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ISD 831 budget cuts to be made March 27 |
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Tuesday, 25 March 2008 |
Cliff Buchan
News Editor
Budget cutting is never an easy thing, school official will say, but in Forest Lake, officials here this week were forced to defend their plan as it heads to the school board for action Thursday night.
At Monday’s work session to prepare the school board for its regular meeting on Thursday, the administration defended its plan with special comments aimed at the Central Montessori Elementary School where parents have complained that the elimination of the kindergarten program could place the future of the school in peril.
Because of limited new state aid and declining enrollment, the district is facing a budget shortfall for the 2008-2009 school year. For the past three months, the district has prepared plans to adjust its budget by some $1.75 million. That will happen through a combination of budget reductions and the use of $500,000 of undesignated general fund balance.
In addition to the general fund draw down, others cuts will come as follows for a total reduction of $1,250,566:
•$234,966, district support reductions.
•$523,600, secondary level reductions.
•$492,000, elementary level reductions.
Action defended
Parents of students in the Montessori program are worried that the Central program will suffer as a result.
Superintendent Lynn Steenblock on Monday denied any intent by the school district to shut down the program. “We are not out to eliminate the Montessori program,” he said adding that it “never has been, never will be” the district’s intent.
Steenblock explained that the decision to cut the school’s fee-based Kindergarten Plus program, the full-day, every-day program, was simply a matter of numbers. Not enough kids have been registered for a stand-alone program at the Montessori school, he said.
The superintendent said the matter was further complicated by a growing number of students at the next-door Forest Lake Elementary where a stand-alone full-day program would be offered this fall. In past years the full-day program could not be supported at Forest Lake Elementary and students were shifted to the Montessori site to fill a classroom.
“We are cutting,” he said, adding it was difficult to substantiate a program for a limited number of students during a time when budgets are being reduced.
Gayle McGrane, principal of the Central program, said earlier in the day the district was basing its decision on the numbers of students.
“We are losing a (teaching) position here,” she said. “It is by the numbers. I didn’t have the numbers to support kindergarten. We have to deal with that.”
As an effort to address concerns, Steenblock said the district was slated to meet with parents Wednesday night.
Parents worried
Some parents are not convinced, however.
Phoebe Pekron, Forest Lake, said she had enrolled her kindergarten aged child in the Montessori program for this fall only to learn it was being dropped. She had a first-grade child in the Montessori program this year.
Although the Pekrons live in Forest Lake, they are within the Lino Lakes attendance area. The family is now faced with a dilemma that involves sending their kids to two schools in the fall that are not on the same daily schedule. Because of job conflicts, Pekron said she is torn as to what to do, but it looking at other options outside the district and removing her student from the Montessori school.
Students forced to abandon the Montessori program is also a worry of Heidi Leigh, Forest Lake, who has two children in the program.
“This will affect the long-term longevity of the program,” Leigh said. With no kindergarten as a feeder program this fall, she fears the program will take another hit in 2009 if Grade 1 enrollment tails off.
Leigh and Pekron said they also have worried that the retirement of a current Montessori teacher this spring will open a position that the district will choose not to fill. “That concerns me as a parent,” Leigh said.
Leigh and Pekron say they don’t believe the school has promoted Montessori as a free option program with a different teaching model. Leigh agreed that the district should not extend the kindergarten registration date (it closed last Friday) but she wonders if more students interested in Kindergarten Plus would not come forward this spring.
She vowed to continue to pressure the board and administration.
“It hasn’t been promoted as it should,” she said. “We are going to stand our ground on this.”
School officials predicted this week the school’s enrollment of 180 students would remain constant even with the loss of kindergarten.
The cuts
In reviewing the cuts, Steenblock said the $492,000 in savings at the elementary level would result in the elimination of 7.5 full-time equivalent classroom teachers ($322,500) and 7 FTE elementary media clerks with their functions shifting to the remaining classroom teachers.
The district also projects a $40,000 saving in form of para-professional cuts at non-Title I schools, but must learn its funding allocation before a final number is determined.
At the secondary level, 9.25 FTE secondary classroom teachers will be cut for a savings of $397,750. The high school will lose 3.58 FTEs, Century will lose 3.33 positions and Southwest will see a drop of 2.34 FTEs. Two behavior intervention specialists and three special education para-professionals will also go.
At the district level, the district will save $80,000 by cutting two bus routes, net a $79,000 savings with a net reduction of 2.4 FTE psychologists, save $45,000 in district expense to operate the ice arena and $31,000 in reduced building repairs. The ice arena savings would be contingent on the new sports complex in Forest Lake opening later this year.
Probationary and tenured teachers face termination under a process the district will address prior to today’s 7 p.m. meeting at the District Office Building.
Officials said the district has little choice but to make the budget adjustments. The financial picture has been hit hard, too, by the loss of 300 students over the past five years.
Larry Martini, director of business services, said the district received a state aid increase of 2 percent for this year and will get just 1 percent in 2008-2009. With enrollment projected to fall another 100 students, the revenue is “flat” and the district can expect cost-of-living increases of 3 percent.
When the legislature gets around to a school finance bill a year from now, Steenblock said it is imperative that lawmakers fund school adequately. Short of that, Steenblock said the district will be forced to make even larger budget cuts at this time next year.
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