Pitching in to help save schools

Community offers pleas, services to board

From left, Blue O’Leary, 8, her sister Ro O’Leary, 3, and Grace Branson, 6, clean the computer room at New York School during a parent-student volunteer work day Jan. 18. Blue and Grace are students at New York, which is one of the elementary schools the district may close in the face of cutting up to million from its budget.

Make your voice heard

The Lawrence school board has scheduled three other public forums to discuss the district’s 2009-2010 budget:

• 7 p.m. Monday at Southwest Junior High, 2511 Inverness Drive.

• 7 p.m. March 1 at Central Junior High, 1400 Mass.

• 7:30 p.m. March 2 at West Junior High, 2700 Harvard.

Lawrence school budget picture

Potential options to eliminate an expected $5 million budget deficit for next school year:

• Program cuts — A list of school program, administrative and classified staff cuts are ranked in four “tiers.” The list includes a $250,000 cut to district administration and support. Others include reductions in guidance counselors and school nurses. Total of all cuts would save $3 million.

• Student-teacher ratio — The district would need about 20 fewer teaching positions for each time the ratio jumped by one student. Drawbacks are larger classes and fewer courses to offer. Increasing the ratio by one student would save $1.1 million, and a three-student increase would save $2.9 million.

• Closing schools — This option has gained vocal public opposition. Closing one elementary school would save $400,000 to $600,000.

• Others — The group Save Our Neighborhood Schools says the board should not close schools. Members say the $5 million gap can be closed through the program cuts; increasing the student-teacher ratio by 1 student and assessing “non-core” secondary programs; finding accounting and administrative efficiencies; and pursuing additional revenue like more public-private partnerships.

They begged and pleaded. Some shed tears.

Parents, teachers and community members packed the auditorium at South Junior High School on Tuesday night to state their cases to Lawrence school board members, who are trying to come up with a solution to the dire budget situation facing the district next year.

The district is faced with the daunting task of cutting up to $5 million from the 2010-2011 budget, and one of the possible solutions is closing elementary schools.

Board members heard emotional testimony from parents speaking out against closing neighborhood schools — heartbreaking stories like that of Christy Monsson, the mother of a 6-year-old Hillcrest School student with autism.

“Honestly, if Hillcrest closes, we don’t know if we would even stay in Kansas,” Monsson said. “Right now, she’s at a great place. She’s making progress.”

But other parents believe closing schools is a better alternative than raising the student-teacher ratio districtwide.

Sean Smith’s children attend Sunflower School, where the classrooms already are bursting at the seams.

“The number of students per teacher is huge,” Smith said. “My concern is that our numbers are just going to continue to go up and up and up. My daughter is in fifth grade, and I think she has 27 students in her class. I don’t see how that doesn’t have an impact.”

Among the solutions those in the audience offered for solving the budget crisis were more fundraising and raising taxes. One man said he’d be willing to volunteer to clean schools, after the district already has cut one-third of the custodial staff. Another parent volunteered at her child’s school teaching yoga classes.

“I think one of the strengths of this community is that we have talented people,” New York parent Jill Rohde said. “There are alternatives. There are people who are willing to give. I’m sick of begging here, pleading with you to keep my school open. I’d rather come up with solutions.”

The majority of the crowd was in favor of more short-term solutions. Rick Ingram specifically moved into the Hillcrest neighborhood so his daughter could attend that particular school.

“The cuts are painful. They are going to be painful no matter where they are, but if you make the cuts in temporary things, you can restore those cuts,” Ingram told board members. “You can restore the kinds of thing like sixth-grade band. It would be a shame to lose that, but you can bring that back. If you close an elementary school, you close that school forever.”

Board members said they were pleased by the turnout and the discussion. They hope more community members will attend the remaining three forums.

“I was very pleased. I think we got some questions out there. I think we provided some information,” school board member Bob Byers said. “Hopefully people left understanding a bit more. This is really a rough time for this community … this will affect every child in this district.”