it that just do not make sense to me," Auton said. "I would have preferred to discuss these issues during the board meeting, but that has not worked in the past, so I am putting my case before the public," Auton said.

The full text of her e-mail can be found on Page 11A.