School Shuffle is Losing

By Andy Hall, The Wisconsin State Journal

Apr. 22–A controversial plan to close and consolidate schools on Madison’s North and East sides appears dead a week before the Madison School Board’s self- imposed deadline for determining $7.9 million in spending reductions.

Four of the board’s seven members plan to vote against Superintendent Art Rainwater’s proposal to save $1 million by closing tiny Lindbergh Elementary and reshuffling hundreds of other students in elementary and middle schools, according to interviews with all board members.

The plan could be revived, however, if board members fail to find a comparable amount of cost savings elsewhere in the district’s 2007-08 budget.

Most board members generally support the three other largest reductions proposed by Rainwater.

Those measures, estimated to save $4.6 million, would:

Change the way services are delivered to students with speech and language problems

Increase class sizes in kindergarten through third grade at seven elementary schools

Increase class sizes in art, music, physical education and other classes known as “specials.”

The board plans to vote on the reductions April 30.

The cuts are needed because the district’s expenses, like those of most school systems in Wisconsin, are rising faster than the state’s revenue limits allow the School Board to raise local property taxes.

“All the cuts we’re making right now are bad ones,” board President Johnny Winston Jr. said. “They have a drastic impact on our district.”

Winston was the only board member who insisted he doesn’t know how he plans to vote on the proposal to close and consolidate schools.

He attended Lindbergh for five years and treasures memories of the place, such as the time he used a new pair of cowboy boots to “ski” outside the school. Although Winston earlier expressed a willingness to close or consolidate schools to balance the budget, he doesn’t plan to try to persuade his colleagues to support the proposal.

“If four board members are saying they’re not going to do that, then that’s the way (it’s going) to go,” Winston said Saturday after being informed that members Carol Carstensen, Lucy Mathiak, Maya Cole and Beth Moss said they oppose the measure.

Kobza and Silveira

Vice President Lawrie Kobza and member Arlene Silveira support the proposal — to save money but also, they said, to improve the quality of education.

After touring Lindbergh, 4500 Kennedy Road, Kobza and Silveira became convinced its 243 students would be better off if they joined 248 students a mile to the east at Gompers Elementary, 1502 Wyoming Way. The expanded elementary school would take over the space now occupied by Black Hawk Middle School, next door at 1402 Wyoming Way.

Lindbergh, Kobza and Silveira said, is well-run but has too few student bathrooms and lacks space for such things as physical education classes and lunch. A bigger school, they said, would be more efficient and would offer students more classes and opportunities.

“This will be controversial,” Kobza said. “My personal view is that . . . after things settle down, we’ll provide a better educational opportunity than we are doing now.”

The plan, known as option “G,” would shift the Black Hawk students to O’Keeffe and Sherman middle schools. Two paired elementary schools, Lapham and Marquette, would merge at Lapham. Students in four alternative programs would move from rented spaces to Marquette.

Kobza acknowledged that some families — no one knows how many — would be so upset by school changes that they would move to another school district or transfer their children to another public or private school.

Even after the changes, though, Madison’s district remains competitive with nearby school systems, Kobza said, noting that many suburban districts have relatively large class sizes.

The Doyle budget

Mathiak and other members who oppose the closure contend that the disruptions — including the loss of goodwill among parents and staff — aren’t worth the savings.

After implementing this round of cuts, board members plan to begin seeking voters’ support for a February referendum that would allow the district to impose higher taxes to stave off deeper cuts in future years.

They’re also pushing for adoption of Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget, which could boost the state’s support of special- education funding in Madison by about $1 million next year.

Recent public hearings attended by dozens of people are helping drive the debate. For example, board members have been persuaded to revisit the way the district delivers services to students with speech and hearing problems.

Currently, students whose only disability is a speech and language problem are assigned both a speech and language clinician and a special education teacher. Under the recommendation, the students would no longer be part of the caseload of a special education teacher, just a clinician.

Winston, Kobza, Silveira and Cole said they intend to support the measure, which would save an estimated $2.2 million. Carstensen and Moss were undecided. All members said the district would restore funding if students are being harmed.

Mathiak, however, said she’ll vote against the proposal because she thinks it would illegally deprive students of services.

The strings program

Rainwater’s proposal to increase some class sizes — for a savings of $1.5 million — is winning support from all members except Moss. However, some plan to suggest that the cut be scaled back.

The measure that would increase class sizes in “specials” — for a savings of $860,500 — won support from Winston, Kobza, Silveira and Moss, although again, some members want to reduce the size of the cut.

Most board members predicted that the district’s fifth- grade strings program, slated for elimination to save $288,000, would be saved.

Carstensen, the board’s longest-serving member, said this round of cuts is the worst she has faced since she was first elected in 1990 because the district’s commitments to small class sizes and neighborhood schools are under attack.

Among her hopes, Carstensen said, is that the board will free up significantly more money by increasing projected savings in salaries — as highly paid employees retire or resign and are replaced with lower- paid employees — and a variety of routine purchases.

Several board members said they’re preparing amendments, but aren’t ready to discuss them publicly.

Carstensen said she plans to seek significantly higher fees from students playing sports, a move that might generate more than $600,000 in revenue but would be controversial.

At least two other members favor smaller increases in fees for athletics, textbooks and extracurricular activities.

Carstensen revealed she’s also working on a bold plan to balance the district’s budget: “I continue to buy lottery tickets whenever the Powerball jackpot is over $100 million.”

What’s next:

School Board members will discuss the 2007-08 budget in a meeting at 5 p.m. Monday at the district’s headquarters, 545 W. Dayton St.

Members’ amendments to Superintendent Art Rainwater’s proposed cuts are due Tuesday.

The board will vote on the $7.9 million in cuts in a meeting at 5 p.m. April 30 at the district’s headquarters.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Wisconsin State Journal

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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