PBCG under fire again

PBCG, the consultant group that manages the RUSD business office, is under fire once again – but not from the usual suspects, the angry torch-wielding public. This time it appears a RUSD board member, Brian Dey, is leading the charge. Mark Lindem, RUSD’s Chief Operations Officer, AND a PBCG employee, apparently faced problems with the last school district that employed him as its Business Manager.

For the record, I’m am going to state that being the Business Manager of a school district is a crap-shoot. A good business manager has to gamble sometimes – they have to create the schools budget before the state has completed their biennial budget. How exactly can someone plan long term for a district’s financial well-being when he/she doesn’t even know how much money the district will receive from the different taxing authorities? Factor in revenue caps, the QEO, and expensive mandates from NCLB and the average person’s head will start spinning like that little girl in the Exorcist.

However, with that said, Mr. Dey does make excellent points. He explains that because of our contract agreement with PBCG, PBCG was allowed to fill any position with whomever they deemed fit. I am fairly certain, if given a vote to extend a RUSD employment contract to Lindem, Dey and others on the board would have had some very serious concerns. In fact, Dey and others did have concerns when PBCG brought him on board last year, but because Lindem is technically not a RUSD employee, these concerns fell on deaf ears.

It certainly seems that many “concerns” have fallen on deaf ears since PBCG has taken up residence on Northwestern Avenue.