The Albert Lea school board had a heated and emotional debate about the proposed staffing cuts it will have to vote on next week.

At a special workshop Tuesday evening, the board heard from administrators about the process they went through before deciding the district needed to cut teachers.

About 25 parents, students and community members were at the workshop to learn more about how the cuts would work and the effects it would have on the music programs at the schools.

The workshop started with Lori Volz, director of finance and operations for the district, and Mary Williams, director of teaching and learning, both detailing their work on the proposal. Superintendent Mike Funk then fielded questions from school board members.

Volz first talked about the funding the district is losing from state and federal sources. She also mentioned some of the things the district has done to find cost efficiencies, like making transportation companies compete to get a bid that will save the district $265,000 per year.

“Even with these cuts we’ll still be borrowing millions of dollars to pay our bills,” Volz said.

Williams then spoke about how the realignment of sixth-graders to Southwest Middle School and eighth-graders to Albert Lea High School means music teachers would have less classes at the elementary level and less travel time from Southwest, which reduced the need for one music teacher position. Because of tenure regulations, it would be the teacher with the least seniority, ALHS band director Peter Gepson.

“We’re hearing a lot about a teacher being cut, and it’s unfortunate,” Funk said. “The hardest part of my job is the month of April — it’s not a fun time to be a superintendent.”

Funk said eighth-graders will fit at the high school because of declining enrollment. He said in an effort to keep music educators, even with fewer students to teach, they don’t like to cut their hours to less than full time because they’d leave to find a full-time job. Funk said he expects even with five grades to teach that it won’t be much more of a workload for the high school band director. He also said he has complete confidence in all the teachers in the district and if the replacement didn’t work out they wouldn’t be staying.

“It’s my job to make sure the person teaching in front of your kids is doing the best job,” Funk said.

Board member Mark Ciota asked if cutting a sports program would put more money into the general fund that could be used for teacher salaries. Volz and Funk answered that sports programs cost much less than salaries, and it’s hard to cut programs when there has to be equal opportunities for boys and girls.

Board member Jill Marin asked if having band instruction at the fifth-grade level would keep the need for a full time position, and Funk told her it would. He did say that he doesn’t expect the budget system to get any better and that it would be something that would possibly have to be cut in a year.

Jeshua Erickson, a school board member, said he didn’t think the school should be adding programming while cutting teacher positions.

Ciota iterated he didn’t like the idea of the board creating programming to save one person’s job.

“It’s a very dangerous precedent to expand a program to save an individual,” Ciota said. “It’s gross and unfair to other teachers who will be without jobs.”

Marin then asked what other funding cuts are available to consider.

Funk said the district could keep increasing class sizes and mentioned that some high school classes have more than 40 students.

Marin said she was not only looking at dollar figures but also the fact that if Gepson left there would be a cost to the program. She said Gepson is a draw for the community, and it’s a cost she’s considering. Funk said he understands change is hard and that progress may slow, but that he believes the program will be successful in the long run.

“I have to give some credit to other professionals in the district,” Funk said.

Board Chairman Bill Leland said he hoped people contact the board members before the meeting on April 19. Board member Sally Ehrhardt said she doesn’t see a way out of cutting the teachers as proposed, but that she is upset about it.

“The current band director worked very hard and he’s not getting what he deserves,” Ehrhardt said.

Band booster meeting

Albert Lea High School’s band booster club also had a meeting Tuesday evening to discuss the proposed cuts and what they’ll say to the board at the April 19 school board meeting. Booster club president Mandy Hall said she’s supporting the program in general, not just keeping Gepson.

“He’s finally getting the music program back to where it was,” Hall said.

She said she’s heard from students who say they don’t plan to stay in the band program if he leaves. One parent, Paul Schmitt, attended the school board’s workshop before going to the booster club meeting. He said his son, a freshman, is disappointed that Gepson may not be his teacher next year. Schmitt said he went to the workshop to be more informed about the decision, but he thought it sounded like some of the board had already made a decision.

The next school board meeting will be at 5 p.m. April 19 in the board room at Brookside Education Center.