Community scrutinizes NCSD reconfiguration proposals at town hall

In the first of two town hall meetings organized by the Newton Community School District to discuss proposals that could close two elementary school buildings, about 50 to 60 community members showed up Aug. 15 to primarily ask about transportation issues, costs to residents and possible loss of west side schools.

Robyn Friedman, chair of the Newton school board, said the purpose of these town hall meetings is to educate and engage the public on a topic that district officials have been involved with for a lengthy amount of time. School board members are aware they need to make a significant change to district buildings.

“This is not something we have come to easily or lightly, but it is something all seven of us have fully understood,” she said. “Our current structure of four elementary schools is not sustainable into the future based on the actual numbers and the projected numbers of our district.”

Friedman continued to say the goal of the meetings was to make sure the public has better knowledge of the information presented to school board members and for wider understanding of the “why” behind this challenging decision. Another purpose of the meetings was for the district to hear questions and feedback.

Newton Superintendent Tom Messinger said questions and comments that did not get a response will still be collected. The district will later post its replies on the website. Tim Bloom, director of business services, provided ample data that showed the district will not be able to sustain itself in the near future.

Enrollment has steadily dropped over the past several years. Newton’s certified count to the state for October 2022 was about 2,957 students, which was an increase by about 17 students from the year before. But by the end of the 2022-2023 school year, Newton was down 96 students.

Important to note, the certified count is partially inflated because it includes the 240 students who are open enrolled to other school districts. There are also about 40 students open enrolled into Newton. Altogether, that is a net decrease of about 200 students, so roughly 2,757 students.

Financials for the school district do not look promising if Newton does nothing to stop the bleeding. Bloom’s data shows the school district will break even by FY24 and maintain its balance. By FY25, the school’s fund balance drops by $500,000. The next year the school district will be down $1 million.

It doesn’t get much better by FY27 or FY28. Which ultimately means the school district will be exceeding its spending authority and get a meeting with the School Budget Review Committee “to beg for forgiveness and have a plan of action to reduce expenditures and (make) cuts immediately.”

Bloom said, “We don’t want to be in that boat. Other schools have closed (because of overspending) and we don’t want to have to deal with that.”

In the community Q&A portion of the town hall, residents asked how transportation would affect students living on the west side, presuming the scenarios in which Woodrow Wilson Elementary and Thomas Jefferson Elementary are the buildings chosen to close down.

Messinger said the school district will follow the same transportation guidelines it has in place regardless of building closures. The superintendent said the time requirements for students on a bus would also remain the same. Currently, some bus routes finish in a half hour while others take the full amount.

“Your longest bus routes are the ones that go out into the country and drive the greatest distance but don’t have the most kids on them,” Messinger said, noting high school routes are a maximum of 75 minutes. “You’re still going to have those same types of scenarios. But the requirements are still the same on us.”

Other residents worried about the implications to the west side of town by having no west side elementary school buildings. Messinger said this exact topic has been discussed at the board table and is something that officials are taking into consideration. Again, the superintendent stressed no decision has been made.

“Definitely things to take into account,” he said. “One of the things that surprised people was the issue of TJ not being one of the ones that surfaced. Traffic flow is a problem at TJ. For folks that have not seen that, we have people that park across the highway at the furniture store parking lot to await time to pick up kids.”

Some attendees took issue with their only options being a reduction of Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson, criticizing the lack of any west side elementary.

Rachelle Hines of FRK Architects | Engineers said the existing site of Woodrow Wilson does not serve as well as it should when it comes to entries and dropoffs, especially if it was to take on more students than it has currently. Woodrow Wilson is the largest site. It is possible to keep it, but it’s potentially more costly.

Community members also wanted to know if administrators focused on students leaving the district. Messinger said that is always a focus. Public school districts do not want students to leave. Newton is losing students, and by being the largest school in the county it is going to have more open enrollments out than in.

“Our primary focus should be to set up the best educational opportunities for our kids and become really good at it and have the best district available and move forward with that,” Messinger said. “…We can’t always focus on the ones that have left. We have to make sure that we’re making people want to stay.”

When looking at the price comparisons for each building needing improvements in the school district, residents were quick to point out that the high school actually had the most costs. They questioned why the district needs to make all of the changes to the elementary schools.

Messinger said one of the biggest factors is the need to reduce spending. While the high school has needs within the facility itself — it has a lot of open and inefficient space — it does not do anything to eliminate the problem Newton is experiencing with the budget.

“We have fewer students, which means fewer revenue,” Messinger said. “Currently, we get about $7,600 per student that you’re allowed to spend out of your general fund. When you lose or are down close to right around 100 kids to where we were a year ago and you figure that up, you have to reduce spending.”

Others questioned if taxes would go up if the school district passed a $4.05 levy. Messinger said taxes would not increase. But it still takes a public vote to pass.

The last question submitted by the group suggested the community member was not convinced administrators presented the best options for long-term success.

“What are the chances we scrap it and start over? What about moving eighth grade to the high school and fourth grade to Berg?”

Messinger said anything is possible. But it depends on whether it would really be in the best interest of all of the students. Moving eighth grade to the high school could be done because there is open space, but Messinger questioned the advantages to those eighth graders being placed with high schoolers.

At the same time, he questioned the advantages to moving fourth grade to Berg Middle School. This is where things get difficult.

“I’m not saying either one of those is a bad idea, but obviously what one person feels is the secret to success, somebody else feels is a negative item for us,” Messinger said. “And that is really what’s going to make this the most challenging situation for our school board.”