FORTVILLE — Faced with a severe financial dilemma, the Mt. Vernon school board on Monday approved a pack of significant cost-cutting changes to the district’s schools. 

    The vote was 4-1 with member Bob Hiday the only dissenter. 

    The changes include a temporary two-year closure of Fortville Elementary School; staff and students would move to Mt. Vernon Intermediate School. That move triggers a temporarily suspension of the intermediate school program. 

    Also, the board approved essentially flip-flopping the hours that elementary and secondary students attend school. Elementary students will now have the early hours. 

    “We were in a tight crunch,” school board member Paul Riddle explained. “We could blame whoever we want to blame, but it won’t do any good. This (proposal) has some things in it that we don’t like. But we’ve got to give our children the best education we can with the money we have.” 

    Originally, the proposed changes from Superintendent Dr. Bill Riggs, which altogether are projected to save a total of $1.5 million, shortened the school day to close to the state-required minimum. The school board added one hour to the week for elementary students. 

    Children at Fortville, McCordsville and Mt. Comfort elementaries will attend school from 7:45 a.m. to 2 p.m., giving students six hours and 15 minutes in class and, according to administrators, even more instructional time with teachers. 

    The closing of Fortville Elementary School weighed heavily on the board. Hiday pointed to burgeoning state legislation that could allow charter schools to usurp closed down public school buildings after two years. 

    “I’m very concerned with some of the language coming out of the legislature,”
Hiday said. 

    Riggs was optimistic that Fortville Elementary would remain in the hands of Mt. Vernon, since MV could maintain control up to three years with a commitment to use the building. Any charter school interested in purchasing it would now be required to pay the operating costs. 

    Hiday was also not convinced that flip-flopping the schedules and shortening the school day were the right moves, and he worried about its possible impact on test scores at the elementary. 

    “I’m just very fearful of this switch,” he said. 

    While administrators and elementary principals said they understood the negative impact and consequences of the time switch for district parents, they said it would be better for students. 

    “We really have spent time looking at the instructional day,” Fortville Elementary principal Susan Bennett said. “We believe that students will have time for that reading block we’re looking for. I believe it can work for us.” 

    McCordsville Elementary principal Dan Denbo agreed. 

    “In reality, we’re getting more instructional time now,” he added. 

    The school board’s moves will keep current fourth grade students in their current elementary for fifth grade rather than moving on to intermediate school. The middle school will become home to sixth and seventh graders in the fall and eighth graders will attend classes at the high school. 

    In the fall of 2011, kindergarten teachers will be responsible for meeting state standards for art and music. First- through fifth-grade teachers will be assigned as tutors for children struggling with reading. 

    The high school band director will also lead the eighth grade band and general music classes. The middle school band director will be assigned the sixth and seventh grade band as well as the general music classes at the middle school. Band and choir will not be offered as a daily class for fifth-graders. 

    According to Riggs, MV will continue to partner with the Family Y to provide physical education classes. Art and music classes will still be offered in grades 1 through 5. 

    The next step for MV administration is to identify which teachers will lose their jobs through a Reduction in Force. That information will be forwarded to the teachers union and then subject to school board approval in April. 

    The fact that Riggs’ previous cost-cutting proposal had been projected as an “all-or-nothing” plan did not sit well with parents or school board members. 

    Items that were removed will be addressed later, the board said. 

    Among items still to be addressed: permitted use of facilities, driver training, summer school outsourcing of custodial and maintenance services, payto-participate extracurricular activities, transfer students and salary and insurance. 

    “(Mt. Vernon) is being forced to do a lot of things we don’t want to do,” board President Kevin Burk said. “Everything we do at Mt. Vernon is for the kids. This is not what’s best, (but these are choices) we have to make. Hopefully, in a few years, the economy will come back and we can get back to business as usual.”
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