Harrisburg School Board hears appeals regarding possible cuts
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[With cuts under consideration, the Harrisburg School Board heard appeals from several teachers and advocates Tuesday night to keep programs.
With state payments behind by $654,000 and the possibility looming of flat or reduced state aid next year, the board is preparing to make several program cuts to make up for cash shortfalls. In January, the board took straw-poll votes on several possible cuts. The board will pass resolutions on the final decisions at the March 23 meeting. A special meeting is set March 10 to discuss the list of possible reductions one more time
Music teacher Kathy Hanrahan and art teacher Sara DeNeal asked board members to reconsider combining art and music programs at East Side and West Side. If fine arts are combined one teacher in art and one in music will handle 1,120 students per week, Hanrahan said. Both programs are valuable to children's education, the teachers said.
"I know people have the misconception that music is just singing and art is just drawing, but it's much more than that," Hanrahan said.
In music, pupils learn critical thinking, hand-eye coordination and time management among other skills, Hanrahan said. Students with experience in art and music tend to score higher on the SAT college placement exams, she said.
Art concepts learned in elementary school, such as shapes, sizes and proportion, become foundations of mathematics later, DeNeal said.
"The arts make a child complete; they draw out the individuality in every child," Hanrahan said.
Barb Allen, a retired Harrisburg High School art teacher, said one teacher trying to handle 1,100 students in a week is unmanageable.
"I was the lucky one," Allen said. "The high school art teacher got all the glory because that's the point when young artists begin to produce sophisticated work. But, without the knowledge base, the background and the encouragement of the elementary and middle school teachers, I would have been left holding the bag."
To underscore the point that emphasis on the arts is also cost-effective, Allen listed several success stories from the visual arts program at Harrisburg over the years. Bryan Absher is a blacksmith artist who owns Marvel Forge and Fabrication in Bedford, Ind. James Cirigliano is a designer and Web creator for Animagic Studios. He has done work for the History Channel, National Geographic, Veggie Tales and Coca-Cola. Brad Moore is a middle-school art teacher in Carbondale whose surrealist work was exhibited in the home of H.R. Giger, the famous Swiss surrealist. Moore also designs CD covers for rock bands around the country. Cheryl Flota, a lighting designer, worked on a lighting project at the Smithsonian. Blake Sirach is graduating the University of Virginia in media studies this year. He currently is undergraduate teaching assistant to Hugh Wilson, director and writer of First Wives Club, Police Academy and WKRP in Cincinnati. Jessica Shires, a social worker, uses art with domestic violence and sexual assault victims and people diagnosed with mental illnesses.
Allen also mentioned several other people.
"I want to remind you that this list was short," Allen said.
Employability is a necessary goal of education now, Allen said.
"I want the board to know that if employability is a factor in your decision, the art program is doing it's job. Everywhere you look, in almost every endeavor, every day, an artist is involved," Allen said.
Dean Dittmar, a program adviser with Facilitating Coordination in Agricultural Education, made a case for the agriculture program, which is on the list for possible elimination.
Over 100 students take agriculture each year, Dittmar said. He was very surprised to learn the program could be eliminated, since several Southern Illinois schools are in the process of adding programs, Dittmar said.
Instead of eliminating entire programs, Dittmar suggested the board look into reducing several programs by smaller, manageable amounts so programs like agriculture can survive.
The program includes core curriculum like botany education and agricultural science. Agricultural science could fulfill science requirements for graduation, Dittmar said.
Board members agreed they would like one more special meeting before the March 23 meeting, when cuts must be finalized because the board must give 60 days notice of layoffs.
The board learned the Harrisburg Education Association is ready to talk about a 25 percent reduction in all extra-duty stipends. A session with the HEA is set for 3 p.m. Thursday.
Originally, board members agreed to eliminate assistant coaches, but that turned out to be problematic under the collective bargaining agreement. Cutting extra duty stipends must be done line-by-line rather than across the board, Smith said.
Some exceptions will have to be made even if the board decides to ratify a 25 percent reduction in extra-duty stipends. Teachers may not have their salaries reduced in the last three years before retirement.
A bright spot
The district received $1.6 million in revenue from the state in January, which is more than was anticipated, Smith said. Though the state is still behind in payments to the district, the revenue pushes back the district's date with red ink to June. Smith projects the district will be $262,000 to the negative at that point. That means the district may not have to issue Tax Anticipation Warrants - borrowing against future taxes - until later than anticipated.
Smith had predicted the school district could be facing a $1 million deficit by May.
Nursing
A proposal to reconfigure the nursing program was put off to the next meeting. In the meantime, the board is still accepting bids and applications for vacancies created by the resignations of Toni Mangels and Debbie Sullivan.
Smith had suggested a support staff nurse at West Side, East Side and HMS. Nurses could be rotated to the high school or other schools as needed. However, on Tuesday Smith said the verdict is still out on whether the district should rotate nurses. He suggested the board may want to hold off until he can bring a more solid plan.