After listening to a bevy of emotional and sometimes tearful pleas to spare employees and programs from cuts, Dixon school officials voted Thursday to approve a list of budget reductions for the 2009-10 school year.

 

After listening to Superintendent Roger Halberg give his assessment of the dire financial situation that the Dixon Unified School District is in with regard to the state budget crisis, trustees seemingly had no other option than to approve a budget that trims $3 million through the elimination of the district sports program, moving Maine Prairie High School to Dixon High School, reduction of employees and the possible closure of an elementary school.

 

"I don't know anybody on this board or in this community who wants to increase class sizes, cut anyone's pay or put an end to sports. I just don't want you to think that the board doesn't care about these things. That couldn't be further from the truth. But we have to prepare ourselves for these cuts," said trustee Jim Ernst.

 

Even after the comment period had passed and trustees began their deliberations, teachers, parents, community members and even students continued to voice their concerns.

 

"If the board agrees to get rid of class size reduction, I could have up to 29 students. This would negatively impact the learning of all the students in my classroom," said Tanya LaBass, a first-grade teacher at Anderson Elementary School. "Currently, almost all of my students are reading at grade level and I don't feel confident that I could say the same thing next year without class size reduction."

 

With tears in her eyes, Nancy Hesling, a parent with two children attending Maine Prairie High School, praised all of the work and caring attention that staff has given her children. She said her daughter was failing classes at the traditional high school, but is now receiving A's and B's.

 

"She's happy there. She has goals now when before she had none," said Hesling. "To move them to shared campus, I believe it will have a depressing impact."

 

Much of the night's discussion centered on the loss of athletics.

 

Tom Crumpacker, athletic director at Dixon High School, warned that the entire community would be losing a valuable resource. "We all know that we are in a thankless position, but we have to look at the real picture of how the students and this community will be impacted," said Crumpacker. "These kids will have nowhere to go, no aspirations to participate. That's a serious issue."

 

But after several hours of hand wringing and sometimes contentious debate, Halberg addressed the facts about Dixon's budget to everyone inside the Dixon High School theater.

 

The bottom line is that the district has less than a month to prove to the Solano County Office of Education that it has a plan in place to make the $3 million in cuts necessary to keep the district fiscally solvent and the deadline for issuing pink slips to teachers is approaching, according to Halberg.

 

"We're at the point now where what else can we do," said Halberg.

 

The second half of Thursday's meeting was a board workshop in which trustees stayed to discuss a plan for how the budget would be put into place.