BonnerSprings.com

Much of Tuesday night’s USD 204 Board of Education meeting centered on instrumental music — or, in the case of district-wide fifth-graders, the lack thereof.

After Mike Leonard, who directed fifth-grade band as well as band at Clark Middle School, announced his retirement in the first part of January of this year, the school board opted to eliminate the fifth-grade band program altogether. Superintendent Robert Van Maren made the announcement during Tuesday’s board meeting in response to a question posed by Patricia Welicky during the patrons’ questions and viewpoints portion of the agenda. A parent of a district student, Welicky said she had been unclear as to what the future of the fifth-grade band program would be.

Van Maren said Leonard’s retirement made the decision for the board, as members are looking at any way to cut expenses in the face of USD 204’s continuing budget crisis. Instead of offering fifth-grade band, Van Maren said Bonner Springs High School band director Bill Turley would teach band to sixth-graders instead.

“He has developed a plan of action based on the fact that our budget constraints require pretty much that we eliminate the fifth-grade band program,” Van Maren said.

Board president Gregg Gibson posed several questions of his own to those in attendance at the meeting, several of whom had shown up specifically to hear what would become of the fifth-grade band.

“The question that I would raise is, if we were to keep (the fifth-grade band), what would we do? How would we be able to fill that position? Would we be able to fill it in-house?” he asked. “The funding for the position itself has become an issue, so it’s a difficult position to be put in.”

Both Welicky and Janet Crouch, Delaware Ridge Elementary Parent Teacher Organization president, asked board members what they might be able to do to help. Crouch said all three PTOs in the district favored the board finding an alternative to cutting valuable programs.

“We’re not here to attack, we’re here to work with you,” Crouch said. She offered specific help in the form of communicating the issues via the PTO’s Facebook page and newsletters.

Gibson said state legislators needed to see how the level of education was being affected by the budget cuts. He and other board members asked those in attendance to be as aggressive as possible in their communication with those working in the Statehouse — asking them to continue sending letters outlining the problems the district is facing.

“When it comes to funding public education, we’ve got to step up,” Gibson said. “We’ve got to do what we need to do in order to fund our (children’s) education … We’ve got to push those legislators.”

Van Maren went one step further and said the solution also lies in the hands of taxpayers. He said those with school-age children were willing to pay more in taxes to better their childrens’ education. But, he said, the number of parents with children in grades K-12 totaled less than 25 percent of the entire population in Wyandotte County.

“It’s not just your political activism that’s needed …” he said. “We need the support of all the community, and the only way to do this is to find some money, to raise taxes. There’s no other way to do it … It’s a matter of being a United States citizen in my mind.”

Van Maren said that, if the situation didn’t improve, fifth-grade band wouldn’t be the district’s final cut. He said more elementary school aides, a counselor at the high school and part-time nurses could be included in a second round of district layoffs.

“Those are right at the top (of the list of possible cuts),” Van Maren said. “The issues that are coming up are significant. The issues are many, and this is the beginning.”

Also on Tuesday, the board:

• Unanimously approved the agenda.

• Unanimously approved the minutes from the Feb. 1 meeting.

• Unanimously approved the treasurer and clerk’s report.

• Unanimously approved warrants totaling $111,338.84.

• Heard from several district teachers, including Delaware Ridge Elementary teacher Natalie Ball and Clark Middle School principal Steve Cook, who will be presenting at next week’s National Expeditionary Learning Conference Feb. 24-27 at both DRE and Crown Center in Kansas City, Mo.

Ball said she, along with fellow teacher Molly Dykman, would be giving a talk on how to integrate technology, such as wikis and blogs, into the classroom setting. Cook said he would be talking about the structures, such as Crew, that have been implemented at CMS.

DRE will be the site of events going on Feb. 24. Principal Cindy Kapeller said she expected 60 educators from across the country to visit the school that day and take part in such activities as a tour of the school and a master class on student-led conferences.

• Heard the superintendent’s update. Included in Van Maren’s report was that summer school at CMS and Bonner Springs High School had been cut. He said there would still be summer extensions and online credits available, but no formal summer school at either facility, as this will save the district $75,000.

He also reported that USD 204 has an agreement with the Wyandotte Comprehensive Special Education Cooperative, of which USD 204 is a member, that the district would be able to reduce its budget next year by $80,000 through the use of contingency funding and the cutting of some special education positions.

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