Speed Gibson

It's been a long day, what with nearly six hours of civic meetings before and after a busy work day. My last stop was the Robbinsdale School District's second Financial Advisory Commission meeting. You may recall I had applied for this, helped create it in fact, but there I am in the Peanut Gallery.

I'm pleased to report that the group had a bit more energy this evening. I was a bit concerned at the first meeting because everyone seemed so quiet. They got their first real introduction to school finance as practiced by our esteemed Legislators, and I heard some good questions raised, one in particular.

Actually, it was more of a comment, that there were too many digits flying around. Amen. For example, from a PowerPoint slide on the proposed 2008 Operating Levy, levy history was presented like this:

2003  $39,678,190  15.43%
2004  $39,805,060    .32%
2005  $42,605,359   7.04%

Put (in millions) at the top and print this instead:

2003  $39.7  +15%
2004  $39.8    0%
2005  $42.6   +7%

It's much easier to read without all those extra insignificant digits, much like a corporate shareholder annual report. The extra digits, however accurate, add nothing to the presentation. Nobody is going to write a check or file a state document using these rounded numbers.

The next meeting is scheduled for November 13th.