Educators face tough decisions

Facing roughly a half-million dollar

shortfall in next year’s operating budget and tasked with

consolidating schools with practically no funding, the Libby School

Board has a tough job in coming weeks and months.

Going by the mantra the district has

followed over the past couple of decades – cut, cut, cut – the

board will hear school administrators’ advice at its Feb. 21

meeting concerning which programs and staff positions should be

eliminated in order to fall within the budget for another year.

The board is expected on Monday to

decide whether to close the aging Asa Wood elementary building and

merge schools this fall or to operate Asa Wood for an additional

year to allow more time to plan for consolidation. The decision

will be based on whether administrators can feasibly cut enough

expenditures at the three schools to meet the projected budget.

As Libby’s enrollment has shrunk, so

has its budget. The district has closed schools over the years and,

in the past decade, cut about 60 staff members. Last year the board

eliminated the equivalent of 10 full-time teaching positions, but

saved many of its programs through numerous grants secured by the

district.

At a work session this week, the board

agreed that running another bond election this year – which was

voted down by a 61-39 margin – would not, most-likely, be

successful. The $20 million bond issue was put out to voters in a

mail-ballot election from Jan. 14-Feb. 8. The money would have

funded consolidation renovations and additions, as well as upgraded

the middle and high schools so that they will be functional for the

next 20 years or more.

“Last week my thoughts were that we

should (re-run the election), but after spending the weekend

talking to people the consensus I got was that ‘You’d be wasting

your time,’” trustee Ellen Johnston said at last Monday’s work

session.

The board discussed trying to pass a

mill levy, which would ask taxpayers for a budget boost to close

the shortfall. Trustee Bruce Sickler said it wouldn’t hurt to try

while trustee Tony Rebo said it would most-likely fail and that the

district can’t depend on it. A former school board member in

attendance, Gary Huntsberger, agreed with Rebo.

“You’re in an atmosphere where I don’t

think you could pass anything,” he said.

Libby High School Assistant Principal

Jim Germany suggested making decisions about a possible mill levy

and the timeline of closing Asa Wood at next Monday’s meeting after

administrators present their suggested budget cuts.

“There are some cuts that can be made

that will hurt, and it will cost staff members,” he said. “Then

eventually once those cuts are made and it’s down to the very last

penny, then we’ll know what a number is (the shortfall) and then

you’ll know whether or not you need to run a levy.”

If the numbers won’t work, he said,

shut down Asa Wood this summer and begin the consolidation

process.

The board appeared split on the

consolidation timeline – wishing to wait a year, but unsure how to

budget the cost of operating the three schools. Asa Wood Principal

Scott Beagle said that with three retirements surfacing this year,

the cuts may not have to be as deep as originally thought, assuming

the district can absorb those positions.

Because the bond failed, the district

will have to empty out its maintenance fund of less than $1 million

to take care of pressing needs – such as a leaky roof – as well as

to pay for minimal renovations to move kindergarten through third

grade into the middle school and seventh through eighth into the

high school.

Rebo said it doesn’t matter if the

schools consolidate this year or next year because the amount of

money left over to renovate will be so small that little work and

planning would be needed to spend it.

School administrators and the board

appeared to agree that the atmosphere is not good enough to run the

bond again this spring, but that it should be put up for a vote

again next year or within a few years. After consolidation, the

middle and high school buildings will still be 40-45 years old and

in need of repairs, they said.

“We have to run a bond in the next

couple of years to say, ‘Buildings are still in bad shape, folks,’”

Rebo said.

Principals said that other school

districts routinely ask local taxpayers to supplement its budget

through bonds and levies and suggested that the Libby voters have

been spoiled over the years. The district has quietly “begged,

borrowed, stolen and cut” to close its budget gap, LHS Principal

Rik Rewerts pointed out, and now the district needs taxpayer

help.

Trustee Lee Disney appeared to sum up

the board’s sentiment when he said that although the district will

consolidate buildings without carrying out the planned renovations

and additions, the work will have to be done in the future through

a bond.

“We’re going to stuff everybody in

(now), but if we want the plan to succeed, we’re still going to

need that amount of money down the road,” he said. “So we need to

re-educate the people that voted no and we need to still have the

plan fine-tuned. And in the meantime, we need to move forward with

what we got to do to make the thing be within the budget.”