WHEATFIELD | The stage is set for the Kankakee Valley School Corp. Board to vote tonight to cut 14 teachers, eliminating art and physical education in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Parents are expected to be on the lawn almost two hours before the 7 p.m. meeting to protest the firings.
Over the past few months, emotions have run high as teachers, parents and students have fought to preserve the jobs. Meanwhile, school officials have maintained they have to cut nearly $1 million as a result of $300 million in cuts to K-12 education ordered by Gov. Mitch Daniels.
In addition, Superintendent Glenn Krueger says the district has to cut another $500,000 because of insurance cost increases, including an 11 percent increase in health insurance. He said he immediately began meeting with the teacher's union in January to start talking about where to make cuts.
About 17 teachers will retire, saving the district a little less than $780,000. He said administrators have agreed to take a 4 percent pay cut and he asked teachers to take a similar decrease.
"If they had accepted that, we wouldn't be in this position right now," he said.
Kankakee Valley Teachers Association President Barb Deardorff said a 4 percent decrease in salary for teachers is unnecessary. Teachers have offered to take a 2 percent pay cut.
"There are many other options available to save money," she said. "The union would like to see the district take advantage of a new provision in the law allowing school districts to transfer money from one fund to another. We believe teacher concessions have been more than generous, and we have met the financial needs of the corporation."
However, Krueger said School Board members have said they are against transferring money from one fund to another. He said educators are worried about the growing possibility of additional cuts to public education before the year is over.
"Every school district in Indiana is going to have to learn how to operate leaner," Krueger said. "We'll be looking at cutting paid holidays. We're going to have to cut hours and overtime for many people. We can't afford extended contracts. We're going to have to be very, very efficient."
Dave Smith, of the Indiana State Teachers Association, has been assisting in negotiations. He had planned to meet with the superintendent prior to tonight's School Board meeting.
"I'm hoping a personal, face-to-face meeting will help," Smith said. "We hope they really will look at the concept of transferring money from capital projects or the district's rainy day fund to the general fund. We believe that will keep teachers employed. We know they may not replace the retired teachers, but to completely cut out PE and art doesn't make any sense to us."
Kankakee Valley High School students have become involved in the dispute.
Senior Hans Taylor, 18, said he put together a petition to fire the superintendent and has more than 100 signatures.
"Most people don't really know what's going on," he said, adding he's been going door to door to get signatures. "I have to explain the situation to them and that takes time. Once they understand, they'll sign the petition. I hope to get at least 300 signatures. I'm going to present it to the board at the meeting (tonight). I don't know if the board will vote on it. I just want to put more pressure on them to show that the students and residents of the community care about what's going on."
