Public weighs in on closing Cataract school 

Administration, school board draw criticism at public discussion

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Sparta School District administrators now claim closing the Cataract Elementary School would realize larger savings than first reported.

That revelation came at Tuesday’s Sparta School Board workshop focused on the logistics of closing Cataract as part of a plan to reduce the budget by at least $2.8 million annually over the next two years.

Those cuts are needed to cover a shortfall caused by the state’s K-12 funding freeze, the expiration of the school’s recurring $750,000 referendum and rising costs due to inflation. On April 5, the electorate voted down a two-year, $2.1 million referendum that would have shored up much of the shortfall.

Interim Superintendent Sam Russ said a community member pointed out the savings error and the originally stated $430,000 savings the district would realize by closing the school was actually $640,000.

Some of the large contingent of community members, most of whom supported keeping Cataract open, disputed even the $430,000 figure, saying the savings was actually  much less.

Still, administrators presented numbers that showed the school’s expenditures at $889,000 for the 2020-21 school year.

Just over $542,000 of the potential savings is attributed to educational staff reductions, a number also disputed because most of those positions, which include teachers and aides, would be disbursed to either Herrman Elementary or Southside Early Learning Center.

Administrators insisted those would be true savings because those staff members would be filling positions vacated through natural attrition.

The administration’s figures also showed the cost per student at Cataract was over $2,400 more than that of Southside and Herrman.

Russ said as far as academic performance, data showed the comparison between Cataract and Herrman was neutral. 

“The students at Cataract were still learning at the same level of students at Herrman overall,” he said.

It also was pointed out that the school has invested around a half million dollars in capital improvement projects since 2008 and has $275,000 in projects scheduled in the coming years.

When asked what would happen to the school if it was vacated, Director of Business Services Leah Hauser said the grounds would be maintained and the building would be heated enough to keep pipes from freezing. The district would then try to find a buyer like it did for other buildings it has vacated.

An audience member pointed out that those other buildings were in the city where they could easily be repurposed. She said she couldn’t envision a buyer for the Cataract school and the district would likely be saddled with the property.

Administrators also said 14 students in the Cataract school boundary open enrolled out of the district, while another 26 attend either Southside or Herrman.

It was questioned if ESSER Funds, federal money given to the school to offset the effect of the pandemic, could be used to offset the budget shortfall, allowing Cataract to remain open.

Russ said that is an option but there are pros and cons to it. Hauser said the board already voted to use a half million dollars of ESSER funds to buy student electronic devices to offset the shortfall but some of the funds have to go toward other student needs.

“I would say we’re using a blend of some for operations and some for those strategies to help the learning loss and social and emotional loss students experienced through the pandemic,” she said.

Other community members brought up the idea of fundraising and volunteering opportunities to offset expenses at Cataract.

Some audience members felt Cataract was taking the brunt of the cuts that could be spread more fairly around the district, while others disputed the administration’s transportation and budget figures, asking the district to have an outside audit done to identify savings.

Former School Board member Lee Culpit asked how it would hurt other students by keeping Cataract open.

“If we Keep Cataract open that would mean less resources to all district students in some form,” said Russ, adding reductions might then have to be shifted to staff and student resources. “It’s got to come from somewhere and it’s either going to lessen the student experience by increased class sizes, potentially, or taking resources away.”

Culpitt said he believes district residents will be ready to approve a referendum in August.

“Instead of sinking the ship, we should maybe see about trying to save it first and see what the people say,” he said.

The school board will be discussing more budget cuts at its regular meeting next Tuesday. Russ said he will explore questions and ideas presented during the workshop and will hope to have answers by then. 

The school board cut $1.86 million from the 2022-23 budget at a special meeting earlier this month, leaving at least $1 million more to be made. Those reductions  included  $750,000 worth of staffing cuts that were part of the district’s staff review and are to be accomplished through natural attrition (retirements and voluntary resignations).

They included one teacher each at Southside and Herrman elementary schools, a grade five teacher and an LMC specialist at Meadowview, a German teacher at Meadowview/high school and a secretary at Herrman. In addition, the board voted to phase out the EDGE Program at Meadowview, reducing one other teacher.

Other cuts included reducing the current health insurance premium cost by 5%, delaying replacing math textbooks for elementary students, replacing high school student technology devices with ESSER funds, allocating $800,000 currently in Fund 10 to Fund 46 for annual capital projects over the next two years and moving the middle school athletics program to Fund 89.

Besides closing Cataract, other potential cuts include more teacher layoffs. 

Board members suggested going to the electorate in August with a more palatable referendum to cover some or all of the additional shortfall.

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