With the Jackson municipal building’s meeting room overflowing with more than 300 residents, parents, teachers and students, the line to speak about the Jackson School District’s defeated school budget seemed endless.
The April 27 meeting of the Jackson Township Council saw a parade of speakers address the issue of school spending and the possible closure of the Rosenauer Elementary School.
Jackson school administrators have said that closing the Rosenauer school could be an option based on budget realities for the 2010-11 school year. No final decision about the school has been announced to the public.
The proposed general fund tax levy to support the Jackson School District was defeated by voters in the April 20 school election and the school budget is now under review by the council.
By May 19, the council must certify a tax levy for the school district for the upcoming school year. Based on that amount of money, the members of the Jackson Board of Education will have to make budget decisions for 2010-11.
All five council members said they are not in favor of closing the Rosenauer school or any other Jackson school. They said they want an auditor to provide an independent analysis of the school budget so the council can move forward.
When the meeting was opened to public comment, Jackson School District Teacher of the Year Melissa O’Keeffe noted that since 2003 the school district has lost $10 million due to budget cuts made by the council.
“We have eliminated languages, enrichment courses, literacy intervention, clubs, basic skills and staff,” O’Keeffe said. “We can all agree that these were not educationally sound decisions. When you have to cut, there are consequences.”
She said the board “put off capital projects and agreed to pay-for-play programs for sports and clubs, introduced salary and professional development freezes and eliminated 49 staff members. They decreased athletic supplies [and] reorganized the secretarial, custodial and transportation staffs … . Enough is enough.”
O’Keeffe asked the council members to consider that the education system is the backbone of the community, not simply as it relates to property values, but also to remember that as the education system goes, so goes the town.
Justine Behan, a 20-year teacher at the Rosenauer school, said Jackson’s children will suffer due to so many failed school budgets. She asked if there is a dollar amount that can justify overcrowding a classroom.
“[Today] we have at least four levels of reading instruction going on every day,” she said. “What will happen when we have 30 or more children and six reading groups?”
Resident Charlie Heluk asked if teachers have agreed to freeze their salaries for a year. He was told that issue has not been determined at this point in time.
Resident Ernest Tenzer said he does not want taxes to go up at all and he does not want to see any school closed. He said cuts should be made where children will not suffer.
Rosenauer Principal Michael Raymond said his concern is not only for Rosenauer, but also for the students of Jackson.
“I feel there is a massive game of chicken going on, and the only ones who will lose are the students of Jackson,” he said. “There is no fat left to cut [from the budget]. Millions have [already] been cut.”
Parent Ken Rucki said, “Take a look at these kids. When the Board of Education starts cramming them into trailers, they are not going to get a good education. You are going to close down a great [school] and keep an awesome group of teachers out.”
Scott Weinstein, the parent of two Russian adopted children, said Jackson’s English as a Second Language teachers took his daughters under their wing. Now one child is in the sixth grade and is an honor student and the other child is a high honor student.
Weinstein said he does not want anything to be cut from the school budget and said his daughters are a success story.
Parent Jennifer Miglich said her child needed speech therapy and occupational therapy and now no longer needs occupational therapy.
“She has excelled so much and if you close the [Rosenauer] school, she will regress,” said Miglich. “These kids will be devastated.”
Resident Dan Pekarchik said some individuals may assume people voted no on the 2010-11 budget because the school board was spending too much money, but he said some people voted no on the budget because the board was not spending enough money or spending it in the right places.
“To get better schools we need to spend more money,” Pekarchik said. “I have no children and I have been here for 32 years and have paid taxes, and I would vote to spend more money to educate people.”
Steven Santos, a student, asked if closing the Rosenauer school would lead to additional costs in order to bus the children who would have gone to the Rosenauer school, to a different school.
Parent Dorothy Gasparro said she believes it is important for the council to remember that a majority of the people who went to the polls on April 20 voted no on the $71.6 million general fund tax levy that was proposed by the school board to support a total budget of $135.9 million for the 2010-11 school year.
The tax levy was rejected by an unofficial count of 5,620 no votes to 4,320 yes votes.
“I think the message is clear. I think the message is we are tired with the way our money is being spent,” Gasparro said. “We are not spending the money correctly. I do not want programs or teachers cut. I want my money spent wisely. So if you are going to hire an auditor, then I think it is really imperative for that person to be able to look at the budget and [be] fiscally responsible for that money, and it does not mean closing a school.”
Switlik School teacher Kathy Frasier said 43 percent of the voters said yes to the proposed tax levy and she said their voices need to be heard.
“When they say they are going to make cuts across the board, they cut from the elementary schools, the middle schools and the high schools, and that is not fair to those in the elementary school,” said Frasier. “Every support program has been cut to the bare minimum [and] parents do not realize until they come to the first conference that their child’s basic skills have been cut.
Resident Robert Bastian said adults have a social responsibility to children.
“For those who voted no, we understand that taxes are high and the taxes are high in the state as well, and the state has to make specific cuts because we have been leveraging our future against our present,” he said. “That has been going on forever so that politicians can get elected.”
He said local residents are feeling the burden of decisions that are made at the state level.
“We can’t do anything about the federal government or the state government that has caused us to be in this position,” Bastian said. “Everyone wants to vilify administrators and the school board, but we have to understand that they are trying to do a job too, and no one wants to see a school go down, and they are not using bullying tactics either, because I see what they are doing.”