I attended the three meetings the school board held to inform, present, and decide the budget cuts for the 2004-05 school year; each meeting I walked away upset and saddened at what is happening to our educational system right here in Kimball. A $260,000 deficit is what it is, this time with critical staff and program reductions, and a small cut to district staffing. All these cuts drastically affect the quality of our children’s education. In the future, there will be more major cuts with the declining enrollment. I personally don’t see how we are going to get our enrollment up when we make cuts like these. What do we have to offer? We are losing such great teaching staff and programming. What makes me more upset is when I think back to last year’s $287,000 deficit when Superintendent Thielman explained how we had gone from a large sum of money less than 10 years ago to this large deficit (Thielman was not superintendent for the Kimball school district during those years). He showed us how the declining enrollment and zero cuts to teaching staff had supposedly wasted the money away. The school board meets every month, and it is part of their agenda to keep track of how we are doing on money. Didn’t any red flags go off with the people we elected to serve in these offices? I am not pointing fingers, but I think it is only fair that an investigation into how the money was spent be completed. A $300,000 levy most likely will be proposed for our school district this fall. Would you support paying more taxes until an accountability of past figures is done? I know of at least four families that are leaving the Kimball school district next fall. How will we get new students in when those who already live in this community are leaving? Get involved, talk to a board member and get answers to these financial decisions that are affecting our community and our children. Barbara Vigoren, Kimball
