EATON TWP. — A community forum for the Midview Schools is set for 9 a.m. to noon today at the West Elementary School gymnasium.

The school board will have a question-and-answer sessions with residents about the 7.51-mill additional emergency levy that goes before voters on May 4, Superintendent John Kuhn said.

If the levy fails, Kuhn has prepared a list of $748,800 in proposed cuts for the 2010-11 school year that would affect everything from whether  counseling is available to intramural sports.

In recent years, the district eliminated high school busing and cut teachers, administrators and other staff.

Kuhn said proposed new cuts and fee increases include:

• Cutting several teaching positions, counselors and a psychologist, saving $385,700;
• Cutting $144,800 by eliminating or combining non-teaching positions involving secretaries and other staff;
• Increasing student fees from $55 to $90, bringing in an extra $86,000;
• Saving $29,300 by eliminating supplemental contracts for the middle school athletic director and coaches for non-conference seventh- and eighth-grade basketball;
• Reducing copy costs by $70,000 by having teachers prepare materials rather than sending them to a copy center;
• Replacing the laptops assigned to teachers with less-expensive desktop computers when they fail, saving an estimated $15,000 a year.

The district — one of the county’s largest with 3,450 students — will end in the black this year, and the proposed cuts for next year should help the district live within its means, Kuhn said.

The superintendent said the real trouble would come in 2011-12, when “the cuts would be even more drastic and dismantle a very good school district and the opportunity we provide for kids.”

Schools Treasurer Floyd Parsson said Friday he was revising the financial forecast and did not have figures on the projected deficit in two years if the levy fails.

But one thing is certain, Parsson said: The district will not want to relinquish control to the state in a fiscal emergency.

“They will come in and cut everything — you might not have sports activities or a prom,” Parsson said.

Kuhn said individuals interested in the future of the Midview Schools are encouraged to go to the forum to voice opinions and ask questions.

Property values are definitely affected by quality of schools, said Faye Stacey, president of the union representing about 140 nonteaching staff and a member of the Funding the Future levy campaign.

She said voters have not approved additional levy money since 1993, when a levy passed on the 11th attempt.

Midview Schools is last in spending per pupil among schools in Lorain County, but she said there’s plenty to be proud of.

“We seem to be doing a good job and turning out outstanding students going to college or getting jobs,” Stacey said. “That keeps you going.”

Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or CindyLeise@hotmail.com.

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