Hermon set to cut sports Council to hear comments

If the Hermon School Committee isn’t able to slice its budget for the next school year by $400,000 some other way, activities such as athletics, art, and foreign language may be reduced or completely gone next year.

The Hermon Town Council will meet Wednesday night to hear public comments about the school budget and the prospect that those activities might be eliminated for next year.

Doug Smith, the chairman of the school committee, said the issue comes down to making a decision about the future of the town’s schools.

“What’s more important? Supporting the public schools at a reasonable level or lower tax rates that may support businesses and would probably make a good setting for a retirement community?”

The council will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Hermon High Auditorium. Smith said the council has made it known that it is willing to listen to public opinion on the budget cuts.

The school committee is sending a letter to Hermon residents Friday with a comprehensive list of proposed budget cuts. Among those, in addition to athletics, are the elimination of home economics, a reduction of foreign languages at the high school, the elimination of art instruction from kindergarten through eighth grade, and a reduction of music in grades K-5.

Middle school athletics also would be eliminated.

At the high school athletic level, all sports – tennis, golf, spring and indoor track, baseball, cheering, girls and boys soccer, girls and boys basketball, baseball, softball, cross country, skiing, wrestling, and field hockey – would be eliminated.

The comprehensive list totals $458,534 in cuts.

In the letter, the committee lists several concerns if the reductions have to be made, including the effects of budget reductions on high school accreditation, teacher morale in the face of increased class sizes (especially at the primary school level), and the ability to attract and retain teachers.

Smith said there’s also concern that the Hermon schools would see a drop in tuition from the SAD 23 schools of Carmel and Levant that have a contract to send kids to Hermon High. The high school gets about $6,000 per tuition student. More than one-half of Hermon High’s enrollment comes from SAD 23.

“If these cuts are implemented, then I would suspect a lot of the SAD 23 students would opt for other schools,” he said.

In addition, Smith pointed out, Hermon is already more than $600 under the state’s per-pupil spending average of $5,848.87.

In April the committee submitted a budget with about $246,000 in reductions, Smith said. About a week later the town council requested another $400,000 in cuts.

The school committee met again Monday to brainstorm a list of items to cut from the budget.

Hawks baseball coach Mark Farnham said he’s hoping to reschedule a baseball game set for that night so that he and his team can attend the May 16 town council meeting.

Hermon High athletic director Fritz Marseille said athletics account for 2-3 percent of the school’s budget.

“I think the whole thing’s a joke,” Marseille said. “When you start messing with athletics, you mess with kids’ lives. I told someone, if they cut athletics they might as well put the money into the police department because you’re going to have kids getting into trouble.”

Marseille said it’s likely the Hermon students aren’t fully aware yet of what’s going on because there hadn’t been much reaction to the news as of Wednesday. Farnham hadn’t heard the news until Wednesday night.