~ News and Analysis ~

Rumors and misinformation apparently surrounds the Conneaut School District efforts to look at what is called B.U.S.S. - Better Utilization of School Space.

With the school directors meeting in regular session Wednesday evening, a number of residents addressed the directors, which, in part, showed misunderstandings within the district.

Jeremy Burnham of the Conneaut Valley area, while saying he understands the difficulties facing school directors [both his father and grandfather served on the board in years past] said the idea of building another school can't be justified, urging keeping the current setup.

None of the plans under consideration to address declining student enrollment - 103 from last year's 3rd day enrollment to this year's - and 600 in the past 10 years, calls for building a new school, only using the buildings in place now. A couple of plans do call for the closing of building or buildings depending on use, student configuration, etc.

Two options for building use, Options 3 and 4, putting grades 3 - 8 basically into high school buildings at Conneaut Lake and Conneaut Valley, have been eliminated as not very practical as it would entail an amount of remodeling to accommodate the students, in addition to an overall lack of regular classroom space.

Ron Gerber of the East Fallowfield area, who is serving as president of a group called Save Lake Schools, noted his support of the state's Act 1 law which limits how much a school district can increase taxes without going to the voters to ask them to step over that amount. He said he was glad for the limit and took issue with a comment made by board member David Schaef the week before on Act. 1.

The point is Act 1 does not reflect actual expenses and Schaef has been saying ever since Act 1 came into effect a few years back that it would impact what the district is able to do, the Act 1 index amount does not reflect economic pressures, costs and more.

Each year the index to raise taxes changes, set in September, 10 months before a final budget for the next year is put into place.

Act 1 does not take into account the fact that the state cut its support for schools to 2008-09 levels and did not decrease its rules for what must be done and what is required to offer students.

Gerber charged the board with poor actions in this hard economic time, speaking against an early bird settlement with the teacher's union in January, a 3-year pact which, while raising wages around 2%, cut a salary category out, held extracurricular salaries at the same levels for the most part, and cut paying for the number of classes staff could take from unlimited in a year to just 6 credits in addition to increasing the amount paid by staff for health insurances.

Prior to the current contract, staff did not pay any amount towards their health insurance.

Garth Prebor of the Conneaut Lake area noted he spoke in favor of putting committees together a couple months ago as the board tries to plan for the future and the best education possible for its students that the district can offer. He urged the board to be more transparent - the board as a matter of long standing practice listens to what speakers have to say at their meetings but do not get into debate at that time. He said the school district's $38-million budget was higher than others of the same size which is around $25-million.

He did not say which districts those might be or if they had as many buildings in place, or if the district's physical size was the same.

Conneaut School District covers more than 318 square miles and has 6 school buildings in three communities

Prebor is a member of the Save Our Lake's Schools community group, which has indicated support for closing Conneaut Valley High School. His wife is a teacher in the school district and was elected an officer of the Save Lake Schools committee.

That committee is looking to hire a lawyer to advise them on actions to take. It is rumored that the group needs to raise $5,000 as a retainer fee for the lawyer. The committee is wondering if they can leave the Conneaut school district and perhaps join with Jamestown.

Prebor's Oakland Beach Golf Club, one source reported, is planning a golf outing to help raise money for the Save Lake Schools Committee.

Jennifer Bryer, a Conneaut Lake area resident and a member of a B.U.S.S committee, said she was speaking for her self and urged all to work together to solve the issues confronting the school district which range from declining enrollment, stagnant real estate values, increasing costs, cutbacks in state support, projected increases in costs to run the district and a looming retirement fund crisis across the state in which districts are being asked to pay more and more with increases in that fund alone projected to be increasing at 4% a year and could reach to 20-to-more than 30% of a school district's budget.

Bryer said her research online shows that property values drop in communities which close schools. She implored that decisions be made on facts not emotions and said all need to work together...

Greg Comp of the Conneaut Valley area said that change is inevitable and difficult He commended the board and administration on the outstanding assembly Rachel's Challenge, noting a very powerful presentation.

Carina Braden, a Conneaut Valley area resident and school district employee, said she was speaking as a parent. She noted her daughter who, in attending college was lower, or behind some others, that her daughter worked hard to catch up and did although that was not true for some other students. She said the best solution is for everyone to work together and offered her personal and professional support.

A final speaker from the CV area noted her attendance at many committee meetings and said there was a lack of information getting out and that the B.US.S. committees were not all working with the same information. That would not be unusual among committees.