The Auburn Enlarged City School District certainly outlined items that would be subject to cuts in a contingency budget, and because the public voted down the budget proposal a second time last week, there is justification in following through with all of those cuts - including elementary summer school.

In voting “no” on the budget, the public signaled they wanted to get rid of elementary summer school, the reasoning goes.

The problem with that argument is that these contingency budget cuts were never given a reasonable public discussion by the board. Like so many things this past budget season, the contingency cuts were handed down by superintendent J.D. Pabis seemingly without any questioning by the board.

We urge this board to find a way to save at least part of the elementary summer school program, perhaps something that can help the most at-risk students.

It's true that the board does pay Pabis and his administration good money to research these issues and make recommendations. To a certain extent, there's logic in a board member saying he or she needs to trust the superintendent to make the best decisions.

But in Auburn, that logic should have ended with the first “no” vote on the budget, on May 20. Instead, the board accepted the superintendent's hasty reaction to put the same spending plan in front of voters a second time.

As we all know, that plan worked out terribly.

This is the time for this board to start truly engaging in the process. Amazingly, these board members do not have line-item budgets to go through.

But now each board member should be demanding one, and each should be going through that plan with a sharp pencil to find some cuts that Pabis and his staff did not.

They should come to the board table Tuesday with specific suggestions for cuts beyond what the superintendent has outlined, and have a discussion about those ideas in public.

That would be a good start at rebuilding this board's relationship with the community.