Levy needed if students are to have meaningful experience

Dear editor:

Most people's fondest memories of school do not relate to class work. They usually involve friends. sports, activities, dances and everything that is fun about school.

Now, try to imagine school without all of these things. Only one word is needed to describe this kind of education: boring.

As most citizens of Mountain Home know, our school district does not have very much money. For some reason though, these citizens do not think it's necessary to support the district and its students by passing bonds or paying a little more in taxes.

In the last two years, two bond attempts to build a new high school have been failed. On May 27, 2010, a $2.8 million supplemental levy will go before the voters of Mountain Home proposing a monthly property tax of around $20 on a house assessed at $200,000, with money going directly to the school district.

If the levy fails, all the aforementioned activities will be cut along with several other changes being made. In the words of Superintendent of Schools Tim McMurtrey, "If it doesn't have to do with putting a grade in a book (to reach graduation requirements) it's going to be gone."

The school district will basically cut all fun.

The importance of this levy is impossible to understate. If the levy doesn't pass, it will have a huge, negative impact on schools and the town of Mountain Home for years to come.

To begin with you may ask, "How exactly did the school district get in this dire financial situation?" The Mountain Home School district has never had much money, recently declaring a financial emergency because of a $2.7 million deficit. Adding to the district's troubles, the state of Idaho is cutting funding for education.

It seems the recession is hitting education late. With no one spending money, tax income by the state is down, and to make up for it, education funding has been cut for the first time in state history. Over $80 million has been cut from education, with $34 million cut from staff salaries alone. As far as anyone can see, help from the state is not coming anytime soon.

It turns out the Mountain Home School District is not alone in its troubles. Districts in Boise, Meridian, Caldwell, Kuna and Nampa have all made budget cuts, with more on the way. Some of these proposed budget cuts include cuts to athletics, eliminating field trips, charging students to take advance placement and concurrent credit classes, and even a four-day school week, all ideas that the Mountain Home School District considered for its own budget cutting plans.

Caldwell and Nampa have already held levy elections to support athletics, fine arts and other programs. In both district's elections, the levy passed, but unlike Mountain Home, both school districts have a history of passing levies and bonds. The results of these two earlier elections may give a glimpse of the results for the upcoming election in Mountain Home, or Mountain Home could be the one district whose levy doesn't pass. Only time will tell.

Out of the $80 million cut from state education, $2 million is cut from Mountain Home School District's budget alone. This is an immense cut considering that four out of every five dollars the district spends the state provides.

To make up for this lost money, the district will make cuts whether the levy passes or not. The district is cutting teachers' salaries by four percent and administrators by 6.5 percent, saving $700,000. Maintenance and professional supplies will be cut down, saving $140,000. Also, several athletic and academic programs will be cut, including golf, dance, freshman football and basketball teams and Natural Helpers. The savings from these cuts total $1,033,028.

With the money saved from these cuts and additional money from the passed levy, the school district would be in adequate financial shape and be able to maintain all remaining athletics, programs and staff positions. Without the money from the levy, the district would have to turn to a second plan for cuts, called by district insiders "the nuclear option."

This so called "nuclear option" is as bad as it sounds. The most high profile and controversial item to be cut is athletics. Without coaches, transportation to competitions, or an athletic director, the school district will save over $325,000.

While cutting athletics may be the most visible change, it's not the only proposed cut that will have a large impact. The school district has plans to shorten the school week to four days and shorten the school year by four days.

Students may think it sounds great at first, but to meet the state requirement for hours spent in class, two hours will be added to school days. With the high school's current start time that means not being dismissed until 4:45 in the afternoon.

Some may argue that this later dismissal time help keep kids out of trouble and help them academically, but the complete opposite is true. Studies have shown that the more involved kids are in extracurricular activities, the higher their grades are.

There will be no sports to keep kids busy and stimulated and no teams to be kicked off of if kids are in trouble with the law or academically.

With an extra day off during the week, many kids will be at home unsupervised all day, allowing more time to engage in risky behaviors or do something illegal. This day off will also affect families with younger, elementary-aged children. These families will need to pay for another day of daycare or babysitting. The costs of these services will be much higher than the $18 a month in taxes the levy would create.

These cuts will also affect music and academic programs. Band, choir, speech and debate will continue because students can earn a credit with them, but funding for all competitions for these classes will be completely cut.

Along with these cuts, the district will also slash teachers' salaries by 8.5 percent and administrators' by 17 percent, adding up to a total of $1,050,000, the amount of money that will need to be made up if the levy doesn't pass.

This cut in teachers' salaries, along with ones already made, will add up to a salary loss of 19 percent. That's thousands of dollars a year. Many older teachers have said they will retire if the levy doesn't pass, but who will take their place? No new teachers will want to work in the district for an extremely low pay. They will go out of state and leave Idaho with no new teachers. Are all these cuts worth saving a few dollars in taxes? I don't think so.

As a Mountain Home High School senior about to graduate, I now have some perspective with which to look back at my high school career. Memories that stick out to me include the state semi finals in football, homecoming games and dances, and assemblies and spirit weeks.

All of these will be gone if the school levy fails.

I can't imagine what school would be like without sports and other activities. I may sound biased towards sports, but I'm an athlete, and they consumed most of my time from middle school through high school. I'm sure other students feel just as strongly about band, choir and other extracurricular activities.

Without these activities, school wouldn't be the same for all of these people. School is about more than learning math and reading. It's where people learn how to socially interact, and extracurricular activities are where the most social interaction takes place. Without these activities, students will go to school and then go home. That's no way to spend one's years in school.

If sports and activities are cut, many people are willing to move to find a school that still has them. If athletics were cut before my senior year, I would move to a school that had them without hesitation. Luckily, I'm graduating before these cuts take effect, but my brother, who is currently a sophomore, will still be here to witness the cuts.

If the levy does not pass and sports are cut, he will go to high school in Boise and live with my grandparents. Many other current underclassmen will be doing the same thing.

Kids who have gone to school together since kindergarten will break up and go their separate ways.

Not all student athletes would be able to leave, though. To transfer to another school, a student needs to move or have the decision to transfer approved by the school board. The wealthier students, with families who can afford the money or pay for transportation, will be the ones who transfer, while the students from poor families will be left behind. These moves will further separate the social and economic classes of Mountain Home and increase tensions throughout town.

With many students leaving, the high school would be an empty, depressing place. With no games, dances or concerts to look look forward to, students would slave through their ten-hour school days and then just go home. There would be no school spirit without teams to root for and nothing to look forward to throughout the week.

A school like this is not a school at all; it's a bad dream.

The schools will not be the only things that would suffer from students leaving.

If one hundred students and their families move out of town, close to four hundred people would leave Mountain Home. In a town of around 12,000, that would have a noticeable effect on the economy. With the schools in such a horrible condition, families with young kids would leave and no new families would move in. The town's population would drop dramatically. Businesses would suffer and the schools would become even worse.

Because of one school levy, the entire town of Mountain Home could dry up.

With the possibility of this bleak future and other negative repercussions, why would anyone vote against the levy? If they say they don't want to pay for something that doesn't affect them, they're dead wrong. This levy will affect the entire town for years to come.

Luckily, citizens can help avoid these negative outcomes and keep the future looking somewhat bright for students and our town. Voting for the levy takes place at all schools in the Mountain Home School District on May 27. Supporting Mountain Home and its future leaders is as easy as voting "yes."

Tom Hennessey