A large crowd awaits the start of the Fieldcrest Board of Education meeting.
Before a crowd of over 300 people, the Fieldcrest Board of Education voted to keep Fieldcrest South elementary school in Minonk open. Board member Scott Hillenburg made a motion to adopt attendance centers and keep all 4 school buildings in the school district open for the school year 2017-2018. The motion was seconded by Tim McNamara. The motion was approved by 6 of the board members with board member Greg Kroeschen voting no. Mr. Kroeschen said his vote was not against keeping the school buildings open but against attendance centers as he felt that elementary students should go to school in their home community.
The vote was a welcome relief to the Minonk residents in attendance as it meant Fieldcrest South will be kept open. The configuration of the attendance centers as to which school building will house certain grades will be determined at a later date.
Prior to the vote board members made their comments regarding attendance centers and school closings. Board member Scott Hillenburg said attendance centers will cost more money but it would benefit the students, especially gifted students. He said the faculty is in favor of attendance centers. But he said we have to deal with the building issue and that buildings shouldn't be closed until a building plan is done. He said consolidations are not fair and a building will have to be closed in the future.
Board member Greg Kroeschen was not in favor of attendance centers and felt there should be an elementary school in each community. He said he doesn't want all the elementary grades at Fieldcrest South because it has limited parking space, no drop off place for students, the gym is too small and there is no grass playground.
Board member Danielle Reichman was in favor of attendance centers and said there was a disconnect between the grades in the different schools. She said it is hard to keep the same grades at each school at the same level because teachers are not physically able to share their teaching plans. She said there is no way to keep all the buildings open as enrollment continues to decline.
Board member Tammi Coons was in favor of attendance centers and said gifted students will especially benefit from it.
Board member Tim McNamara said he was always in favor of attendance centers also citing the benefit for gifted students. He said he has tried to do what is best for the school district and is in favor of keeping the 4 school buildings open at this time.
Board member Tom Barth said the school district is still MDR, Toluca and Wenona instead of Fieldcrest. He said we need to get over that mindset and come together as one community. He said he can't see closing Fieldcrest South after spending all that money on a new addition.
Board president Joe Kirkpatrick said sometime in the future a building will have to be closed but not right now. He said we are doing not what is best for the community but what is best for the school district.
At the beginning of the meeting several speakers addressed the board on the attendance center issue and the possible closing of Fieldcrest South. Donna Hartzler said a decision to close a school building should be done by the voters and not by the board.
Jonathan Stears said the board should consider the effect of declining real estate values when deciding whether or not to close a school building.
Ronald Marshall said an offer of 80 acres was made to the board for the building of a new school building in Minonk and there was no response from the board. He said the board is going from one issue to another. He said Minonk didn't bring in Toluca and Wenona into the school district so that Minonk can lose its schools to another community.
Holly Kearfoot said the school board has not done any cost analysis and has not considered all expenses when deciding on closing Fieldcrest South. She mentioned that Minonk has the highest property value in the district and the decline in property tax dollars must be considered when closing a school.
Jim Liner asked why private citizens had to do a study to show that Fieldcrest South can hold PK through 3 which contradicts the options presented by a Fieldcrest study and why didn't Fieldcrest provide this information to the public? He asked why the board would consider keeping Fieldcrest East open when it will require $14 million to renovate and why the board would consider closing the building that has the least issues and keeping open the building that has the most issues? He concluded by saying the public is looking for accountability and transparency from the board when making decisions that uses taxpayers money.
Rich Luckey asked why a cost-benefit analysis hasn't been done. He asked if the school can have someone do a cost-benefit study on attendance centers and the building project.
Elizabeth Palm said the board has to do what is right for the school and not put the priorities of a town ahead of the school's. She said the board needs to be able to cut costs or else we could end up like Streator on the State's watch list. She said it is not about one town.
Minonk Mayor Bill Koos said it has been a tradition for Minonk to have a high school and an elementary school. He said tradition is what keeps the family and the community together. A decision based solely on cost is not the right approach. A community's tradition must also be considered and preserved.
Stan Weber thought the survey the school put out last year was poorly designed and said decisions based on the results of that survey is illogical.
Lynn Manning asked why close a school in the biggest city in the school district? She said she was not for consolidation and does not see any great benefit from consolidation. She asked the board to reconsider closing Fieldcrest South.
Kimberly Smith said she doesn't want to see young kids riding on buses. She said kids learn better in an air-conditioned environment like at Fieldcrest South. She is upset that our tax money was used to build a new addition at South and then to have it shut down.
In other business Superintendent Dr. Dan Oakley said the school does not have a cohesive curriculum across the district and they are working to fill the gaps. He mentioned they are working to integrate student performance into teachers evaluation. 33 teachers were evaluated this year with 14 receiving an excellent rating, 18 receiving a proficient rating and 1 receiving an improvement rating. He cited frustration over the PARC test scores saying the tests are different each year which makes it impossible to compare test scores from one year to the next.
Dr. Oakley said a building inspection report was conducted last week and the school district received a B rating which is regarded as making acceptable progress. He cited examples of where ceiling tiles must be replaced and safety glass must be installed in certain areas.
Dr. Oakley concluded by saying it appears the State of Illinois might be making progress toward resolving the State's budget as the politicians in Springfield are staying over into the weekend holiday hopefully to work on the budget.