DROP-IN:

“This community and school district is at a crossroads. The community has to decide, do you want quality education or do you want whatever we can provide with our own funding?”

School board member Dave Beach

School board passes cuts package

Will hold public information meeting

By Stephanie Abbajay

After an intelligent and impassioned 90-minute public comment period and much debate among board members, the Jersey County School Board passed a series of cuts and changes for the coming school year.

As previously reported, the district is facing a $2.8 million shortfall in the Education Fund for the 2006-2007 school year and the package the board approved amounts to a savings of about $280,000.

Effective this fall, the woods program will be cut at Illini Middle School, the challenge program in the elementary schools will be cut, all in-town fifth grade classes will be held at East, art and music will be cut back to once every two weeks, physical education will be cut back to once a week and student dismissal district-wide will be changed to 2:50 p.m. to accommodate a district-wide planning period for teachers. Furthermore, in order to accommodate the new dismissal time, the classes at the high school will each be cut by five minutes.

Prior to the public comment period, School Board President Sherry Droste thanked the audience, a full house, for coming and thanked everyone who had sent in responses and ideas. Droste said the district had received 36 responses via mail, e-mail and telephone.

“I applaud every person who has used this past month to think about this proposal,” she said. “These responses are very rational and show deep concern. In most cases, people tried to find an alternative and weren’t just griping. That is appreciated and the public should be commended.”

Droste then opened the meeting up to public comment, though she made it clear that this was not an opportunity for dialogue with the board. Many of the comments centered on the impact of the cuts to the art and music programs and several parents thought a negative precedent was being set.

“If we cut these programs at the elementary level, what will the high school level be like?” asked Darla Cavins.

Parent Julie Pohlman said she, too, was upset about the cuts to music and art but was also concerned about the elimination of the woods program, which she said teaches valuable life skills and lets many kids shine.

Iris Walter thought the cuts should be more equitably distributed.

“I love sports but if there are going to be cuts it should be across the board and not just in arts and music,” she said.

Jocinda Jones questioned the wisdom of shortening the school day.

“In Kankakee they expanded their school day and their test scores rose,” she said.

Several parents were upset about the disruption of having to move their fifth-grade children from West to East, especially since the following year they will have to move again to Illini. Parent Jean Farley thought that many people would pull their kids out entirely before sending them to East.

“There are a lot of stay-at-home moms who are now willing to give home schooling a try,” she said.

Several parents offered ideas to the board. Janet Copley suggested the board investigate partnering with Bank of America or other institutions that may have financial support programs for education or teaching. Andrea Roach suggested the board consider moving the district-wide planning period to 7:30 a.m., before the school day begins, rather than cutting class time and moving to an earlier dismissal.

Though the board members did not respond to the speakers, several members did respond when the issue of state funding came up.

Droste said that the financial situation the district faces is largely out of its control.

“This is my 14th year and I know we have been very careful, relatively frugal and disciplined,” she said. “But much of what has led to this is completely out of our control. State aid has been cut and it is not allocated equitably. Everyone in this room needs to stand up and speak up.”

John Copley said every member of the audience should write their state legislators about parity in educational funding.

Dave Beach then said that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

“This is a shot across the bow,” he said. “Funding is short, it’s that simple. We either make these and far more drastic cuts or we find other sources of revenue. I’m not in favor of raising taxes but I am in favor of quality education.”

Beach said the community has a big decision to make.

“This community and school district is at a crossroads,” he said. “The community has to decide, do you want quality education or do you want whatever we can provide with our own funding?”

Beach then proposed that the board postpone the vote on the package so that they could answer, point by point, the concerns and questions raised by the public. Terrie Kallal seconded Beach’s motion but the vote to postpone the vote was tied with Beach, Copley and Kallal voting to postpone it and Droste, Rogers and Trask voting to proceed. Bob Norman was not present.

Copley then offered a compromise that the board approve the current package but hold a public information meeting before the next board meeting to address the public’s concerns and answer their questions. Copley said he would like the public to know about other cuts that will have to be made, which he said were inevitable, far more substantial and could include sports programs and other extracurricular activities.

“At the public information meeting I want more people to show up and I want to answer people’s questions directly and I want to be able to communicate to them the additional cuts we will have to make,” he said.

Copley’s motion passed and the board approved the measure with Copley, Droste, Rogers and Trask voting for it and Beach and Kallal voting against it. Beach and Kallal both said they would have liked the opportunity to address the public’s points before moving forward.

In personnel matters, the board approved moving Mary Schell to Fieldon as principal/teacher. The board also approved the use of Fieldon as a rest stop in the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure Saturday, June 17. Over 700 riders are expected to pass through Fieldon.

The board also recognized JCHS Principal Bonnie Tungett who is retiring this year.

In other business, the board:

•Approved a bid of $48,588.87 from 12 different vendors for instructional, art and printer supplies for the district;

•Approved a summer 2007 field trip to Peru led by JCHS teacher David Allsup;

•Approved use of facilities requests from Barbara Dickey and Ann Bishop for sixth and seventh grade band camp at Illini and from Jerseyville CASA for a piano recital June 4 at JCHS;

•Approved the appointment of Don Snyders as district 100 treasurer;

•Announced that JCHS graduation will be held Sunday, May 28 at 2 p.m. in the JCHS gymnasium, the Illini promotion ceremony will be held Tuesday, May 30 at 1:30 p.m. and the last day of classes will be Tuesday, May 30.

The next regular board meeting will be June 21. An announcement will be made about the date and location of the public information meeting.