Sports, extracurriculars to be cut if levy fails
By Kevin Kelley
Fairview Park
Published Oct. 4, 2006

The sounds of marching bands, cheering crowds and helmet-to-helmet tackles will vanish next fall if Fairview Park voters don’t pass a 5.9-mill operating levy Nov. 7.

The Board of Education voted unanimously Sept. 26 to adopt a list of cuts to be made if the levy fails.

The cuts will eliminate the following:

• All middle school and high school sports teams
• All student clubs and extracurricular activities, including the district’s instrumental orchestra program
• All honors and advanced placement courses and gifted programs
• All field trips

In addition, professional development for all staff members will be eliminated, as will all non-mandated assessment testing of students.

“This decision by the Board of Education is in response to requests from the community to be told how the failure of Issue 8 on Nov. 7 will effect our schools,” Superintendent Brion Deitsch said in a statement. “If Issue 8 does not pass on Nov. 7, 2006, the schools will not receive additional funds in calendar year 2007, thus forcing the aforementioned cuts.”

But the board has also pledged to voters that if the levy does pass, it will not seek additional levy money for at least five years. Other elements of the nine-point pledge board members signed Sept. 19 include a promise to evaluate staffing needs on a yearly basis and maintain facilities in the most cost-effective manner.

Voters rejected operating levies twice this year. In May, a 5.9-mill levy failed 57 to 43 percent. In a special August election, the same levy was rejected, 62 percent to 38.

If the November levy passes, the cost to homeowners will be $15.06 per month per $100,000 worth of valuation. Funds will not start being collected until January 2007. The levy will provide the district with $2,116,317 per year in operating funds. 

Board President Tom Davis said he has all but given up trying to sway voters who rejected to two earlier levies. His plan is to get supporters of the schools out to the polls Nov. 7.

The recently announced proposed cuts are not the first the board has approved in 2006. This spring, the district eliminated three administrative positions,  29 teaching positions, 17 support staff positions, 95 supplemental positions, and all non-mandatory overtime effective with the start of the 2006-2007 school year.

“If there was any fluff in the district, that took care of it,” Davis said of the earlier cuts.

The district still faces a projected deficit of $1.2 million for the 2008-09 school year if the levy is not approved, Davis said.

Although athletes currently pay fees to participate in interscholastic sports, the district did not consider instituting a pay-to-play program to save student sports, Davis said.

First, Davis said, the board did not want to give voters the impression high school athletics can be funded without a levy.

“The cost per athlete per sport is like $800 bucks,” Davis said, adding that many parents cannot pay, especially if a player is likely to sit on the bench.

“The reality of pay-to-play is it’s not equitable and it creates a situation where your numbers are going to dwindle and therefore the cost per player, per athlete, would become astronomical.”

The proposed cuts are not scare tactics, Davis said. “This is not a threat,” he said. “This will happen (if the levy fails),” he said.

“The cause of the problem is a $1.2 million deficit,” he added. “The effect of that problem is that you have to cut costs somewhere, and these are the areas that, based on the evaluations of the superintendent, made the most sense.”

Cuts would take effect next summer, Davis said, as the need for any summer camps for athletic or band programs would be eliminated.

“The reality of it is that even eliminating any of these things for a year will have a lasting effect even if in the following year they get reinstated,” Davis said.

Jennie Lyons, president of the middle school-high school PTA, said she had feared that the proposed cuts would be this severe.

“We had heard there would be no balls bouncing and no music playing (if the levy fails),” Lyons said.

Parents are shaken by the news of the proposed cuts, she said.

Lyons, who has three children in middle school, said they and their classmates are concerned they’ll have trouble getting into college or obtaining scholarships if they do not have experience in high school sports and athletic programs. Lyons shares those concerns.

“My kids want to know what can they do to help get people to vote,” she said.