Sahuarita parents say no to education cuts

The Sahuarita Sun

A majority of the 100 parents and teachers at a forum Thursday said they don’t want to choose between all-day kindergarten and reduced class sizes for grades 1 through 3. They want them both.

Superintendent Jay St. John held the forum to get feedback in light of state budget cuts that are hitting every school district in Arizona.

St. John said everything was on the table, but the choice early on appeared to come down to axing all-day kindergarten or reducing class sizes in early grades. As the night wore on, nobody liked the choice.

One suggestion was to transfer capital funds to the operations fund for teacher salaries, which would mean less money for textbooks, desks and computers. Another was to go to voters and seek more capital funds through an override.

“They want us to solve the problems to figure out how to do both. That’s basically what I’m going to tell the Governing Board,” St. John said. “They want both, think both things are important ... I don’t disagree, but it’s hard to figure out how we are going to do it.”

St. John said he was open to transferring capital funds for operations and would discuss it with the Governing Board at today’s meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the district auditorium, 350 W. Sahuarita Road.

St. John said many districts transfer capital to operations. In the past he generally has counseled against it, but said the district has done so twice in the past 15 years and added, “These are extraordinary times. We’ve done it a couple times...but I will insist that we have a plan to pay it back. You can’t rob Peter to pay Paul forever.”

St. John said the district could transfer some capital funds now, but not enough address all the issues.

Next year’s state budget cuts for K-12 education could be $300 million, or less than the amount feared by some, said Rep. Frank Antenori, who represents Southern Arizona in the Legislature. Antenori attended two school forums Thursday night to address concerns. The $300 million figure, if correct, would involve a cut of more than a $1 million to the Sahuarita district, or about 5 percent of its $22 million operating budget.

St. John said it is not clear what the district will get from the state or how the federal stimulus money would affect state education funding.

Among suggestions parents made last week were raising taxes on district taxpayers, eliminating some bus routes or planned bus purchases, and having more students walk to school.

The forum was built around the premise that the Legislature will cut funds for all-day kindergarten and only fund a half-day of kindergarten as it did until 2004. The move would cost the Sahuarita district $408,000, St. John told parents.

Antenori said the mood among the majority Republicans in the Legislature is unquestionably to cut all-day kindergarten. He said Gov. Brewer has not said what she would do.

Rather than cut specific funds such as all-day kindergarten, the Legislature could reduce K-12 funding overall and let each district decide which programs to cut.

One parent asked why Arizona ranks near the bottom among states in funding education and Antenori blamed it on the federal government, saying that when the Arizona was granted statehood in 1912, the federal government gave the state 9 million acres of land, most of which has remained in trust, intended to help fund schools. Antenori said the earliest that reform of the state trust land system could yield results would be 2011.

St. John earlier gave a different answer as to why Arizona ranks low in school funding: “I’m from Illinois. Believe me, we are not heavily taxed here.”

The majority of parents and teachers generally agreed they wanted class sizes kept small and kindergarten to remain full-day. A few parents and teachers said they would prefer full-day K, while a handful of others said they want to maintain current class sizes in grades 1 through 3 and would be willing to see kindergarten go to half-day.

Some parents noted the small classroom sizes in the new Anza Trail School, saying there is no room for more children in those classrooms at any grade level.

Several asked for more information about what the district could do, how much it pays for various programs, how it would affect schools if funds were transferred from capital spending to operations.