After first saying it would support cutting full-day kindergarten to deal with a district deficit, the Summit Hill School District 161 school board did an about face following a recent showing of opposition to the idea from parents.
The board Feb. 8 voted 4 to 3 to maintain its current full-day kindergarten program and said the option for closing one or two district schools will be put back on the table for possible spending cuts.
Board member Sean William Doyle, who previously supported cutting the program, said he could support maintaining full-day kindergarten if alternative spending cuts could be identified. After further researching the issue and considering the fact that registration for kindergarten is starting, Doyle said he thought it best to leave the program as is for now.
Doyle, George Perros, Stacey Borgens and Denise Lenz voted to maintain the full-day program. Denise Wildeveld, Joy Murphy and Mary Kenny voted for offering only a half-day program, which officials said would cut about $450,000 from the district’s budget.
After the vote, board members requested that the question of closing up to two district schools be placed on the agenda for its next meeting.
Reinstating the program, along with reading specialists who would also have been cut, leaves the district with less than $1 million in spending reductions for next year. The board has said it wants to cut $1.4 million from the coming year’s budget, and a total of $3 million in three years to deal with the district’s declining revenues and increasing expenses.
The majority of parents who spoke before the vote urged board members to reconsider eliminating full-day kindergarten, with some speakers becoming emotional.
“Why do the kids suffer before a stupid building,” said Lisa Olson, a district mother whose son will begin kindergarten in the district next year. Through tear-filled remarks, she told board members she was disappointed in them for their decision and asked them to close a school rather than end the full-day kindergarten program.
Parent Brian Malpeli turned in a petition with about 300 signatures asking the board to postpone eliminating the program until after it pursues alternative spending cuts. “We should not be so quick to take this education away from these kids,” he said. “Create a solution that doesn’t take the education away.”
After the vote, more parents told the board they were disappointed that they changed their minds and that they should have gotten rid of full-day kindergarten.
“You did a disservice to all the students,” said Leyli Rivera.” Your decision was based on one year, you didn’t even consider the other eight years…It seem your decision was based on personal feelings and not on fiscal responsibility.”
Also at the meeting, the school board gave Superintendent Barb Rains direction to move forward with the formation of a superintendent’s advisory committee. The committee will include about 15 community members who will meet monthly with Rains to discuss district issues from finances to curriculum.
Doyle was appointed as the board member liaison and said the committee should satisfy ongoing requests from the community to form a financial committee made up of residents to review the district’s financial issues. Wildeveld was appointed as an alternate liaison.
Rains said two open meetings she held in January to discuss the budget in an open format were successful and she hopes to continue those community driven discussions through the new advisory committee.
“My goal is to build upon that success,” she said.
Rains said she will make applications for the committee available through the district website and hopes to convene the committee within the month. She noted that the committee will discuss a variety of district issues in addition to district finances.
