MEADOW HEIGHTS SCHOOL MAKES DEEP CUTS

PATTON -- The entire art program in the Meadow Heights School District is being eliminated. So is the high school vocational agriculture program and the softball and baseball programs.

A number of positions are also being eliminated and three teachers are being dismissed.

The Meadow Heights Board of Education made these and other cost-cutting moves last week, slashing $106,600 from the rural school district's budget for the coming fiscal year. The new year begins July 1.

The board also made immediate cuts, including cutting a nighttime janitor position, moving a bus mechanic from full time to half time and eliminating summer employment. Those cuts will save $10,200 over the remainder of the 1992 fiscal year, which ends June 30.

Superintendent Tom Waller said Wednesday that the budget cuts are a concern. "I don't blame people for being upset; I'm upset, too."

Said Waller, "You just can't make anybody happy in this situation.

"The students are the ones that are going to suffer," he said.

"The public is hollering and industry is hollering, expressing their dissatisfaction with education," he said. Yet, he said, education is faced with inadequate funding to do its job.

"We know it's a universal situation," said Waller, pointing out that many area school districts are faced with budget cuts this year.

The board's action followed the April 7 election defeat of a proposed tax hike for the financially strapped school district.

School officials had said prior to the election that such cuts would have to be made if voters didn't approve increased funding for the district.

The district was hurt this year by cuts in state funding. Waller said the district's funding reserves will decline by about $100,000 this fiscal year.

Without the budget cuts, the district's balance would fall by another $100,000 in 1992-93. Waller said the district could not afford to keep cutting into its reserve funds.

Waller said some programs being cut, such as vocational agriculture and baseball, could be reinstated if the district can obtain outside funding.

Another possibility is to resubmit the tax issue to voters later this year. "I think it is the overall belief that if we do that, we will have to have overwhelming support from the community between now and June 11."

June 11 is the deadline for getting an issue on the August election ballot, explained Waller.

Elimination of girls softball and boys baseball leaves the district with only one boys sports basketball and one girls sports volleyball.

The school board Monday approved the budget cuts by a 5-1 vote. Waller said the school board members all agreed that cuts had to be made.

The vote by the board reflected some disagreement over specific cuts, he explained. "I think everybody realized there had to be some cuts made."

He said, "We just have to live with it and do the best we can, and the primary goal of ours is to have the least effect on the education of our students, period.

"If we have to get down to just reading, writing and arithmetic, if that's what the community wants, we will do it," said Waller.

Most of the cuts had been recommended by a school district committee comprised of members of the community. In all, school officials looked at possible cuts totaling more than $126,000.

Those cuts would have included reducing kindergarten from a full-day to a half-day program. But Waller said it was decided to retain the full-day kindergarten program.

"I recommended to the board that we could live with $100,000 worth of cuts," said Waller.

The district has two kindergarten classes, with a total of more than 40 students.

Waller said school officials felt it was important to retain full-day kindergarten. "We felt like academically and just educationally speaking that preschool through second or third grade is really the most important aspect of any educational system."

In addition, he said, half-day kindergarten "would have been a real hassle for parents" who are used to having their youngsters in school all day.

"That was our top priority, to put that back in," he said.

"Our second priority would be to reinstate vocational agriculture when, and if, the money becomes available," said Waller.

"We live in a rural community and vocational agriculture is very important. It just came down to (the fact) vocational agriculture is a very expensive program to operate."

The vocational agriculture program involves about 55 students, and costs the district about $35,000 to $40,000 a year, he said.

Some of the students will be able to take vocational agriculture classes at the Perryville vocational-technical school, with the Meadow Heights district paying the tuition cost, Waller said. He estimated the total cost to the district might be $5,000 or $6,000.

Besides scrapping the art, vocational agriculture, softball and baseball programs, cuts for the 1993 fiscal year include eliminating: all summer help, assistant coaching positions, cheerleading sponsors, summer athletic camps, extra-duty contracts for home economics and library personnel, and a secretary position for the superintendent's office.

Other cuts include a $2,000 reduction in administrative salaries and continuing with only a half-time bus mechanic.

Elimination of the entire art program will result in the dismissal of the art teacher. "That only leaves us with one fine art, and that is music," said Waller.

Elimination of the vocational agriculture program means the district will have to dismiss the vocational agriculture teacher, a tenured employee.

Waller said the tenured teacher is not certified in other academic subjects. If he becomes certified to teach another subject, he could be rehired, replacing a non-tenured teacher, the superintendent explained.

The tenured teacher would have first choice of refusal as far as the vocational agriculture position goes, should the program be reinstated, the superintendent said.

The third teacher being dismissed is a physical education instructor, which will eliminate most of the elementary and junior-high physical education program, Waller said.

While assistant coaching positions are being eliminated, the assistant coaches would still have teaching jobs, handling their regular classroom duties, he said.