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12-13-2001

Our View

Faced with a multimillion-dollar deficit, it may be a good idea for the Duluth school district to raise athletic fees, close three elementary schools, charge parents for all-day kindergarten, go from a seven- to a six-period day in high school, defer new textbook adoptions, increase the walking distance for kids and more.

But the administration neither provided numbers that would indicate potential savings nor educational effects for each of 31 cost-cutting items presented at Tuesday's special School Board meeting. All the School Board and the public received was a one-page handout that you see reproduced below.

Yet next Tuesday the School Board is being asked to vote on each of those 31 items without any information on cost savings or educational effects. This is no way to run a business.

Superintendent Julio Almanza said at the meeting that he wants to preserve some "flexibility'' for the administration and doesn't want to be bound to specific numbers.

Surely it's possible to present "ballpark'' figures and to get a sense from the School Board what cost-savings items would be more acceptable than others -- and still preserve flexibility as numbers change! Surely there's a happy medium between providing information down to the 1/100 of a cent and providing no financial or educational information at all!

Which of the 31 items save a lot of money and which save just a little? Which have the greatest effect on the educational program and which have the least?

For example, going from a seven- to a six-period day in high school. We know it requires fewer teachers, and thus, costs less. How much less? And what educational effects, positive and negative, would accrue? On the positive side, six longer periods of 54 minutes versus seven periods of 48 minutes deepens students' learning in the courses they do take. On the negative side, it reduces the number of elective options for students.

Six-period days used to be the norm in most secondary schools. But during the 1960s and 1970s, seven-period days came along as schools expanded elective offerings and academic departments went to greater specialization of courses. The seven-period day requires more staffing, and thus, is a more expensive model. Give us some numbers.

What about closing schools? The main financial advantage of closing a school is in the reduction of high maintenance costs (heating, lighting) and major capital expenditures on such things as roofs, windows, boilers and curtain walls. The number of full-time-equivalent positions for teacher, library technician and school secretary positions would be reduced. Some charges for phones and computer networking would be eliminated. What is the approximate annual dollar savings?

Educationally, is there enough space in neighboring schools to provide equal educational opportunities and not create an educational disadvantage for any students?

For each and every one of the 31 items on the potential cut list, School Board members and the public deserve to know a dollar range in potential savings and educational effects, positive and negative.