By Terri Wichmann, Guest Column

As a rule, I try to avoid any controversy within the community. But after seeing all the inaccurate information regarding the upcoming school referendum, I felt the need to speak out. As a volunteer member of the Albert Lea Area Schools Budget Advisory Committee, I would like to share some information I have learned about the referendum.

People who are concerned that the district is not managing its available funding are welcome to join the volunteers on the Budget Advisory Committee to the school board, or to attend any one of the other community advisory committees to the school board. Citizens can run for a seat on the school board to make the final, hard decisions based on the advice of these advisory committees.

If you&8217;re truly passionate about your beliefs, then you need to get involved in positive ways. I am very active in the schools and I love doing it! Besides being a member of the Budget Advisory Committee, I&8217;m also a paraeducator, and I&8217;m also a member of the community group supporting the referendum, called TEAM, because we do believe Together Education Achieves More.

TEAM and the Albert Lea Area Schools are two different entities. Are there some school district staff members and school board members on TEAM? Of course. I would be shocked if they weren&8217;t. Teaching is their life and they are very strong advocates for their students.

Like all districts going out for a referendum, the Albert Lea School District is required by law to mail out information to all property owners in the district regarding the referendum, so the district did send out one mailing. The school district will also have to pay for the election, which includes costs for absentee ballots, judges, etc.

TEAM has done all the other mailings, signs, brochures, ads, etc. The money TEAM raised is coming from donations from parents, business and people in our community who want to help maintain our educational program. TEAM is very thankful for such support, but we hope people realize it is not enough to have replaced the need for the referendum.

Certainly, it is a shame that we have to spend so much time, money, and emotion on a campaign just to maintain the quality of education we have in our communities. Just think, if the state had fully funded education as it did way back when, we wouldn&8217;t be in this situation and our donations could have been spent in other great ways to add to our schools.

Do you think the school board members enjoy having to ask their community for a referendum? I can tell you they don&8217;t enjoy it any more than any of us enjoy paying more taxes. But until financial support for schools changes at the state level, we have to take care of our own children and our community schools locally.

Below is a list of potential cuts. Yes, they are potential; hopefully, the referendum will be successful on both questions and the board members and advisory groups and district staff won&8217;t have to spend the hours working through them to come up with the final list of what will be cut for 2008-2009. This list of possible cuts came from the school board, administrators, staff and advisory groups.

– Increasing elementary class size by 3 or 4 students per classroom would save about $165,000. More students in each classroom will mean less individual attention for each child and probably less academic success for all students. The overall educational climate and safety of these crowded classrooms would be a great concern. Many parents would certainly consider moving their children to other school districts where class sizes are lower.

– Going to a four-day school week would save the district about $450,000. Research indicates that this move would not affect student achievement. Students would have a longer school day on the four days in session. But it would cause working families more money for day care and/or have many children at home by themselves.

– Closing an elementary building would save the district $500,000. But it will add more students to each classroom making it harder to reach all children&8217;s needs or increase student achievement for those not already doing grade level work. One closed building will affect all students and families in the district, because attendance boundaries would have to be redrawn to move students into three buildings. To make room in the three buildings for all students, classrooms for music and art and computer labs may have to become regular classrooms and these programs, however they are continued, probably would have their curriculum materials on a cart that would have to roll from room to room.

– Eliminating some of our sports programs would save the district $135,000 or $403,000 if all sports were cut. But it would leave more children with nothing to do and a risk of more kids getting into trouble. A greater concern is that students would leave the district by moving away or by driving to a nearby district which has the sport they want to participate in. Therefore, we lose all the funding that these students generate, not just the expenses of the sport.

– Changing Southwest Middle School and Albert Lea High School to a six-period day schedule would save about $425,000. The middle school concept would be lost, and no enrichment classes would be offered. The high school would eliminate many elective classes and core classes would be over crowded. The College in the Schools program would be reduced. Students would have very few music and art opportunities. The ag program would be reduced. Many students would likely leave the district and add to the financial concerns of the school district.

– Eliminating all-day, everyday kindergarten would save about $247,000. Our youngest learners would probably not achieve at the rate that our current students are. Not having all-day, everyday kindergarten will likely decrease the number of student making state standards. It is very likely that fewer students will be reading at grade level by the end of the third grade.

– Eliminating most of the extracurricular and nonathletic programs for middle school and high school students would save $62,000. Students would not have the opportunity to perform in public and the quality of these programs would fall dramatically. Student participation in these programs would diminish, and many students would likely seek out other school districts where this is funded adequately.

I hope that you will take this information and really think about what our children, community and future of Albert Lea will be. I encourage everyone to get out and exercise your right to vote. I also hope you will vote yes yes.

Terri Wichmann is an Albert Lea mother and a member of the Budget Advisory Committee for Albert Lea Area Schools.