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Schools

Lafayette School Board Says: 'Here Comes the Pain'; Parcel Tax Talk Gets Heated

More than 100 parents, teachers, and school counselors joined board members to grapple with proposed cuts to the budget in the second of three special meetings.

At the second Lafayette school board special meeting to discuss budget cuts, said maintaining fiscal solvency for the next three years will require hard and unpopular decisions.

“If we make no further cuts,” he warned, “we’re looking at a $1.4 million deficit in 2013-14.”

The grim numbers, presented to the board and well over 100 parents, teachers and school counselors gathered at l on Wednesday night, received close examination and as expected, criticism.

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Brill’s presentation included new money, $138,000 in State Fiscal Stabilization Funds left over from 2008-09, and a bevy of proposed cuts. Reductions to the school calendar, elimination of student services administrative support, cuts to instructional aide and counselor hours, and expenditure reductions in music and science programs were added to budget adjustments proposed at the prior meeting.

Brill stressed that a number of his proposals would require negotiation with the teachers’ unions. Unlike what has occurred in Wisconsin, he said, the Lafayette board works well with the unions and working for the common good is a part of this community.

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A number of people asked what the city was doing to help and, specifically, about shifting redevelopment money to the schools.

“We live in a town that just put a $42 million library on its property, but I ask the question: What are we doing with our City Council members and Steven Falk to come up with redevelopment dollars to fund education?” asked the first speaker to come to the podium.

Tiffany Sullivan, a counselor at Stanley, said research shows that counseling affects student’s attendance, behavior and grades.  She listed the subjects students discuss with her—depression, eating disorders, family crises—while audience members stood silently in support of her position that counseling must not be on the chopping block.

A  majority of parents and faculty echoed her concerns.

Others gravely predicted the consequences of cuts to music and science programs.

“If you eliminate these teachers and programs you’re not going to get them back,” one parent said.

A Stanley Middle School math teacher agreed: “All I know is that my colleagues and I pour our hearts into trying to educate these children. It is demoralizing to see our colleagues cut and I pray that you find some other way.”

Ryan Kapoor, a sixth-grade student in Lafayette, changed the tone but not the message, saying, “I’m excited to see science and band every day for an hour. If it were not for music programs at Happy Valley Elementary, I wouldn’t love the trumpet the way I do. If you are thinking of cutting a period from electives, it’s gonna kill the band program.”

Suggestions to shorten the school calendar gained momentum as the evening progressed. Most voiced regret but a conviction that reducing days would be far better than losing programs.

After two hours of public commentary, the board members held its own discussion. 

Brill explained that the parcel tax, which some said should have been increased from $176 to $500 or more — and even as much as $5,000, suggested by one gentleman who had to be gaveled into silence after proclaiming the meeting a “consultant driven, manipulative dog and pony show”—had been set with an eye on passage.

“The risk involved if this does not pass is profound,” he warned.

Board members agreed with the public that counseling should not be reduced and looked for other ways to lower the projected budget. Instructional aides, grounds maintenance, technology specialists and eliminating general music for grades 1-5 were mentioned as alternatives.

Brill agreed to make changes to his proposals that reflected public and board requests for more detailed breakdowns of line items.

The board decided reinstatement plans, while necessary and an important aspect of making cuts, might give false hope to the public and should be delayed until reduction decisions are completed at the final meeting March 9.

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