Valparaiso teachers weigh in on $3.2M budget shortfall

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Charles Foster president of the Valparaiso Teachers Association addresses the crowd in downtown Valparaiso Wednesday afternoon February, 23, 2011. Teachers and supporters rallied against proposed state laws regarding education. | Jeffrey D. Nicholls~Sun-Times Media

Updated: March 4, 2012 8:13AM

VALPARAISO — Charlie Foster, president of the Valparaiso Teachers Association, brought down the house Thursday night when he told the cash-strapped school community he will no longer discuss what teachers make.

“We make a difference. We make things better. We make people want to come to Valparaiso,” said Foster, whose statements were met with roaring applause from the crowd gathered in Valparaiso High School to hear how their school board will address the $3.2 million shortfall in its General Fund budget through 2012.

Last month, in a similar workshop, the board broke down reasons for the shortfall and took public input for solutions.

Suggestions which will be compiled, minus personal attacks, and presented on the corporation’s web page in three to four days, said board member Jim Jorgensen.

Foster thanked the board for including the Valparaiso Teachers Association in discussions.

“We’re grateful to have a voice. We have done our best to give them all the information and tools they need,” Foster said.

Foster compared the last five work sessions with board and administration representatives to the scene in the movie “Apollo 13” where the engineers are handed a box of “things” with which to build a solution for the spacecraft in danger of not making it back to earth.

Solutions will be forthcoming, said Jorgensen, who remains optimistic that a solution will be met that will maintain the quality of one of Indiana’s higher-performing districts.

Among the options available to the community is to vote to restore to the General Fund some or all of the money stripped from the district. These reductions were due both to changes in the state’s property tax laws and the states’ response to the national fiscal crisis, he said.

Curt Pletcher of the accounting firm H.J. Umbaugh and Associates outlined the referendum process. Recommendations for a referendum must be passed at the regular board meeting Feb. 21 in order to meet the time line for getting such a referendum on the Center Township ballots in May.

Superintendent Andrew Melin said the committee agreed that expenditure reductions, if any, must be fair, must minimize the impact on the classroom, must keep excellence as the focus and must maintain quality in the classroom.

“It’s a very serious undertaking with a serious ramification for the community,” Melin said.