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| Monmouth-Roseville Divided Over Proposed Budget Cuts |
Most agree something needs to be done, but just exactly how to reduce a half-million dollar budget deficit in the Monmouth-Roseville School District is still the cause of some division despite extensive research.
A public forum was held on the proposed cuts Wednesday night. A deficit reduction committee recommended a number of cuts, including getting rid of some programs and coaches, and even closing a school in any of three scenarios presented to the board.
But in two of those scenarios, Roseville Elementary School is targeted as being closed. Roseville parent Doug Metcalf says he's mad that the district is even in this situation to begin with.
"I would like someone specifically to tell me why two of the three plans involve closing Roseville (Elementary School)," Metcalf said. "Specifics, please, and...we're not looking at so many other facilities and so many other options in the Monmouth area."
Several board members cited transportation costs, but neither that nor several other explanations flew with Metcalf, accusing the board having made their minds up already, when all seven said nothing could be further from the truth.
Members of the Roseville Village Board presented the District-238 school board a letter they passed at their meeting a day earlier, urging the board not to close Roseville Elementary School.
Roseville Village Board President Mike Kirby read from the letter.
"We believe that the economic, social, and educational impact of closure would be severely detrimental to the village, and its constituents," Kirby read. "We believe the impact on the students and their families to be particularly detrimental. We also believe Roseville Elementary School to be a facility that offers many valuable servies, and academic, athletic, and social arenas to the community and District 238 as well."
Other parents and even students criticized suggestions to cut at least one music teacher, and some questioned the willingness of the United School District to either support a proposed one-percent sales tax increase for education, or enter into a consolidation feasibility study.
Parents were also warned that a projected nine-percent cut in state education spending could result in a million and a half dollars in cuts.
Superintendent Paul Woehlke will make his final budget cut recommendations at a special meeting Friday night.
(Members of the Monmouth-Roseville School board listen to residents during a public forum Tuesday night at the district's high school. WGIL News Story and Photo by Will Stevenson.) |
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| 03 03 10 by Newsroom |
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