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PIERCETON - What South Whitley Elementary School physical education teacher Tanya Gill wanted to do Thursday was speak to the school board at its public hearing before the board accepted the recommended personnel cuts.
But the Whitko Community School Corp. Board of Trustees stayed with its agenda and kept public questions and comments until after the motion to accept the recommendations was unanimously approved.
The recommendations by Superintendent Dr. Jeff Hendrix approved by the board included the cancellation of teaching contracts for the 2004-05 school year for:
• Ray Davis, high school physical education.
• Jennifer Carr, high school physical education.
• Bill McIntire, high school social studies.
• Steve Miller, middle school industrial technology.
• Rhonda Graney, elementary school counselor.
The reduction/elimination of extended contract days for the 2004-05 school year include:
• Roger Carr, reduced from 60 days to 45 days.
• Karen Imhoff, reduced from 20 days to 15 days.
• Joe Begley, reduced from 20 days to 10 days.
• Steve Hoopingarner, elimination of 10 days.
Whitko is making the cuts to try to save more than $600,000 for the 2004-05 school year.
After board chairman Dave Tranter opened the floor for public comments, Gill said she was the one who asked Tranter before the board meeting to change its agenda.
While Whitko is making cuts to its P.E. program, she said, Huntington schools are proposing to add positions to its schools in the areas of music, arts and P.E. They conducted a study, she said, that found students who are involved in those areas do better in standardized testing.
"Someone said to me today it was a done deal," Gill said of the cuts. But being a former athlete, she said, she never went into a competition thinking she'd lose.
"Here I am defeated," she admitted.
She said she was going to ask the board if they could have made the cuts to P.E. if their child or grandchild were involved in P.E. at the schools. But now, they'll never know because she wasn't able to ask the board that question before the vote.
Gill said she does not plan to give up on looking for other means to fund the P.E. programs and has been looking for grants.
Parent Jodi Sims said her children were involved in "a lot of extracurricular activity," but not all children are so lucky. For them, P.E. is it.
"I agree with (Gill) that we are doing an injustice by doing away with this program," Sims said.
Tasha Ratliff has a daughter at the high school, and by the elimination of Carr at the high school, she said, her daughter will lose a very positive influential teacher.
She also said she teaches preschool at South Whitley Elementary School. If Gill must go teach P.E. at the high school, leaving no teacher at SWES, Gill will do a great job, Ratliff said, but "that's not the population she's best at."
In P.E., elementary students learn early on what it is to be a gracious winner or loser.
Another parent told the board she has two sons at Pierceton Elementary School.
"If it wasn't for P.E., I don't think they'd like school," she said. If the school corporation does away with P.E. completely at the elementary schools, many children will be sad.
During the meeting, only Tranter spoke of the cuts, saying, "It saddens us greatly that we have to make these decisions, as you are well aware."
After the meeting, board member Michael Braddock said, "We've got to do something. We're making these cuts throughout the entire school corporation."
He said P.E. is not being totally eliminated in the school corporation as some have suggested, it just won't look the way people currently see it.
"We really feel bad about the cuts but we had to do it before the first of May," said E. Marie Trump, board member. If the board can, they will try to add the positions back.
Pete Mitchell, board member, said that if after the last meeting on the issue, if the concerned patrons, teachers and parents could have come up with an alternative plan, perhaps the school board could have gone with that, "but I don't know how."
Asked if there will be any more cuts this year, Tranter said, "At the present time, these cuts are (it) for the 2004-05 school year. After that, it's up to the state of Indiana."
When the state comes up short in funding, the state leaves the local boards to make and carry out the cuts.
"It's a very tough day for us," said Hendrix. Any time you are going to make decisions that affect kids, he said, you hope they are decisions that won't affect their whole educational program.
Changes in Whitko's P.E. program will be immediately dealt with now that the board accepted the cuts, and Hendrix said he hopes to present the changes to the school board sometime this summer.
