Jason Michael White, Daily Journal of Johnson County

Mike Yohler and his family moved to the Center Grove area in October because of the schools, he told the school board.

He works on the northwest side of Indianapolis but doesn't mind the commute as long as it means his children can participate in music programs that excel, he said.
But now that school officials have suggested cuts to choir, band and music programs, he is rethinking his decision.

"If I had the slightest inkling I would be standing here today, fighting for the music program, I would have gone to Avon," he said.

Yohler was among about 800 people who attended a school board meeting Monday and one of about 40 parents, residents, teachers and students who spoke to the board about $3.6 million in budget cuts the district is facing. The needed cuts amount to about 8 percent of the district's $43 million general fund.

Board members have not decided what to cut to make up for funding losses from the state. More than 100 ideas have been suggested.

Almost everyone who spoke to board members asked them to avoid cuts to art, choir and band programs, and about 10 people suggested the board trim the number of administrators and consultants instead of teachers.

Others who spoke cautioned the school board about asking the public for more property taxes to prevent layoffs. The board is considering a ballot question, called a referendum, that would let voters decide whether they wanted to pay more in property taxes for the schools.

"Passing a general fund referendum is like giving a blank check to freely spend money without accountability," parent Tom Heermann said.

To pass, the referendum would need to be tightly worded and specify how exactly new property tax dollars would be spent, he said. The public would need assurances that the money would be spent on retaining teachers and programs, he said.

"Our students' welfare is just too important to get this wrong," he said.

Administrators

Center Grove's elementary schools have class sizes as large as 35 students, said Peggy Young, fifth-grade teacher at Center Grove Elementary School. Class sizes would grow even larger if the district eliminated more teaching positions, she said.

"I thought this school corporation prided itself on being one of the most desirable schools in the state," she said. "This won't be the case if more teachers are let go.

"We need to save teachers' jobs and trim off the top-heavy administration."

Teachers, not administrators, work directly with students, so teaching positions should be cut as a last resort only, parent Connie Heermann said.

School officials should rethink the benefits administrators are offered, said Danielle Myers, Center Grove High School science teacher. Administrators are the only employees in Center Grove who pay $1 a year only for their benefits.

"I can't imagine cutting teachers when the administration is so reluctant to take away some of the benefits they enjoy," she said.

Possible cuts to administrative benefits, and the savings of each, include:

• Requiring administrators to pay the same amount for health insurance as teachers, for a savings of about $250,000

• Eliminating severance/retirement benefits that apply to only administrators, for a savings of $72,000

• Requiring administrators to pay the full amount for cancer insurance if they want it, for a savings of $7,700

• Eliminating an extra retirement benefit that applies to administrators only, for a savings of $21,600

• Eliminating the superintendent's annuity, for a savings of $20,000.

"I find it disheartening that anyone in our school district pays $1 for their health insurance," parent Matthew Riggs said.

Cuts to administrative benefits, fees paid to membership organizations and professional development should come before any reductions in teaching staff, said Terry West, a fifth-grade teacher at West Grove Elementary School.

"Please don't eliminate anyone who works directly with the students," she said.

Fine arts

Center Grove High School's choirs have won 17 national titles in the past seven years.

"Through these experiences, kids have learned the fundamentals of teamwork, discipline and the value of hard work," parent Melanie Norman said.

The school district's choir and band programs no longer would have national standing if cuts were made because the programs would not be as good, high school student Nilofer Rajpurkar said.

"We would become a school with an 'all right' fine arts program," she said.

Students achieve excellence in music programs by working hard with guidance from their instructors and teachers, but the achievements would be in jeopardy if music positions were cut, band parent Tim Cummins said.

"We would still have a marching band that would compete," he said. "But that's it. We would just be another band."

Students would not be as well-rounded by the time they graduated, which would put them at a disadvantage when applying for colleges or searching for jobs, said Alyshia Kisor, a 2000 Center Grove graduate.

The success of the high school's music programs starts as early as elementary school, when students learn basic concepts such as pitch and rhythm, parent Janelda Barnett said. Students would not get the foundation of their music education if they lost opportunities to learn music at the elementary school or middle school, she said.

"Music is a language. Just like English and French, you learn it better when you're young," she said.

Center Grove Elementary School teacher Mark Koenig said depriving elementary school students of the opportunity to learn music would be robbing a part of their childhood.

"Music is an important tool for kids to make sense of the world," he said.

Taxpayer money

Center Grove area resident Dick Huber said he understands the basics of school budgets.

He knows each school district in the state has six basic funds, and the fund where Center Grove needs to slash $3.6 million in spending is the general fund used for daily expenses such as salaries, benefits and utility bills only. The district has separate funds used for construction, transportation and paying off debt, and these funds use local property tax dollars, not state revenue.

The district won't save money in the general fund by trimming construction, maintenance and technology costs.

But each fund uses taxpayer money, whether property taxes or sales taxes, Huber said.

If the board is going to ask the public to support a property tax hike to retain teachers and staff, the public is going to want to see the school board cut back on spending in all areas, including areas outside the general fund, he said.

"Make cuts in other funds, in other areas, before you ask for additional money," he said.

Moving out

People moved to the Center Grove area because of the quality of school programs, including academic ones, said Kevin Schuessler, high school music department chairman.

If fine arts programs were cut, he expects parents would move away from the area and property values would drop.

For instance, parent Arnold Haskell said he and his four children moved to the Center Grove area about five years ago after choosing the district over Avon or Carmel.

"It appears we did choose wrong," he said.

His family is in a position where they have to sell their home, and because of the possibility of cuts to fine arts programs, he is considering moving away from the district, he said.