Mountain View considers faculty cuts

BY PAT FARNELLI

Mountain Viewschool board reviewed two proposals for managing next year’s budget deficit by changing the school schedule, eliminating and reducing programs, and cutting back on staff.

A decreasing student population trend in the district is another reason to do more with less. Since the 1997-98 school year, when there were 1,546 students attending the Mountain View schools, the number of students has declined by approximately 40 children per year, by average.

Based on the number of live births, enrollment numbers for next year are expected to decline from this year’s population of 1,149.

The elementary school needs to have 48.5 professionals to fill the teaching and special positions deemed necessary; the junior/senior high school needs 46.

Some of the positions being considered for cuts are: one guidance position, one tech shop area, journalism 1-4, conversational Spanish and French, and Latin. The consumer science program may be reduced.

The autism class may be eliminated, and its students switched to a second life skills class.

“Please do what’s best for our children,” responded many in the visitor seats.

Several spoke about their concern that large class sizes will reduce teacher effectiveness. A sixth grade class has 29 students, and there are seven or eight classes in the junior-senior high school that have 30-31 students.

The fifth grade class for students on the lowest math skill level has 30-31 students, it was reported, and although there are three professionals in the room (a teacher, a Title 1 math teacher, and a learning support staff person), there are too many students to allow this model to be effective, said one of the teachers.

Jeff Smith ofJessupTownshipasked if anything had been done to reduce expenditures or generate income, besides faculty furloughs.

Superintendent Andrew Chichura said that switching to volunteer assistant coaches, eliminating the activity bus run, and other cost-cutting measures had resulted in ending last year with a surplus.

Chichura introduced the district’s new  business manager, Janice Finnochio.

Chichura presented a powerpoint  of programs which could possibly be cut.

He said, “The easy cuts have already been made.”

Several measures being considered are an eight period day with teacher prep periods after dismissal, which will extend the school day for teachers by 15 minutes; two lunch periods instead of three, within a 75 minute time frame; a split period four.

The district’s aid ratio is  now below 50, Chichura said, when it was above 60 a few years ago, so he expects to see a reduction in Title 1 monies coming into the district, although there seems to be an increased proportion of economically needy children in the district.

The board interviewed the single candidate for the vacant school board seat representing Lathrop Township. Corinna Kinney, aMountain Viewgraduate and lifelong resident of the district, said that she has a good grasp ofLathropTownshipand the school district in general, and is someone familiar to most residents. “People feel comfortable to come to me with their concerns,” she said.

However, the interview hit a stumbling block when Kinney was asked about her school car contract. Kinney said that the contract, which is in her name, is considered a family contract, and that her husband John actually does the transportation of students to school. She noted that a school board member’s wife has a bus contract, and asked if it could be arranged for her family to keep the contract, because it is a necessary part of their income.

According to policy, this could not be guaranteed, and the job would have to be put up for bid, she was told. “Then it would have to be withdrawn….We can’t afford to do without that income,” Kinney said. She later asked if she could transfer the contract to her husband, and resign it for herself.

“Can someone override the policy?” she asked, and requested a closed session with the board, which was denied. “You can’t override state law,” Chichura said.

The bill list provided was questioned concerning several checks written for students attending schools outside the district, and particularly check 6544, for the NEIU 19’s Early Intervention program for two students, at $10,071. Chichura explained that these students were identified as developmentally delayed, and opted to stay for another year in the IU rather than attend kindergarten.

The district is then obligated to pay for the continued services in these cases, Chichura said. He said that these units were not in the contract recently signed by the IU, and are not part of normally contracted services. He said that there may be a second bill in June for these students.

The NEIU 19 budget was reviewed, and several voiced issues with the number of highly paid specialists and the $143,000 cut in state funding that will have to come from the district.

No vote was taken as it was a work session.