Archive: News

Last Tuesday, Fall Creek residents packed the Ithaca School Board meeting room to protest the possible closing of Fall Creek Elementary School.  On February 3, Superintendent Judith Pastel had suggested that one way to close the ICSD’s budget gap would be to close the smallest school in the district—Fall Creek, moving its 220 students to other schools.  Then the school district might house all Pre-K students at Fall Creek.

By February 9, over 100 Fall Creekers had created a grassroots group complete with website, 1,200 signatures on a protest document, and orange stickers reading “FALL CREEK WORKS!  More than 100 people filled a room meant for half that many.  They sat on the floor and spilled into the hallways.

As board member Scott Perez edged through the crowd, he quipped “I kinda like budget season, because then I know there’s more than 12 people in the district!”

The budget gap includes a $3.5 million cut in New York State funding and a $7.9 million addition in fixed costs such as health insurance and retirement funds.  Board President Robert Ainslie noted that  in order to address the budget shortfall, “all operations are on the table. But we have not seen an analysis; I have not seen numbers.”


As news cameras rolled, 14 speakers from Fall Creek then addressed a number of issues:
 

• A school closing is not easily reversed—the selling and repurchasing of the Danby Elementary school is a case in point.
• Fall Creek School has occupied its current site since 1879, and is integral to the health of the neighborhood.
• Busing Pre-K students to Fall Creek would be expensive and disruptive, requiring more bus monitors and costly changes to the school plant, limiting parent-school contact, and making it hard on the 3-4 year olds involved.

Tom Clavell began his 2 minute talk by saying “I love democracy—no joke!”  He concluded “I appreciate that you guys are in a tough spot right now, but we hope you would take Fall Creek off the table.”

Fall Creek students Eva and Robin read a letter they had composed, ending, in unison, “We care, and our community does too.”

Sara Culotta urged the school board to use the power of the Fall Creek community.  “I would like to see the board and staff  work with the PTA and the site-based council right away to begin looking at these budget cuts,” she said, noting that the board is “only twelve volunteer members and an overworked staff.”  And, she concluded, “I’m willing to volunteer a lot of hours to help facilitate.  There’s a lot of work you’re doing that people are not yet aware of.  And we need to get the information from us back to you.”

In response, each Board member thanked the Fall Creek group for their questions and ideas.  Ainslie noted that “our job is to take the concerns we’ve heard tonight and present a plan everyone can find acceptable.”  However, he added, addressing the budget problems “is going to take an enormous shared sacrifice. We’ll have to increase class size, cut programs, and increase taxes to such a degree that it won’t look like Ithaca.”

After a break that brought the audience down to size of the room, Superintendent Judith Pastel reported on an initiative among Upstate school superintendents to develop a forum with legislators, work force developers, parents, and unions.  The goal: to convince state legislators to slow down the reduction in school funding so that school districts can better plan for this financial crises. 

“It is really important to push an on-time budget,” Pastel said.  Otherwise, “every school board will adopt a budget not knowing what the budget will be.” 

“I’ll keep you informed,” she concluded.

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