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2-7-2001

Board backs school cuts

By Kate Bramson
News Tribune staff writer

Facing a possible budget shortfall of $13.49 million over the next two years, the Duluth School Board reached consensus Tuesday evening that members are willing to close schools -- with some caveats -- if that's what it takes for the district to stay in the black.

``I see no evidence that the School Board is likely to shirk its fiscal responsibility,'' member Harry Welty said.

While the board did not vote at its four-hour planning session, nearly three hours into the meeting board members urged administration to begin analyzing what savings the district could make by:

reducing the seven-period day for middle and high school students to a six-period day;

reducing the number of facilities in the district;

making other budget cuts across divisions;

using some of the district's reserve funds;

freezing capital outlay expenses; and

pursuing other options.

In light of Gov. Jesse Ventura's proposed budget, the district faces a greater shortfall than has been reported, Greg Hein, the district's business services director, told the board. The district must cut $13.49 million over the next two years in the worst-case scenario, Hein said.

``Unfortunately, I would recommend we have to go through the budgeting process with the worst-case scenario,'' Hein said.

Tuesday's meeting drew about 26 people, including three children, parents, PTA members, teachers and administrative staff. No members of the public have yet attended the board's long-range planning sessions.

Two hours into the meeting, the number of people in the audi- ence had dwindled to eight and near the end, just three were in the audience.

Closing schools discussed

Board member Bob Mars was the first to push the issue of closing buildings at Tuesday's meeting, but after he did, other board members voiced varying levels of agreement.

``We're simply operating too many buildings,'' Mars said. ``... It seems to me we have to face up to that, and promptly.''

While the district has 20 buildings -- the same number as when there were about 15,000 students eight years ago -- it has 12,140 students and is projected to have about 10,800 students in five years.

Board members said more than once that they want to stick to an earlier goal that the district be fiscally responsible.

``To follow on Bob Mars' comments, we can talk about this and we can talk about this and we can talk about this, but if we postpone this too much longer, we're looking at a deficit,'' board member Mike Akervik said about the choices before the board.

Akervik and others said it's time to accelerate the district's long-range planning after pursuing the issue for about a year.

Some board members acknowledged that accelerating their planning will leave less time to include staff and the community than the board had anticipated, but board members stressed that they need to bring people into the planning.

Member Mary Glass LeBlanc, who said she has been involved with school closings from a parent's perspective and a board member's perspective, said she wants to know where the district is going beyond just closing schools.

``Closing schools in order to provide a cushion for the future, that's where I have a problem,'' she said.

Board member Pati Rolf said that if the district needs to close buildings to maintain or increase programming, she would support that.

``I better see middle-school curriculum in Woodland if you're going to move my elementary school student out of her school,'' Rolf said. ``I just hope we have it laid out.''

And board member Laura Condon said she won't agree to reduce the number of facilities if it means 35 students in elementary school classes. She said she could support closing schools if the district maintains programs.

Parents, board want details

As administration begins examining today which schools it would make sense to close and how the district could move to a six-period day in its middle and high schools, some parents at Tuesday's meeting said they want to know how the district makes its choices.

``How did they come up with the schools?'' Tina Neils, whose oldest child attends Grant Elementary School, asked during a break in the meeting about five schools that were named in a Jan. 3 document as some the district could consider closing. ``How did they choose? Is there some sort of lottery?''

The elementary schools mentioned for possible closing in that document are Birchwood, Grant, Lester Park, Piedmont and Rockridge.

Carolyn Ernest, who has three children at Grant, agreed with Neils and went a step further.

``How are they going to keep smaller class sizes in those (remaining) schools?'' she said.

Condon pushed for more detail from administrators on how reducing the number of class periods that middle and high school students take would affect the choices students have.

Reducing class periods would reduce the number of classes students could take.

At Tuesday's meeting, the board also examined documents created by the Arrowhead Regional Computing Consortium, a joint powers school district that does financial work and analysis for the districts in the region.

While the state is facing a 14.7 percent decline in 0- to 4-year-olds from 1995 to 2025, the Arrowhead region faces a decline in that age bracket of 27.6 percent, according to Minnesota Planning data presented in the ARCC document.

The board set its next long-range planning session for Feb. 27.