Plymouth-Canton Community Schools officials on Tuesday discussed reducing the district's projected $18 million shortfall by using methods similar to those employed by the state.
But it won't be enough.
“We’re looking at a deficit of $10 (million) to $11 million that’s unresolved at this point,” said James Larson-Shidler, the district's assistant superintendent of business services. The state has cut funding to school districts by about $470 per pupil, which totals about $18 million of Plymouth-Canton's $162 million annual budget.
Larson-Shidler told the board members to expect "an overall decrease of 200 students."
New programs, including some form of schools of choice, would add students to the district, a net increase of 16 students, he said.
Larson-Shidler said another way to cut costs to the district is ask for employees to pay 4.2 percent more for retirement, a total of 24.46 percent of the contribution. “Each percent increase in the retirement rate is approximately $1 million in our budget,” Larson-Shidler said.
The proposed budget would include a hiring freeze, meaning no new positions in the next school year without the school board's review and approval.
The public hearing portion of Tuesday's meeting included concerns about funding cuts to a free early childhood program for disadvantaged 4-year-olds, known as the PLUS Preschool.
One parent, Michelle Foley of Canton, appealed to the board on behalf of the preschool's teachers and students. “These may be just teachers, but to any parents or students, they’re family," said Foley, whose daughter graduated from the school.
“We are not eliminating PLUS Preschool,” said Cindy Swift, assistant superintendent of instructional services. “We are looking for a way to fund it.”
Beth Sexton of Plymouth, a media specialist at Dodson Elementary School, asked the board to bolster her school's enrollment by transferring 200 students from Workman Elementary School to nearby Dodson.
Dodson is the second-youngest elementary school in the district, she said, and every classroom has about $110,000 worth of equipment. “But it is slowly being decimated by student population loss,” she said. “It will have seven empty classrooms next year.”
Interim Superintendent Jeremy Hughes said Sexton’s case put him in mind to take a look at school zoning and boundaries, which he said was "long overdue." Rezoning the school district has been discussed repeatedly this year, particularly while the board considered whether or not to close Fiegel Elementary.
The school board will finalize the 2011-12 budget at its June 28 meeting.
Larsson-Schindler needs to step down as well.
A discussion question; Is it the product of school district(s) not being held responsible to the collective community they represent? Or is it a fundamental problem with the public schooling system?
That can't possibly be accurate. Fiegel has a little over 300 students and a school board employee went to a lot of time and effort to figure out how they could ALL be re-distributed to the other schools in the district. So, if you take space at Fiegel out of the equation, you obviously have over 300 spots available. Fiegel is obviously under capacity, so even more spots are available with it staying open.
25 students/room (low # I know) X 7 empty classrooms = 175 open spots at Dodson alone. And like I said, it was already figured out how to fit the 300+ Fiegel students into other schools without taking the empty space at Dodson into consideration. That 200 open spots appears to be an out and out lie!
This is what gets me. I'm not mad because they didn't close Fiegel. Actually, what gets me, has nothing to do with Fiegel. And I don't know about everybody else. But, from what I understand, Workman is overcrowded right? Dodson, which is a mile away from Workman, has 7 rooms that will be vacated this coming school year. And from my understanding, the people at Workman, is planning on buying some portables, to fulfill the overcrowded Workman, when you can put some of the overcrowded kids at Workman and send them over to Dodson, a mile away. Now, if we are $18 million dollars in the whole, I don't see how buying portables for an overcrowded school is going to help bring some of the defeceit down, when you got a school that is a mile away from you, that is going to have 7 rooms completely emptied this coming school year. Now, my opinion, to me, that does not make any sense, and it really angers me, when the state or even the district spends money on something, when they can look outside of the box, and see that they can do it a better way, without spending money that they don't need to be spending money on. They don't need to spend money on portables for Workman, when you got Dodson, a school a mile away, that is going to have 7 rooms totally emptied for the 2011-2012 school year. That is the issue I have. I don't know about anybody else. But to me, that is just a waste of money, when you could do it a better way, without spending the money.
What really makes me mad is that when a cost cutting measure would be proposed, people would come to the board meetings to explain to the board why that cost savings should be overlooked. Rather than making the tough decisions on what made sense and what didn't, they backed down on pretty much everything. They are using all the money they have in order to keep the status quo for the coming school year. There will be absolutely no room for to save anything in the 2012-2013 school year and the years to come. I did not vote for this board to come in and refuse to make the hard decisions. That is exactly what they were voted in to do.
Remember all the Fiegel parents who went to the school board meetings to drive home the point of how important the sense of community is at Fiegel??? Well, my understanding is that new PTO members were needed for the next school year. Those same parents who begged the school board to save their school, could not be bothered to make a difference within the school. If volunteers don't step up in September, the PTO (and fundraising and all spending of funds raised this past school year) will be put on hold until such time as a full-fledged PTO can be assembled.
You know, I heard about Workman buying portables for their school, through some sources at work, and you know what, I hope that I am wrong that they are not planning on buying portables for the school. And I do know that some schools do use portables for classes, but I don't remember any of the portables being used for art, music, and preschool. But, that's not the point anyway. When I was going to high school, before they made Plymouth, I remember going to two portables for classes, at Salem. One class was for some kind of reading class, and one was for some other class. One portable I had to go to at the high school, I had to go from the second floor of Canton, all the way to the portables, where the tennis courts now stand, when you drive through the bus loop, where the barns used to be. Even at East Middle School, where I work at the bus yard, there's portables. So, I do know that some schools have portables. So, one thing is true, I know that actual classes do go into those portables. Which is not a big deal. And let me ask you one question Maddiex, what do you mean, when you said that if Workman were really overcrowded new registrations would be sent to an overflow school? Don't you think that if a school is overcrowded, new registrations would be sent to a school that is not overflowing? So, can you please explain to me, what you actually mean by that one sentence right there. I just don't understand it.
School board elections have a notoriously low turn out to begin with. You are taking an awfully big grain of salt in assuming that these parents will vote in the election - especially when they have not stepped up to help at the school level on the PTO. As a Fiegel parent (who did not lobby for it to stay open) I can tell you that, based on my conversations with other Fiegel parents, most were ok with it closing, but were simply not vocal about it. No one wanted to get into arguments with the very vocal supporters. I would say that supporters were outnumbered by the silent majority - at least with the parents I come into contact with. I, for one, plan on re-electing no one currently on the board. Their cowardly method of not making cuts when they were needed is not worthy of my vote.
Also,I've been an aunt, a very involved aunt....and I'm also a parent....there's a difference....a big one...not in how much you love them (I can honestly say I love each and everyone my siblings children as my own), but in how much you know and understand......it is rough to disband a school community......these kids identify with their community, their school spirit.....It isn't simply, "Oh just shuttle them down the block a mile." It is a big deal......In this economy, we all have to make adjustments....I'm not saying it should NOT be done....but it is NOT just a simple thing..... And look at the housing values of the schools protected from over crowding.....who is really coddled.