Tears shed for TRI Academy, a Marysville levy loss casualty, were still fresh on the lectern Thursday night while a presentation tipping possible future cuts waited in the cue.
Parents, educators and community members spoke passionately to the board of education, seeking a way to save the program which gives credit deficient students a fresh start.
About 45 minutes later, a PowerPoint slide noted that a second levy defeat in November could lead to extreme cuts like cutting extracurriculars or closing Raymond Elementary. Other potential cost-saving measures included elimination of unified arts, elective courses and school resource officers.
“Not saying levy failure would lead to all of these things being implemented,” Treasurer Todd Johnson said. “Just saying that some of those things would be needed.”
After the district’s 8.4-mill, five-year levy failed earlier this month, a contingency plan to trim $2 million from next year’s budget was enacted. That plan included a hiring freeze, elimination of TRI Academy and reductions to extracurricular expenses. The planned elimination of all day, every day kindergarten was shelved when a report indicated the new state budget would provide additional money.
In a report looking back at the levy loss, Johnson reported on some of the reasoning offered by those casting “no” votes and what the district could do to win their votes on a future measure.
One such argument centered around an anti-growth/anti-tax mentality. Those voters, he said, would vote against any new tax regardless of the impact on the school.
Voters with such a mindset would favor extreme cuts such as the Raymond closure and the elimination of extracurriculars, unified arts, electives and school resource officers. The slide said such items would likely be included on the contingency plan for a November levy attempt.
“Whenever we do have our levy on the ballot next our cut list is probably going to look a little bit like that or at least some of these items will probably be on there.”
The mention of closing an elementary school caught the attention of board member Jermaine Ferguson, as he asked who created the list of future cuts.
“We’re not suggesting that is the contingency list at all,” Superintendent Diane Allen said. “We’re saying those are the types of things, and the extent of what you would have to get at, to get to the number we need to get to.”
The district has not begun to discuss what form a November levy ask would take. A resolution would be needed in late July to get a measure on the ballot and Allen said a second contingency cut list has not been created.
“That is not our recommendation for a list,” Allen said. “We’re not asking for you to approve anything.”
Ferguson responded that such impactful items should have more consideration before being mentioned in a public meeting.
“I understand you aren’t asking to approve it, but it’s listed and it’s in the public discourse … that’s pretty powerful,” he said.
The power of cuts was on display earlier in the meeting, when five supporters of TRI Academy addressed the board. The program, created in 2017 and housed at the district’s Chestnut Street building, allows credit deficient high school students a way to catch up and graduate.
Many of the students accepted into the academy found no success in large traditional classrooms. With individual attention from teachers, a flexible schedule and a less stressful environment, the students focus on academics rather than distractions.
TRI Academy Principal Scott Stackhouse, who has been reassigned as an intervention specialist next year, said 231 students have been able to graduate after going through the academy. He called the academy the best credit recovery program in central Ohio.
He said children found a way to succeed despite coming into the program tired, hungry, unmotivated and discouraged, many having addiction or mental health issues.
Union County Probate and Juvenile Judge Rick Rodger said those types of students are exactly why TRI Academy needs to be saved. He said his court deals with students who are on probation and need structure that they cannot find in a typical high school.
“These children may be different, but they are not less,” Rodger said.
He said his court and the youths it serves benefit greatly from the connections they form with staff, finding adults who believe in them. He said the district did the right thing by prioritizing such marginalized students and empowering them to succeed.
Ellen Traucht, retired Director of Student Services and Special Education for the district, said the program gives 50-60 children a chance to earn a diploma, but more importantly gives them a future. She said the staff at TRI Academy serve as mentors, parents, cheerleaders and guidance counselors for the students.
She said earning a diploma improves the self-esteem and mental health of young adults, a benefit she can verify through her work with inmates at the Ohio Reformatory for Women. She said many of the women at the reformatory are dropouts and have carried the regret of not finishing school.
Janae Mulvaine works as a school navigator contracted through Maryhaven and added that many of the students graduating from TRI Academy are the first people in their families to earn a diploma. She said the students bond with the staff and learn to love their school experience.
She said she was at the school the day Stackhouse told students that the academy would be closed next year. Students said they could organize an online fund drive or hold bake sales to try to save it, she recalled.
The most powerful plea came from Kathy Foster, a single mother working long hours as a nurse. She said her son, depressed and overwhelmed by school, started his junior year with no credits and a grade point average below 1.
“Suddenly you are given the opportunity to interview at TRI Academy and the world opens up to you like a rose,” Foster said. “Scott Stackhouse and staff at TRI Academy have been the fertilizer my son needed in this scenario.”
Her son just finished his junior year with 14.25 credits and a 3.4 GPA.
She cried as she described her son’s new confidence that he is intelligent. She worried about what would happen to the next wave of students who need a different type of school.
“I don’t know what is going to happen to the future of the children of Marysville without this program,” Foster said. “It is detrimental to this district to lose this gem of a school.”