If the Rapid City School District doesn't do budget planning any better than it plans for public comment and input, then we aren't surprised that it finds itself facing a financial crisis.

A special meeting of the Rapid City Board of Education, billed as a work/study session to discuss impending budget cuts for the 2008-09 school year, has been scheduled for 3:30 p.m. today at the Central High School theater. But the time, place and lack of advance warning for the meeting seems so inconvenient to the general public that it almost begs the question: Is public involvement in this decision really valued by the school administration?

The school district announced last week that it is facing budget shortfalls of between $4 million and $6 million that will have to come from its reserve funds or from budget cuts. Without changes to revenues or expenditures, the district faces drawing down its reserve fund to unacceptable levels by 2010 and would soon go into deficit spending.

Today's meeting is open to the public, of course, and there will be some limited time for public comment before the board votes on proposed budget cuts at Thursday's regular school board meeting.

Still, it's troubling to us, as we're sure it is for many in the community who care deeply about the quality of public education, that the school board didn't provide more advance notice of this particular special meeting. Many people heard about it for the first time when they read of it in the Journal on April 14, less than 48 hours before it will be held.

We encourage people to attend the special meeting, but realize that many who might want to go won't be able to make the middle-of-the-workday meeting time. Many simply won't be able to rearrange busy daytime schedules on such short notice. Those that manage it will have to fight the end-of-the-school-day traffic that jams the Central High parking lot each day at its 3:20 p.m. dismissal. An evening meeting would have been a better way to serve the public.

Of greater concern, however, is that neither the board nor the school administration were forthcoming about the district's specific financial woes until last week. Many Rapid Citians, including us, are left to wonder why a warning bell for the community wasn't sounded sooner.

The district discussed the possibility of pending financial troubles with the Journal in January. Why not host a series of public forums to discuss the issues, instead of one rushed special meeting two days before announcing your proposed budget? That's a very small window of opportunity for community input, and it is no way to garner a wide spectrum of public comment on where to cut or what to save. Getting the public in on the front end of a budget crisis makes cuts, or any opt-out decision to avoid those cuts, if not palatable, at least easier for a community to swallow.

Instead the timing of the announcement could be seen as a carefully manipulated decision to avoid truly listening to the voters in this school district and acting on their suggestions.

And not listening to the people in this district could come back to haunt school officials if they ask for the community's support for an opt-out.