Wednesday, May 17, 2000
Lakota shuffles to ease crowding
District to put modular units at 3 schools
By Sue Kiesewetter
Enquirer Contributor
UNION TOWNSHIP — Cherokee and Heritage elementary schools and Ridge Junior School each will get modular units with two classrooms apiece to help ease crowded conditions.
But those additions next fall won't be enough to avoid larger class sizes and some redistricting for elementary school students, officials say.
The Lakota district is expecting about 530 new students, but will be able to hire only seven new teachers because of financial constraints caused by the March 7 defeat of a combination bond issue/operating levy.
Lakota Treasurer Alan Hutchinson said the district will end the fiscal year next month with a $7 million balance — enough money to operate the district for one month. That balance will drop to about $3 million the following year and includes about $1.8 million in cuts the district will make by reducing each principal's budget, hiring fewer teachers than normal, freezing department budgets and buying fewer textbooks than planned.
“There is no doubt that after next year we're crunched,” Mr. Hutchinson said. “We're critically overcrowded and we need more money. We will have to make serious adjustments as to how we do business in Lakota. It will impact the quality of education.”
Adding the portable classrooms won't help the financial situation but is necessary to ease crowding, Mr. Hutchinson said. Leasing the three units will cost the district about $1,550 per month. The cost to provide utilities to each and set them up will be $12,400 to $13,400 per unit, said Larry Glass, Lakota's administrative assistant for special projects.
Besides adding the portable classrooms, some neighborhoods in crowded schools such as Cherokee and Heritage will be bused to less crowded schools. The details of the move are still being worked out and will be pre sented for school board discussion before classes end for the summer, Superintendent Kathleen Klink said.
Some teachers in specialty areas such as art and music who have their own classrooms might be forced next year to put materials on carts and wheel them from classroom to classroom to free up space, Mrs. Klink said.
To reduce the number of bus routes that have to be added to accommodate the growing enrollment, it is likely Lakota's elementary and junior schools will start and end 10 minutes later, Mrs. Klink said. That would allow the routes at the freshman and senior high schools to be changed so there would be more students on the buses, thus lessening the need for new routes.
The school board last week said it would put some kind of money issue on the ballot in November. Members have not decided whether to put the same issue on the ballot, separate the bond and operating issues into two questions, or put just one issue on the ballot.
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