Budget cuts concern district patrons

To Mr. Ebeling and the members of the school board,

First of all, I'd just like to thank everyone for their service to the community. I certainly do not envy the tough decisions you are currently faced with. Also, thank you for giving the public the opportunity to voice its concerns during the hearing Saturday morning. While I was in attendance, I chose not to speak at that time as I felt somewhat uninformed on what had taken place during previous discussions on this matter. However, after taking into consideration the input of the members of the community during the meeting and reading some of the recent articles in the paper, I feel there are a few things that need to be said that I did not hear Saturday morning.

Unlike many of those that spoke during the hearing, I do not represent any particular program or any of the staff. I am merely a parent who is concerned about the quality of education my children will receive in the coming years and about the declining number of extra-curricular activities that may be available for them by the time they reach middle school and high school. It was mentioned by a couple of people that the long term solution to this problem lies within the community itself. It seems puzzling to me, then, that public input was not actively sought until only a few days before the final decisions are to be made. Spencer's greatest resource is the people that live here. Please don't sell us short and exclude us from the process. If notices informing parents of upcoming school related events, early dismissals, etc. can be sent home with the students, then notices requesting input from members of the community can certainly be sent home as well. Those of us that wish to help only can do so if we know that help is needed.

One thing that Mr. Ebeling briefly mentioned toward the end of the hearing was the possibility of raising property taxes to make up the deficit. He seemed dismissive of the idea saying he didn't want to place a burden on the local taxpayers. Perhaps this is something that should be looked into a bit further though. I certainly wouldn't mind paying an extra $100-$200 per year on my property taxes if it meant that the students would receive a better education and no one would have to lose his or her job or benefits. Our total income for our family of four was less than one-third of most of the administrator's salaries, but I think even we could come up with that amount. Maybe I'm incredibly na*ve, but I would suspect there are others in the community that feel the same. Maybe it could be put to a city-wide vote. Of course, it's probably too late for these suggestions to do any good this year, but please do keep them in mind if and when we have these discussions again next year.

As far as what can be done for the upcoming school year, I don't have any great suggestions. I dislike seeing any of the budget packages eliminated as I feel it erodes the confidence the community once had that its children could receive a top notch education. All of the budget packages on the list have merit. However, schools exist to serve the needs of its students, first and foremost. The people that have the most contact with and the most effect on the students are the teachers and their aides. They are the backbone of the school system. It doesn't matter how many games the football team wins, or how well the administrators do their jobs, or how well the buildings are maintained, without a strong teaching staff, the school fails, no matter how well the rest of the school employees in other departments perform. So it is imperative that teachers are given the resources necessary to do their jobs most effectively.

Several people spoke in defense of the extracurricular activities on the list. I won't reiterate what's already been said, but I would like to point out that colleges do look at the extracurricular activities a prospective student was involved in during his or her high school years when deciding whether or not to accept him or her. These activities can also lead to scholarships. If cuts need to be made in these areas, please try to do so without eliminating the program entirely. If my kids don't turn out to be athletic when they reach high school, I would like for them to still have the option of joining the debate team, mock trial team, or the school band. I fear that if cuts are made regularly over the next several years, there won't be much left to choose from in ten to twelve years.

Finally, I would like to point out one thing that caught my eye when I was looking over the consequences of reducing each package. In the section regarding reduced salary increases for the administration, it is stated "giving administrators low increases for multiple years will cause them to look for jobs in other districts." I'm not trying to pick on the administration, but couldn't the same statement apply to teachers and anyone else that works for the school? Everyone is being asked to sacrifice a little, either through elimination of benefits, increases in job duties, or just living under the specter of possibly having his or her job eliminated in the coming years. Couldn't that cause teachers to also seek other employment opportunities? And for that matter, couldn't the lack of opportunities for students lead some parents either to exercise their open enrollment option or relocate entirely? That certainly won't help the problem of declining enrollment, and we'll possibly have these budget troubles for years to come.

It doesn't have to be that bleak. Hopefully, if we do have this problem next year, we can be a little more proactive earlier in the school year, allowing more opportunities for solutions to present themselves. I know I'll certainly be paying closer attention in the future. I would just like to say you should be proud to represent a school that turns out students like those that spoke at the meeting. There are some very positive things in the Spencer school system. We just need to make sure they can continue in the future. Thank you for your time.

I doubt that most people are able to check the paper every day. I know I try, but sometimes I'm not able to find the time. Nor do I listen to the radio often. My suggestion was to send home notices with the students that input is/was being sought. That way everyone knows what's going on. And from what I understand the BRIC's input was limited to merely prioritizing a small list of budget packages that was already chosen. In my opinion, that's not really giving anyone a chance to offer any real input. Instead of immediatley resorting to cutting budget packages, can't we, as a community, try to find some way to raise more money or look into ways to stop the declining enrollment? And yes, you're probably right. We'll probably be doing this again next year.

Damon thanks for posting your letter - it's very well written and I think it hits on many topics that area parents are questioning and have concerns over. I also agree that the newspaper isn't the only way that the school board/administration needs to advertise upcoming events. I've gotten mounds of photocopied flyers in my son's backpack for upcoming events, basketball games, library days, tracking his reading at home.. so sending another flyer home letting parents know of the public forum would have been common sense. I know I recruited a couple of people who would not have otherwise known about the saturday forum and they are both parents of Spencer students.

Anyhow, I do hope the board takes the recommendations given to them by BRIC committee members and the general public and uses them in their decisions. If not I guess we as parents and taxpayers need to start fundraising and remember the decisions the board made this year - come the next school board elections.

I also want to say that we as parents and even students of spencer need to write our lawmakers to ask for funding for our schools and to make changes to the way taxpayer money is being used in our state. I believe Ebling and some board members may have some contact information for those lawmakers - otherwise I think you can find all that information online.

As someone who spent the first ten years of my life in Spencer and who got his start in swimming taking lessons at the Y, it saddens me to think that boys swimming might be eliminated. Little did I know then that those humble beginnings would lead me to live the live I've had thus far - assistant coach at two Big Ten institutions, head coach now at a top-20 Division III program and owner of CollegeSwimming.com.

While small in scope, don't underestimate time impact of such programs such as boys' swimming. Spencer swimming helped give rise to an All-American breaststroker (Brille Bovee who, ironically enough, I tried to recruit but lost to Northwestern), its also provided life-changing experiences for dozens of other young men and women.