Opinion : School board avoided tough decisions on Shellsburg transportation, tax hikes

To the Editor,

Many of the Vinton-Shellsburg School Board members at the 22 March meeting kept saying we have to make tough decisions yet they avoided the really tough decisions that could have saved the district several thousand dollars.

Fifty thousand dollars could be saved in transportation costs if the fifth grade class were to be split up and the Vinton fifth graders stay in Vinton and the Shellsburg fifth graders stay in Shellsburg.

However, our illustrious school board would not consider this decision. Much ado was made over keeping all the fifth graders together and to keep them at Shellsburg.

It has only been within the last eight years that all fifth graders were put together at Shellsburg. Prior to this the sixth grade were all together at Shellsburg. I believe that neither the children nor their education would suffer if both Vinton and Shellsburg had K-5 elementary schools. If this were done at least 50 thousand dollars could be saved in bussing expenses.

Many of us grew up going to K-6 schools, then a middle school followed by high school and managed to lead normal productive lives. I believe many parents and the school board are placing too much emphasis on combing the fifth grade class.

Secondly, the school board could have made the tough decision of raising taxes and not cutting anything. However, this was not discussed to any extent. I myself am willing to pay more taxes to support education.

It is also interesting to note that the school board mostly cut actual academic personal rather than extracurricular personnel. If my memory of high school government serves me correct the reason for establishing the public school system was to have an educated electorate not to produce athletes. A hard decision by the school board would have been to put a two-year moratorium on all sports and use the money saved from this to fund academics. Instead the board chose to put a two-tear moratorium on the Voyager team as their token extracurricular cut. They did this in spite of the fact that the Voyagers are self-supporting except for the $3400 coach's salary. Though fun raising the Voyagers raise pay for the cost of their dance costumes and poms. They receive very little money from the athletic boosters. It seems to me that the school board could have either figured out a way to keep the Voyagers or really made a tough decision and cut some of the “major sports!”

Instead of really making tough decisions, the school board accepted the recommendations of the superintendent and played it safe with most of their constituents.

Dr. James K. Huber Vinton