Parents, teachers sound off on Harlem School District’s proposed cuts

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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MACHESNEY PARK — Parents and teachers in the Harlem School District pushed back on Monday against plans to close a $3.1 million budget deficit by shuttering two schools, replacing neighborhood schools with two-year grade bands, and reducing the number of early childhood education classes.

More than 250 people attended a two-hour public hearing inside Harlem High School’s auditorium. It was the first of three such hearings being held this week as the School Board gathers feedback before a meeting and potential vote in one week.

“I’m asking you to slow down and truly listen to the families and staff that are telling you this proposal is harmful. Don’t just check a box that says community input gathered. Show us that our voices actually matter in the outcome,” Jennifer Hartmann, a member of the Olson Park Elementary School PTA, said during the hearing. “There are other solutions worth exploring. Ones that don’t sacrifice stability, mental health and neighborhood schools in the name of efficiency.”

The district has laid out several possible scenarios to close its budget gap. What’s under consideration now is known as Scenario 7, and it involves closing Olson Park and Maple elementary schools while reconfiguring other elementary buildings so that they no longer function as traditional first through fifth grade schools. Instead, two-year grade spans would be housed in each building.

“Olson is not just a building, it’s a hub of relationship, memories and support,” Hartmann said. “The staff here have shown up for kids in ways that will never appear line-by-line in a financial report, but will absolutely shape who they will grow up to be.”

Ending familiar first through fifth grade neighborhood schools would reduce parents ability to stay engaged with their school, said Jordan Smith, a parent and educator.

“Under the proposed model, parent communities will be more fragmented,” she said. “A single family could be involved in four to five schools at once. In my case, I will have next year a middle-schooler, a fifth grader, a third grader, a kindergartener, and possibly a preeschooler if he made the cut. That means different schools for family nights, conferences, concerts, fundraisers and meet-the-teacher-events.”

Smith said the concept would also be disruptive for students in their development.

“Students would change schools three times in six years,” she said. “The research shows that multiple transitions in the early primary years can be detrimental to both academic and social-emotional development.”

The proposal also involves reducing early childhood education from nine classes with a capacity of 360 students to two with 80 students.

Olivia Carstens, who said her son had a “transformational” experience at Parker Early Education Center, said multiple studies show that early childhood education increases students’ literacy, math proficiency and graduation rates. Kids who enter kindergarten not ready or only partially ready do not catch up to their peers, she said.

Under the proposal the Parker Center would become a K-1 school. A cutback early childhood education program, which would focus only on the highest-need students, would be housed in a magnet school at Marquette Elementary.

“Families have moved to Harlem for their early childhood program. We are setting kids in our district up to be behind before they even set foot in the door,” she said during the hearing. “If the idea is that we simply cannot afford early childhood, unfortunately, I don’t think we can afford to not to invest in early childhood. These cuts are pennywise and pound foolish.”

Amy Chadwick, a parent who is also a teacher at Harlem High School, said the proposed cuts affect students in specialized programs such as life skills, learning lab and Structured Teaching Program more than their peers in general education.

“These programs support some of our district’s most vulnerable learners, yet under the current plan these students would not receive the same opportunity that general education students would,” she said. “This sends an unintentional, harmful message that their stability matters less, that their friendships are secondary, and that their community can be taken apart and rebuilt on demand.”

Tim Doherty, a 2006 Harlem graduate who is the principal at Riverview Elementary School in South Beloit, said the frequent school changes that would come with eliminating neighborhood schools would be detrimental to students.

“I can personally attest to the challenges that frequent transitions present regarding student anxiety, logistics, vertical alignment, and student report card data,” he said.

He said the district should follow Scenario 2, which would preserve neighborhood schools. He said that he and his wife asked two of their four children — who are third and fifth graders at Ralston — what they liked about school as they were preparing for Monday’s public hearing.

“What we discovered was that all the things that they loved about school would be stripped away from them under Scenario 7,” he said. “Hearing the proposal of Scenario 7 was not only shocking and disheartening for me and my wife, it was also embarrassing to think that it was even a viable option in the minds of our district administration. I want my kids to be fourth generation Harlem graduates, but I’ve accepted the fact that this may not be the case if Scenario 7 is approved.”

District officials have said they’re forced to explore cuts and changes due to falling enrollment, reduced revenue and increasing employee and health care costs.

The School Board is scheduled to meet Monday to vote on the proposal. Board members would also have the option to propose different solutions or delay a vote to allow for more time to consider the various options.

“We’re taking everything into account. I get it, it’s frustrating. There’s no perfect solution,” board member Aaron McKnight told the crowd at the end of Monday’s hearing. “There’s no right answer, but as a board we want to get it as close to that as possible.”

School leaders said they will do their best to answer several of the questions raised during Monday’s hearing at the start of the next public hearing on Tuesday.

What’s next?

There are two more public hearings this week on the proposed cuts. Then, the School Board is slated to vote on its decision next week.

Public hearings

• 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9 at Harlem High School, 1 Huskie Circle, Machesney Park
• 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11 at Harlem High School

School Board meeting

• 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 15 at Harlem High School, 1 Huskie Circle, Machesney Park

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas