Plymouth-Canton School Budget Cuts: Painful

Parents of Fiegel Elementary School students were torn on Tuesday. Should they go to the school concert and watch their children perform or go to a special Plymouth-Canton Community Schools board meeting and learn whether rumors that Fiegel will be closed were true.

Those who chose to attend the meeting heard Fiegel is targeted under a tentative budget plan aimed at trimming $18 million of the district’s $162 million budget. Layoffs of staff from teachers to custodians appear certain. Other cuts, according to Tuesday's presentation, include the student radio station, WSDP-FM 88.1 to save $100,000; reducing funding to sports, clubs and extracurricular programs by  $130,000 or more; paring $150,000 from special education and talented and gifted programs; and, in what may delight a few students, the elimination of Saturday detention to save $12,847.

School administrators and board members used the meeting to strongly encourage parents to appeal to state lawmakers. Gov. Rick Snyder's proposed $471-per-pupil cuts, combined with other funding cuts could combine for as much as a $700-per-pupil loss, said James Larson-Shidler, Plymouth-Canton's business services administrator.

Superintendent Craig Fiegel issued a letter this week outlining the district's position which included lawmakers addresses and a template for parents to use in expressing their concerns about school funding.

Closing Fiegel Elementary would save more than $1.4 million, officials said. The district has lost about 700 elementary students to economic changes or charter schools.

Parents, teachers and others crowded into the second-floor district office conference room, many sitting on the only space available: the floor. Others clustered in the hallway, whispering amongst themselves or straining to hear the presentation inside. The meeting lasted more than three hours.

Fiegel teacher Kyle Eckert, representing other teachers and support staff, emphasized the sense of family at the school She said many of the school’s diverse students come from low-income families who live in nearby apartments so the children can walk to school.

“We are a family at Fiegel. The possibility of our school closing means these students will bus to up to four different schools. Where is our family?” she said, imploring district officials to visit the school before making a decision. Fiegel principal Jim Johnson, a 30-year-educator who has led the elementary school for the last 13 years, told the board his staff would help families make the transition, but, "It's hard for me to say to you that all of these people would save the district $1,428,000, but no price could be put on the work that they do."

“I’m sure this hits home for many parents,” board member Dianne Gonzalez said, recalling her own experience with redistricting. “It’s very uncomfortable and … my heart goes out to these people.”

Board member Steve Sneideman said he’s concerned about closing a building when, based on the 2010 census, "we know we're going to need another building."

The proposed budget also calls for increasing class sizes by two students each, to 28 per kindergarten; 31 for third grades; 32 for fourth and fifth grades; 35 for middle school and high school classes across the district.

The notion of bigger class sizes did not sit well with Sneideman. He said he’s angry that class sizes have grown from fewer than 30 in the upper grades to the current 33-per-class headcount and he blamed lawmakers in Lansing.

Plymouth-Canton's tentative plan includes eliminating 80 or more teaching positions; reducing the cleaning schedule to every other day, which would allow the district to cut more than 20 custodial jobs, officials said.

At the beginning of the meeting and again at the end, parent Mark Horvath told board members that the small district boardroom was ill-suited for a meeting of Tuesday’s magnitude. District spokesman Frank Ruggirello Jr. said the boardroom is the only one with video equipment needed to record such meetings.

“We have got to find a better way to do this. Please,” Horvath said. He also suggested that board members lack a sense of urgency in trimming costs.

“This is definitely not a 1-year crisis. You’ve already looked at 2012 and 2013 and we know it’s ugly,” he said. “But the problem is, you spend more than you take in.”

School officials said that teacher layoff notices will have to be approved by the board before the end of April. The board will likely vote on layoffs at the April 26 meeting. The district budget must be finalized by June 30.

School board president John Jackson said he hopes to have at least two more public meetings before any budget decisions are made.

The board's next regular meeting is 6 p.m. Tuesday at the district offices, 454 S. Harvey St., Plymouth.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to accurately reflect the call letters for WSDP-AM 88.1.