Revenue caps are beginning to tear Unity apart
By Joanne M. Haas

Rhonda McBride boarded an emotional roller coaster when she joined other parents at Unity Elementary School for the spring concert in May.

Irene Haas gets an enthusiastic round of applause as she steps away from the podium during a meeting on a proposal to “reinvent” Unity Elementary School. Haas spoke against plans that she and others believe could lead to the closing of the only school in their community.

As she watched the children perform, she battled thoughts about how this school she knew as a child may fall victim to an unbalanced budget, state laws and overburdened taxpayers.

“We don’t know…,” McBride began, but paused as her voice cracked, “if this will be the last spring concert. And the children won’t have a chance to say goodbye to their school. We don’t know.”

The concert – during which Unity teachers joined to sing “Guardians of a Dream” – came about 14 hours after a meeting of the Colby School Board, when members grappled with options to fix an expected 2000-2001 budget deficit of at least $250,000 created by the state revenue control law that links school spending to enrollment.

“The tension level was so high … People were wringing their hands and leaning forward so far in their chairs they looked like they were praying,” said parent Laurel Shipton, who came to oppose “redefining” the 97-student Unity School to fix the budget.

People trekked home in the middle of the night with no resolution. The board postponed action until the June 19 meeting. However, there was a 4-3 vote not to redefine Unity school’s use. That plan would have changed the school from a kindergarten through 5th grade facility to an early childhood center and bused the elementary children three miles to Colby Elementary School. This is the option that sent this community of about 450 into action.

“When it was 4-3, the crowd just erupted,” Shipton said, adding the fight is on to make sure the decision sticks and is not overturned at the June meeting. “We’re sending thank you notes and nasty letters.” Superinten-dent Mike Young understands their heartfelt opposition. But Young sees the proposal as a way to fill the hole in the approximately $8 million district budget and obey the state revenue cap law while avoiding program cuts and layoffs.

“It is important to them that the school be intact and remain that way,” Young said.

Rhonda McBride

Paul Knautz

Mike Young

Deeply personal
For McBride, it is deeply personal. She is one of seven children in her family who attended Unity. Her 2nd grade teacher has also taught McBride’s three children. And the small class sizes – the smallest being nine – encourage learning.

But Young says to keep Unity as is may mean program cuts.

“We’ll look at it in the June meeting and see if we can make cuts somewhere else and keep this school the way it is,” he said. “But by grouping our children in schools, we can provide the same quality program.”

Number crunching
Based upon the declining enrollment and the state revenue caps, Young said the district may increase its total budget next year by $27,600. About 82% of Unity’s budget is salaries, fringe benefits and contract services. Those costs are estimated to increase about $293,000 next year. After the $27,600, that leaves a hole of $265,000. Since the state revenue cap won’t permit the board to hike the local property tax levy to make up the difference (unless approved in a referendum), Young proposes the district cut at least $250,000.

The proposed Early Childhood Center for Unity would save about $200,000, Young said.

The Unity Elementary School’s current 3rd grade is nine students. The same class at Colby is 33. Separate, three teachers are needed. Merged, the class of 42 may be handled with two teachers for two groups of 21. Since teacher retirements are planned for next year, no teacher layoffs would occur. The merger also would end a bus route and combine library resources.

Under the proposal, early childhood programs and kindergarten for Colby and Unity would be in the Unity School. Five of the six Unity classrooms would be used. Young said there still would be a kindergarten class in Dorchester, the third community in the district.

Unity students who now benefit from the small class sizes and proximity of school to their homes would lose out. “Nine is a great size, certainly better than a real big one. But we’ve got to pay our bills,” Young said.

Other budget-saving options
Parents and community members who oppose the option believe the board is shortsighted in considering these changes.

“I feel that in their (school board) eyes, they’re only looking at one option,” McBride said. McBride has offered several other budget-saving options. The board is considering none yet. These include closing the district’s administration building, replacing principals with teachers-in-charge, slicing field trips and eliminating some sports.

“The whole community is against this,” Shipton said, adding some have threatened to pull their children from the district if Unity School is changed.

Residents feel a strong connection to the school that has been part of their family histories for about 125 years. And they fear the redefinition will lead to the school’s eventual closing as budget problems persist.

“We are worried,” said Paul Johnson, principal of the Unity and Dorchester elementary schools. “There’s really no industry in town. The school is the focus. It is very tough.”

Unity not alone in its struggles
The predicament facing the Colby district is not unlike that faced by districts statewide as declining enrollments and revenue controls bring mandated budget cuts.

The goal of revenue controls, passed by the Legislature and signed into law in 1993 by Gov. Thompson, was to ease the property taxpayers’ load. It has. But school districts now must adjust their budgets as enrollments fluctuate, regardless of the fact that costs such as heating, salaries and services continue to rise.

The Colby district lost about 70 students last year.

“We lost about 11% of our (district) students in the last five years in K-12,” Johnson said. “And what is happening is smaller classes are coming in and larger ones are graduating. Unless we get a large kindergarten class, it will not level out. It will take another eight to nine years (to level out).”

According to Johnson, the district’s enrollment has dropped from 1,305 in 1994 to 1,157 this year. And the trend is expected to continue.

“This year we eliminated one bus. Last year, we eliminated a bus. Those kinds of things have been subtle changes,” Johnson said.

Educators also concerned
Colby Education Association President Paul Knautz said the proposal to redefine Unity also has triggered a range of emotions among the 95 union members.

“It’s mixed. Obviously the ones who are affected the most don’t like it – being the Unity teachers,” said Knautz, who for the last 18 years has taught 1st through 5th grade students with learning disabilities at the Colby Elementary School.

Knautz also credits a lot of the community’s bad feelings to the timing.

“We had just passed a referendum to make some needed building repairs and things like that,” he said. “And then this came up. I think it caught a lot of people by surprise.”

The April $1.4 million referendum was for building maintenance and athletic facilities, making passage of another referendum for next year’s budget unlikely.

Johnson also blames a lot of the district’s problem on the revenue control law.

“That’s what is giving us the problem,” Johnson said. “Our objective is not to cut any services. But as it is, we’re starting down a slippery slope, and we’re going to be looking at belt tightening (again next year).”

Sandy Fults, a Colby High School Spanish teacher who handles grievances for teachers, said the district is in “kind of an interesting situation.”

The Colby School District has three elementary schools – Dorchester to the north, Unity to the south and Colby is between the two. The middle school and high school are in Colby.

The Dorchester school and students are on the other side of Abbotsford which is another school district.

“Our busing costs are very high. A large percentage of our students are bused in.”

Community identity
Added Fults: “I think that is why Unity is so upset. Unity doesn’t have much left. A lot of business and industry isn’t there anymore. So they assume a great deal of identity with their school. If you take our school away, then you almost cease to exist.

With the Colby and Abbotsford school districts so close, the day may come when these two small districts are forced to look at combining resources to survive under the state law.

“Abbotsford and Colby don’t want to talk about it,” Young said, but added, “I think that might happen for a lot of districts.”

Posted May 31, 2000