×

Finance committee wants April 6 budget; arts, athletics and vo-tech likely safe this year

Superintendent Kelly Hastings speaks at last night’s finance committee meeting. KEVIN McKEE/ THE EXPRESS

MILL HALL — The Keystone Central Finance Committee met Thursday night in the Central Mountain High School cafeteria to attempt to answer the questions lingering from last week’s meeting: What would the budget look like with an additional $2 million ripped out of it? How would the committee and the public feel about the subject when those dollar signs were applied to people and programs?

“Not well,” was the resounding answer, as the board voted with six in favor for moving ahead with the previously proposed April 6 budget, with the small caveat of retaining one of the positions previously intended to be cut, a part-time position which, while only costing the district 90 days of sub-rate time, was considered integral to the operation of Bucktail athletics.

Financial issues have recently forced the board to consider additional fees for students and increased taxes. Despite these options, a $5.7 million yearly deficit still exists, to be taken out of the general fund balance, which would leave a remaining balance of $6,005,100 after this year, business manager Susan Blesh said.

This continuing deficit is unacceptable to the committee members, who last week vowed to attempt to slash a further $2 million from the budget.

Superintendent Kelly Hastings led off the evening’s discussion with a brief forward, in which she urged the additional items added to the budget cuts to not be considered as recommendations, and that the administration is standing by their April 6 recommended budget. She proceeded to demand to know where the accusations of “awful spending practices” were coming from. She cited a long list of programs that the district spends money on, including educating 4-year olds, adding athletics that have been asked for, having increased communication between teachers and parents, and buying new computers.

“These are not awful spending practices. They are the spending practices of a business,” she defended.

This feeling was one of several which pervaded the meeting, with another being the committee’s expression that everyone will defend their own programs, but not offer any other options.

As board member Jeff Johnston referred to it, “Yeah we need to make cuts … but do somebody else, not me.”

The additional cuts that were offered for consideration included:

r Eliminate an additional two programs from the CTE programs. The district will still have some options, but definitely fewer.

r Eliminating art in elementary classes, with the rationale is that art can be taught by elementary teachers, instead of by subject-specific staff.

r Eliminate string musical programs in elementary – this is a loss of a supplemental program, but maintains music as a whole.

r Reduction to maintenance and custodial staff.

r Eliminate an assistant principal at the Bucktail campus, which would result in extra sharing of duties.

r Reorganize clerical staff – again, those staff left would have to take on additional duties and unemployment costs would be increased.

r Eliminate all librarians district wide.

r Either cut all junior high sports, which maintains varsity sports, but removes all opportunities for middle school students, or co-op all Bucktail sports with Central Mountain sports, which would cause a huge community impact in Renovo, but would maintain programming.

According to Blesh, “Those … ‘options’ … is a way to explain them, would bring us down to $4.5 million coming out of the general fund.” This fulfills the task set to the administration by the committee at last week’s meeting. “It’s a heavy impact,” Blesh mourned. The cuts would lead to a 7.2 percent reduction to staffing and affect 40 bodies: 5 admin, 15 teaching staff and 20 support staff.

Board President James Knauff expressed his frustration with the constant attacks, mentioning that it feels like “a new group is being held hostage every meeting.” He urged the committee to go back to the April 6 budget, which he felt was not ideal but did the best it could while not affecting personnel or programming. He also stressed the importance of not cutting people due to unemployment costs, which are self-funded by the district. Instead, Knauff wants to consider extra retirement incentives, to try to entice staff on the verge of retirement currently to the dive a little earlier, thus freeing up positions without incurring extra burdens.

Johnston emphasized his concern with the area’s economy and the importance the reputation of the school district has on new workers looking to move their families into the area. He also stressed his opinion of the need for the district to be self-reliant, saying “The state’s not going to help us. Nobody is going to help us. We need to do this on our own.”

Board member Charles Rosamilia took perhaps the hardest stance of the evening, noting that “we’re getting recommendations from the administrators about cuts, so of course they won’t cut themselves.” While he was loathe to cut programming or staff, he cautioned that if the district waits two years to take action, the results will be catastrophic. The history of increasing costs is not favorable, and he stressed his concern that next year’s budget will somehow increase despite their attempts at cutting as much as possible.

Seconding Rosamilia was board member Deb Smith, who focused on three issues which she regularly hears from community emails: those in support of pre-K, those saying that we have too many administrators, and those saying that our PR person is fluff.” While the administrators and the district’s public relations staff member are wonderful people, they are among those least supported by the public, she noted.

Johnston also expressed frustration with the current situation and the general lack of control the district feels it has, emphasizing that the district does not control pension costs, healthcare costs, or the cost incurred by the state whenever a student opts to go to a charter or cyber school. He also commended the administrators, saying “Being an administrator today is not the same as it was even 10 or 15 years ago. The problems they face today … you don’t know what it’s like until you’ve walked in their shoes. Because of the type of culture we have today, the problems get worse every day. We don’t have students coming from the Cleaver’s anymore.”

One of the proposed solutions to this perceived lack of community awareness is to begin forming committees from the interested public in July, with the start of the new fiscal year. According to Johnston, “Your eyes will be opened when you start to see the costs. It’s not just quite so easy as it appears on the surface. It’s not quite as simplistic as it appears. You’re going to get a totally different viewpoint once you get involved.”

The issue of cyber/charter schools came up several times, with several amongst the board and the public cautioning that the types of changes the committee was considering are exactly those which drive students to go to cyber and charter schools in the first place, such as reducing staff, which leads to larger classroom sizes.

One of the programs most under attack was pre-kindergarten, which many saw as either largely extraneous due to the presence of community programs like Headstart in the area, or as a beneficial program but one that is a luxury the district simply cannot afford any longer. Some did defend the pre-K program, however, including Knauff, who mentioned that he has seen firsthand some of the stuff that the kids in pre-K are learning. “It’s unbelievable some of the things these 4-year olds know,” he said, praising the program. He also cautioned that while “it looks great to cut now, I can guarantee you that in three years, it will not have a positive impact.”

Johnston also defended the pre-K program, saying that “out of all of the 70-odd million dollars in the budget, (pre-k) is probably some of the best money we’re putting out.”

The community was divided on the issue, with some saying that the presence of programs already extant in the area meant that Keystone Central should not spend money it does not have on pre-K, with others saying that the options outside of Keystone’s program are not affordable and do not offer transportation or daycare options for parents who are stuck at work and cannot pick up their children.

One of the staunchest speakers from the public was Brody Baker, who is the president of the student government at Central Mountain High School. He mentioned that while he has never taken a CTE course, he knows many students who have and is very aware of how special they are to those students. Speaking against the arts cuts, he said, “discontinuing the arts at the elementary level is not in the best interests of our students, and would negatively impact creativity and individualism.”

As fear of the unknown motivates much discussed last night, Baker rejected the idea of cutting foreign languages, noting that they are perhaps among the most practical classes offered at Central Mountain, with education on different cultures being worth a lot to the student body.

Neither are athletics something that should be on the table, Baker said. As he put it, “Regardless of what’s happening in the world, people will still go to the stands Friday night.” Athletics and clubs are two of the programs that Baker views as most significant at the district, with their focus on building community.

Closing his speech, Baker affirmed: “I do not envy the difficult decisions that you must make tonight, but I am reminded that one must not rush to a simple or easy answer. I came here to stand up for students that I do not know and will never meet.”

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $3.69/week.

Subscribe Today