At the last school board meeting on Thursday, March 20, it was revealed that District #739 faces a $257,000 deficit that mounted over the last school year. To avoid serious financial problems, the board realized that cuts would have to be made. At the meeting, proposals were approved to make cuts in programs, classes and personnel. About 50 parents attended the meeting with their biggest concern being the potential cut of noon recess at the elementary school. While explaining the cuts, elementary school principal Jon Clark noted, “One of the most controversial issues is that the students won’t have a noon recess. If the students need a recess break, it will be up to the teachers to coordinate this.” As a replacement for recess, students, as a whole grade, would attend gym sessions five days a week. Clark explained that the gym periods “would give teachers [in the same grade] a common prep time, which will be beneficial to the teaching staff.” Many parents in attendance questioned this cut. Karen Powell raised the point that the children would not be guaranteed recess time. “We have good teachers and some of them will take the kids out, but what about the other teachers?” Powell also said that she didn’t like the fact that the “kids could not do what they wanted during this time,” since it would be teacher-directed. Parent Kim Hurrle said she didn’t understand why recess was being cut, since the school would have to add the expense of a new assistant for gym. The board explained that this went along with the cuts to the music and LiPS programs. Superintendent Scott Thielman reassured the parents that he has seen this done and it can work. “It can be done effectively, it is just something that has not been done here.” Hurrle then asked if there could be an alternative to cutting recess. To this Thielman said, “Sure, plan B is bigger class sizes.” Clark added, “The only place left to go [for budget cuts] is the classroom.” Parent Candy Stewart-James asked whether all of the students would be able to use the gym equipment at the same time. The board explained that the this would all be organized by the physical education teachers who may end up splitting kids into different stations. Kris Nelson was one of the few parents to speak in favor of the recess cut. She said, “I have three boys, and no one needs recess more than them, but I would cut anything not to change the class size.” Nelson also mentioned that her family open-enrolls in the Kimball district, and one of the main attractions of the district was the small class size. “I am not crazy about cutting recess, but it is an option.” Why cuts need to be made The state recently informed Thielman that District #739 is in danger of being put on the state’s Statutory Operating Debt (SOD) watch list. To avoid placement on this list, the state informed Thielman that cuts have to be made now. Upon hearing this information, Thielman took immediate action to form a budget advisory committee. This group was made up of school board representatives, and community members John Gohmann and Alice Robinson. Thielman also asked elementary principal Jon Clark, high school principal Karen Imholte and activities director Dave Traurig to pinpoint areas where cuts could be made. How the district got here At the beginning of the meeting, Thielman explained District #739’s fund balance. In 1997-98, the district had $934,929 in this balance. This fund grew in the 1998-99 school year to $1,045,864. The fund has been decreasing since with $1,040,317 in 1999-2000, $654,448 in 2000-01, and $161,809 in 2001-02. (See chart 1.) Part of this deficit can be attributed to Kimball’s declining enrollment. Thielman pointed out the number of staff has been increasing while the number of students is decreasing (refer to charts 2 and 3). Thielman indicated that District #739 had 978 students enrolled in the 1997-98 school year with 53 licensed staff members. In 1998-99, enrollment decreased to 925 students, while staffing increased to 55.5 staff members. There were 915 students in 1999-2000 with 56.74 staff members. In 2000-01, the number of students dropped again to 890, while staff in-creased to 59.5. Last year, there was a decline in students and staff, with 847 students enrolled and 52.5 staff members. However, this number is still close to the 53 staff members that the district paid in 1997-98 when about 130 more students were enrolled. Thielman also pointed out that last year’s school board approved operating at a budget with a $139,926 deficit for this school year. When taking over as superintendent, Thielman went through the school’s budget line by line and found about $117,000 more of debt. Together, this money equals the District’s $257,000 deficit. Proposed budget reductions Clark, Imholte and Traurig presented the budget committee’s proposed cuts to their respective jurisdictions (see chart 4). Clark started the discussion by explaining what would happen at the elementary school. He said the committee looked at the size of the school classes, and decided that keeping class sizes small was a high priority The group decided to offer two sections of each grade, except first and third grade. These grades would have three sections since the classes have more students. “We are trying to maintain 20 kids per class,” said Clark. Clark also explained that the elementary music program would be cut, students would only have one 30-minute class once a week. The elementary school will also cut 1.2 LiPS positions, which is a phonemic awareness program. This program will be picked up by classroom teachers and incorporated into the existing language/arts curriculum. Three “assurance of mastery” assistant positions will be eliminated. Hours will be cut from the media center assistant position and a kindergarten classroom aid will be eliminated. Custodial time will be reduced by four hours in the evening. The school also proposed cutting 1.5 hours of nursing time each day, but wanted the board’s input on this. At the high school, Imholte said that they will have a reduction in their teaching staff by 2.3 licensed positions. The school has decided to eliminate the Dean of Students position as well as one seventh-grade section since the incoming sixth-grade class will be smaller than this year’s seventh-grade class. The high school will also cut some of the elective classes with lower enrollment. Imholte said, “Most likely, these cuts will happen in the business and Family and Consumer Science (FACS) departments.” Imholte explained that there will also be cuts to extended teacher programs, which are contracts that go into the summer for FFA and FCCLA programs. The high school will also eliminate the leadership development position. This was first started as a Minnesota grant program but was absorbed by the school when the initial funding ran out. The school will also put 10 paraprofessionals into nine positions. One secretarial position will be cut by 20 days. The high school will also make cuts on supplies and will put textbook purchases on hold until the new state standards are determined. The school intends to reduce the number of trips that the FFA organization can take. In the extracurricular activities, Traurig explained that every activity would be cut by 45 percent on miscellaneous supplies, including items like balls, equipment and scoreboards. Traurig said athletics will reduce the number of supervisors at fall and winter events. The girls’ gymnastics program will be cut along with the boys’ cross country program to comply with Title IX (which says a school must offer an equal amount of sporting opportunities for boys and girls). It was also proposed to cut the cheerleading program and eliminate coaches in ninth-grade football and junior high wrestling. Traurig noted that he will also take a closer look at transportation and put a freeze or reduction on the purchase of uniforms. Other items the district proposed were to sell the community education building (currently housed adjacent to the high school) and move the program into t
he high school. To provide storage space area for all of community education’s equipment, Thielman explained that the school could purchase supplies to construct a pole barn by the high school premises. To save on construction costs, the barn would be built by the high school construction class. Temporary approval The board (minus Jerome Kuechle who was absent) unanimously consented to approve the above budget committee’s proposals, with one amendment. After some discussion, the board chose to save the cheerleading program, as 25 girls were involved with the program and it was a relatively inexpensive program for the school at $800, after activity fees were paid. The board noted that the program was needed to increase and build up school spirit at sporting events. Even though action was taken to approve the proposed budget cuts (excluding cheerleading), Superintendent Thielman explained, “If there need to be amendments, we can make them at the next board meeting.” Due to the difficulty of the situation and the sensitivity of the subject, the board thanked the many people for turning out at the event. School Board Chair Dorothy Kersten said she was very proud of the comments brought in by the public. “I think I know why the kids here are so kind and respectful.” She thanked the audience for their participation and encouraged people to attend other school board meetings. The board said that comments on any of the above proposals can be directed to any of its member. To obtain a list of current school board members, contact the Kimball District Office at 398-7700 ext. 330. The District also invites the public to attend their public forum meetings to discuss reductions at the elementary school level and in the high school. The elementary forum will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, April 7, in the elementary gym. The high school forum will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 8, in the cafetorium.
