Benjamin Logan Local School’s Board of Education responds to community members need to be heard.
Board of Education President Tod Johnson said the open forum was to discuss anything district-related.
“I’m interested in hearing from you as a community,” he said at the start of the meeting. “We are looking for ideas and solutions.”
The need for the forum, Johnson said, derived from an email the board received a week or so ago from a group representing parents of the district “asking questions and wanting to be heard.”
Community members brought up concerns regarding the board’s plan moving forward from a 1.5 percent failed earned-income tax levy which was on the November ballot.
Teachers wondered if there was a concrete plan as to whether or not supplemental positions were going to be cut and, if so, which ones.
Johnson said supplemental positions are being discussed by the board, but no decisions have been made yet.
Other community members raised concerns about a stagnant special education program, as well.
Scott Coleman said he would be more in favor of a property tax rather than an earned-income tax.
“There’s already a property tax in place (and) with this we’d be taxed twice. I’d rather be taxed in one manner.”
Coleman also said he would like to see more feedback from the board throughout its decision-making process.
“We’d like to know what you’re thinking, even if it’s not the final decision,” he said.
But Johnson said the board isn’t talking about the process on purpose.
“That’s calculated on our part of not sharing,” he said. “Every time the board says something, people run with it. If we say ‘We’re going to slice cheese tomorrow’ someone will say we sliced cheese yesterday. We are being careful about what we share, when we share it and where we share it.”
Johnson did lament that the board is discussing improving the district’s public relations, however.
“We are working hard to be creative and innovative in the way we’re doing things,” he said.
The district, Johnson continued, is a a school, but also a $23 million business.
“The first piece is to make sure the people teaching our children are taken care of — them and their families,” he said. “The second piece is the education of our children. And that’s why we’re here. You can’t do either of those two without the community. We need a community that pulls together.”
“The five of us (board members) sitting here today aren’t going to fix it ourselves,” he continued. “We need your help.”
Johnson said the board has to roll up their sleeves and do the homework.
“The board has met 10 or 12 times in executive sessions since the beginning of the year talking about opportunities we have and business changes to be made to be more financially responsible with money we do have,” he said.
Johnson said some items being discussed for cost-savings include changes to bussing and insurance (the district’s No. 2 expenditure behind labor costs).
“Our intention is to have what we’re asking for and why we’re asking for it (and being) very detailed on expenditures and investments for this district throughout the next 10 years (to present to the public),” he said.
Some upcoming possible expenditures include “end-of-life expenditures” on the school buildings which are about 30 years old and a $480,000 track that needs replaced.
“There are a lot of things we have to look at,” Johnson said.
Three cost-savings methods implemented for the start of the next school year include having students pay to participate (about $125,000 in cost-savings), a retire-rehire program (about $83,000 in cost-savings) and cutting the school year by 13 days (about $325,000 in cost-savings).
Johnson said overall, he thought the forum went well.
“We had the public voice opinions — they were heard,” he said. “They were all valued and all heard.”
Superintendent David Harmon also said he was pleased with the community participation.
“There were some really good questions asked,” he said. “It was excellent to see people who spoke up and spoke in a logical way. I was very impressed with people being well thought out and express concern for the community and want to support their local school district.”
Johnson said the board has a huge task ahead of them for the next three weeks to prepare them for the April 1 deadline to decide whether or not to put a levy on the August ballot.
“We are doing our best to get ready for that,” he said.
Johnson said he encourages the community to continue working with the board of education.
“We are open to listen to the community’s ideas and solutions,” he said. “You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken and obviously we want to know. We will be putting our best foot forward.”
In other business, Jennifer Sudhoff, the district’s new treasurer, served her first day as treasurer on-staff at an annual salary of $85,000.
Sudhoff replaces former treasurer Mandy France who earned approximately $88,000 annually.