Asa Wood to close this summer

Parents voiced apprehension. School

principals balked.

Libby superintendant Kirby Maki

guaranteed that it could be done, and some pointed out that it only

made fiscal sense.

In response to the district’s dire

financial situation, the school board on Monday voted, 5-2, to

expedite the consolidation of the student body into two campuses by

closing the district’s last remaining elementary building this

summer.

The board also looked over extensive

budget cut proposals – generated by Maki and building

administrators – that will be considered in the coming months once

the district gets a better picture of the funding available for

next school year.

The utility savings – fuel oil,

electricity and garbage collection – of operating one less building

will add up to about $200,000, Maki estimated. It will help close a

shortfall projected to be $450,000 at best, but Maki said the

number could realistically turn out to be double in size.

The board last September approved the

eventual closure of Asa Wood Elementary as a solution to an aging

building and the district’s shrinking enrollment and subsequently

smaller budget. The board had, however, originally discussed

keeping the building open for the 2011-12 year in order to allow

more time to plan for the move – seventh and eighth grades into the

high school and kindergarten through third grade into the middle

school.

Allowing a year for construction is no

longer essential, some members of the board argued, because voters

rejected a $12 million bond and, consequently, there is little

money to make renovations or additions. Moreover, they said,

teaching positions could be saved by closing the building.

Principals requested that the board

wait a year. Parents asked for assurance that their children would

not just be “stuffed in a classroom,” but that the consolidation

would be well thought-out.

“I’m asking you, realistically, can you

get those things in place that our children need?” one parent asked

Maki, who responded confidently.

Little construction work will be

carried out for the consolidation, trustee Lee Disney said, and

other plans – such as pickup and dropoff areas and which classrooms

go where – have been discussed for months.

“This is not just a whim,” he said.

“These things have been talked about in not just the last planning

process.”

The only construction, Disney said,

that will be performed inside the middle school, for example, is

renovating one set of bathrooms to accommodate small children.

Dissenting voters Bruce Sickler and

Paula Darko-Hensler, however, believed more time would benefit both

the children and staff.

“I just don’t think it’s appropriate,”

Darko-Hensler said. “I hear reservations and I hear they

(principals and teachers) are afraid of failing and not doing the

job they are capable of doing because they don’t have enough

time.”

The district eliminated the equivalent

of 10 full-time teaching positions last year to save $400,000, but

was only a little more than halfway to closing the 2010-11 budget

gap. Maki and the board avoided deeper cuts by spending about

$350,000 in one-time stimulus funding.

“That money was plugged in to maintain

teachers’ jobs and that money isn’t there anymore,” Maki said.

In the best-case scenario the state and

federal government will provide the same funding as the 2010-11

year. The shortfall would add up to roughly $450,000, which is last

year’s deficit plus the cost of “steps and lanes” – automatic

raises teachers receive for accruing additional experience and

education.

However, enrollment has shrunk again

and the district should probably expect the state to chip in

$150,000-$160,000 less, Maki said.

“If it turns out that it (the

shortfall) is only $450,000, we can take a sigh of relief to a

certain extent,” he said.

Another budget hit – the district will

most-likely absorb a projected $80,000-$85,000 in rising insurance

rates for teachers.

On top of that, Maki said at the

meeting, U.S. legislators have discussed cutting federal Title I

monies by 7 percent. Title I supplements schools in

economically-depressed communities to ensure equal access to

education.

“Many of our salaries are in Title I,”

he said. “It would be a devastating factor for us.”

Cutbacks have become a part of life at

Libby schools over the past few decades, but as the district gets

smaller, the reductions have become more serious.

Maki presented proposals at Monday’s

meeting that could potentially shave $818,400 off of the $7.9

million budget.

They are only considerations, Maki

warned, and hopefully some positions and programs will be saved

from the chopping block.

“Depending on what the shortfall turns

out to be, hopefully they’ll not cut as much as I anticipated,” he

said. “Then we can pick and choose what we’re going to keep and

what we will sacrifice.”

The board began the job of cutting the

deficit on Monday when it awarded administrator contracts and made

plans to close Asa Wood this summer.

The contracts for principals and vice

principals at the middle and high schools were renewed for another

year, while elementary principal Scott Beagle was offered a

teaching position. The special services supervisor’s contract –

worth $102,000 in salary and benefits – was not renewed.

Maki and curriculum director Jael

Prezeau plan to take on Kari Lewinsohn’s responsibilities, which

include coordinating the district’s special education program and

providing opportunities for gifted and talented students.

Additional full-time positions on the

list of possible cuts included three teachers, activities director,

three paraprofessionals, a secretary, a maintenance person and a

custodial aide, as well as a part-time library paraprofessional and

a part-time secretary. Other potential cuts affected activities,

maintenance, technology and more.

The district will be able to absorb

positions without laying people off if staff can be shuffled into

the right vacancies, Maki said. So far, two longtime teachers have

announced their retirement and a few paraprofessionals have

resigned.