Independence schools look at cuts to stay open

The Independence School District is looking at more than $1 million in proposed cuts in an effort to correct its fund balances - and possibly save the district from closing.

Administrators estimate that the district will have a negative fund balance of $1.5 million by the end of this school year. At the same time, its spending authority is expected to decrease from $1.6 million to $1.3 million.

It is spending authority the district needs to protect, Superintendent Devin Embray explained to the crowd of about 250 district teachers, staff, parents and students last night.

“If this continues to decrease, in probably less than two years we will be a bankrupt district,” Embray said. “The state would come in a make a workout plan. Usually the plan is closing a district.”

A list of proposed cuts was posted Friday on the district's Web site www.independence.k12.ia.us/metadot/index.pl. The cuts include reducing staff, freezing administrative salaries and closing East Elementary School.

According to the proposal, the district would move East students to West Elementary School, transform Independence Middle School into a third- through sixth-grade building and move seventh- and eighth-grade students to the high school.

“My seventh grader next year will not go to high school,” said Carrie Bantz, who has four children in the district. “We are already looking at open enrollment.”

Shelly Bertelli, director-teacher of the Buchanan County Success Center, an alternative high school program, is one of several employees who could lose her job at the end of the year.

“It is what it is,” she said. “We have to do what we have to do to keep our programming.”

Board members discussed the proposed cuts in a work session last night, then listened to community comments during a public hearing. They will revisit the topic during a work session next Monday, followed by a second public hearing at 7 p.m.

Both meetings will be held at the Brandon Community Center,

“I think (the cuts) are awful, but it's what our district needs to do to stay a K-12 district and keep our programming,” said Angela Webb, secretary at Buchanan County Success Center. Webb's job is not on the list of proposed cuts.

The board is scheduled to take final action on the proposed budget cuts on Jan. 25. Embray said the deadline could be extended if necessary.

“The sooner a decision is made, the more time we have to prepare for next year,” said Dawnye Sturtz, board president.

“I want to know now,” Bertelli said. “I don't want to drag it out.”