Posted: 12/9/04
Many give input on possible school cuts
By Joel Stottrup
Twenty-two people made recommendations to the Princeton School Board Tuesday evening for next school year's budget - recommendations ranging from cutting out sports to having booster clubs raise money, to using some of the district's unreserved fund balance.
Using some of the approximately $3 million in that fund was one of the more frequent suggestions from among the more than 100 in the audience.
The board held the 80-minute hearing to get input prior to possible budget action at next Tuesday's special meeting.
At the end of the hearing, board chair Deb Ulm was asked what could happen next Tuesday and she answered, "If we are ready to make cuts, we will make cuts. If we are not ready, we won't."
Educators, including some coaches, made up the bulk of those speaking, but there were also students and some who were parents.
Each speaker was given three minutes and board member Mike Ehman, the timekeeper, added some levity. He commented that one speaker had lost 35 seconds of their allotted time coming all the way from the back to the board table and that another who came from the front row lost only a few seconds.
But the laughs were few during the hearing as people in the standing-room-only crowd sensed the seriousness of the possibilities. Teachers could be cut, class sizes could be raised, some fees raised, some activities and sports could be cut and children could have farther to walk to school.
The first speaker, Jeanne Wilson, suggested having booster clubs pay for travel for some of the athletic teams and that the district fund only conference events.
The responsibility for keeping sports alive will go onto more of the parents and the ones who really care about their sports will cause them to "flourish," she said.
Princeton kindergarten instructors Tracie Beauchamp and Stacy Reid went to the microphone to speak together. Reid said there must be a "positive, nurturing relationship between the teacher and students." Larger class sizes are not the answer, said Beauchamp, adding, "We ask that you keep the absolute best for the children in mind."
Smaller class sizes mean more individual and group time with the students, first grade teacher Michelle Hicks told the board. Increasing class sizes will increase "destructive behavior." She said she wonders why the district voters last month defeated the operating levy referendum and she called for reducing the district's fund balance.
High school senior Kristie Bronson, who has been on the cross-country and track teams, voiced alarm about the possibility of cross country not being there in two years. "It's a great program," she said, adding that she knows of a lot of students who would be "very devastated" if it was cut, and said it is a growing sport.
Bronson said she would even contribute to fundraisers to help keep the sport going, including "bagging groceries." Transportation to meets and the cost of running shoes are the main expenses, she said.
First grade instructor Tom Ostroot urged the board to rely less on "bond ratios and recommendations from auditors," and more on advice from "trained educational professionals." He urged using more of the district's unreserved fund balance. "Kids are 30 percent of the population and 100 percent of the future," he said.
Mike Schramel, a regional sales representative, told the board that he wonders why, when the board had a workshop two weeks earlier, it had no dollar figures for proposed cuts. The board, said Schramel, needs to do "some soul searching in the near future" about the district's vision and mission statements on life-long learning and schools of excellence.
Schramel said the board should also think about how teachers are the "front line" for identifying problems that students have, and therefore the need is strong for one-on-one contact.
Schramel said he agrees that "sports make for a well-rounded person" and noted that he was a swim team captain when he was in high school. But college entrance exams don't ask questions about sports, but instead about academics, he said.
Wrestling team captain Brad Aasen spoke about the value of being in sports. Athletes make better students through increased determination and motivation, he said. If worst comes to worst, he said, the district should consider having cooperative athletic programs with other districts. If some students can't play sports here, they will go to other districts, he added. Aasen also called for more ways to raise funds for sports with schools being a sponsor.
High school teacher Elaine Maples, also a parent, recommended: Examine all the positions the district has added in a "chronological manner" and then eliminate them in reverse order, cut out the activities budget, make custodial services site centered, go to a four-day school week and extend the school hours on those days.
"Keeping the activities budget and making the kids walk farther on crowded roads doesn't make sense," Maples said.
Parent Sara Dokken, called for keeping class sizes low.
Elementary teacher Beth Laabs said she agreed with a comment she heard that education today has lost its focus. "Somehow in the past few years, we have stopped focusing on the kids and started focusing on the money," she said. Spend down the fund balance and keep the teachers, she recommended.
Don Barnes also urged reducing the fund balance as part of the budget decision and said all should tell the Legislature that the problems in Princeton's schools are like that in all of the state's rural schools.
The district could also save money by using local people instead of a consulting team for replacing Superintendent Mary Ann Straley who will leave after this school year, he said.
Parent Elaine Phillipi suggested the board and administrators need to "find out what is the disconnect between the community and the funding for schools." She suggested sending out questionnaires to find out. She also called for cutting the cost of the district's administrators and possibly sharing administrators with other districts.
Phillipi called it a "no brainer" to cut out extracurricular activities before cutting classes and asked why Princeton could not seek less money than it has in operating levy referendums.
School staff member Mary Jane Sinkel said she feels the board has been fiscally responsible and called for increasing activity fees. Staff member Becky Lloyd, at the board table at the same time, urged the board to not cut teachers.
Bud Bullivant, who teaches in Elk River, urged the board not to hurt the district's "foundation" and said it is the quality of that here that drew him and his wife to live here. Bullivant also called for using some of the fund balance.
"There is no reason to have a rainy day fund if you don't get it out when the rain comes and if this isn't a rainy day, I don't know what is," he said.
Head wrestling coach Mark Hayes and assistant coach Nate Radke spoke in favor of keeping wrestling, noting how the program has grown in Princeton.
Parent Stephen Hodder said the district ought to use the unreserved fund balance to the point where it has to borrow money and pay interest. He said local teachers and administrators are not overpaid but underpaid, and said that public education suffers from 25 years of rhetoric against it and 25 years of "tax rhetoric."
Shirley Dettmer accused the district of being "top heavy" in administrative staff and said that if two positions were cut in the district office, five teaching positions could be saved.
Julie Hume, who had her two-year-old son along when she spoke to the board, urged not cutting staff and said that if sports are cut, they could come back strong another time.
High school senior Emily Olson said she didn't think there was a lot of community awareness, especially among the elderly, as to the needs of the district. She suggested students could help communicate it by visiting with that age group to tell the students' story and answer their questions.
Parent Janet Meeks cautioned against having children walk to school like they are now for up to 1.4 miles. And having parents feel like they are forced to drive them to school adds further stress in a society where so many parents both work out of the home, she said. She urged the board to consider what their actions will mean for the health and safety of students.
Many school board members commented at the end of the hearing that their focus is on what is best for students. Some of them, such as Dan Whitcomb and Bonnie Broda, also responded to the remarks about the fund balance.
Whitcomb, Broda, Superintendent Straley and director of business services, Carol Peterson, all agreed that cutting the fund balance is not as easy as it sounds. Peterson noted how the state delays giving 20 percent of its funding to the school districts and that the fund balance is used for the district's cash flow.
Straley equated the fund to that of someone's checking account. The only way to spend more than is put into the account during the month is to use a credit card and essentially borrowing to fill the gap, Straley said.
When the Union-Eagle asked Peterson after the hearing to give an opinion on what needs to be done for the budget next school year, she said that if the board doesn't cut enough, it will have to borrow money.
Board members Ulm and Lisa Fobbe called for the same kind of support for school funding during upcoming levy referendum campaigns as was exhibited at the hearing.
Princeton Union-Eagle
P.O. Box 278
Princeton, MN 55371
Telephone: 763-389-1222
Fax: 763-389-1728