Tough decisions ahead in District 26

It has been a difficult semester for Cary Elementary District 26.

On Nov. 16, the District 26 school board voted to close Maplewood School. At the end of that same meeting, board President Dave Ruelle resigned, saying the board and the administration had not done enough to right the district's financial ship.

One week later, the board voted against going to referendum. At the end of that meeting, board Vice President Steve Bush resigned, citing additional responsibilities he had recently assumed at work.

Now, the district is looking to fill two vacant board seats. At the same time, the board is looking at $5.4 million in proposed cuts, including reductions to music, art and physical education.

Now is the time for parents and teachers to speak up. The board will spend the next several months defining its budget priorities. The outcome of that process could have repercussions for years to come.

Finance Committee Chairman Chris Jenner has repeatedly urged the administration to devise solutions that allow existing programs to continue at a reduced level rather than eliminating them altogether.

This is a good suggestion. But the experts - the teachers and parents who work with those programs - need to help craft those solutions if they want to show it is possible for the district to maintain a wide range of academic offerings while living within its means.

Even innovative solutions like Jenner has proposed can only go so far. As many are quick to point out, salaries and benefits are the single biggest cost for District 26 and most public bodies.

District 26 parents are right to expect the district's employees - from the superintendent to the teachers and support staff - to make the same sacrifices everyone else in the community is making.

The district froze administrator salaries and eliminated bonuses this year. If district officials want to keep residents' trust, the freeze should be extended to all employees and remain in place until the district can get its finances straightened out.

But what about the district's contract with its teachers union? As a parent pointed out at a recent meeting, that contract can be reopened and renegotiated.

The savings from forgoing cost-of-living increases are not trivial. Officials in Maine Township High School District 207, for example, say they could save 55 teaching jobs next year if teachers agreed to no pay hikes.

At the outset of the reduction process, District 26 had three tools to balance its budget: new taxes, program cuts and salary cuts. With its vote this week against a referendum, the board deprived itself of one of those tools.

Simply cutting numerous programs would be foolish. Expecting teachers to bear the full burden of cuts would be equally onerous.

Board members, administrators, teachers and parents need to collectively decide what balance of reductions they can stomach - and what, ultimately, is best for the future of Cary's children.