They had to set up extra chairs to accommodate the overflow parents attending the Cleveland Heights City Council meeting on Monday, April 2nd. The parents were there to voice their disapproval of the city’s decision to discontinue paying for crossing guards and to cancel the community center’s after school program. The city of Cleveland Heights had announced these and other cuts to the city’s budget in response to the March defeat of a proposed income tax increase.

Cara Kless, a parent of children at Noble Elementary School asked city council members to be cautious and to reconsider cutting the crossing guards because it was a cut that would jeopardize the lives of children. Ms. Kless pointed out that “the safety of children walking on public streets is a council issue.”

Yvonne Dowell, an after-care examiner with Cuyahoga County Family Services and the mother of children at Noble Elementary School, said that in her job, she has the opportunity to visit many day care centers and see first hand the lack of quality affordable day care. “The quality of child care offered by the community center’s after school program matches or surpasses more costly programs,” said Ms Dowell stressing that the program “is very well organized and offers a variety of quality programs that keep children engaged and help them with their homework in an atmosphere of caring.”

A letter from the parents to council members questioned what kind of message this was sending to families with children who might be considering moving to Cleveland Heights. Ranelle Huber, a Noble area resident warned, “cuts like these send a message that families with children are not a priority to the city.”

Vice Mayor Evans responded to the concerns raised by the parents and stated that their opinions and comments were valued by council. She said that since March 4 council and staff have reviewed all the city’s programs and services to determine which areas to cut. She pointed out that the after school program costs $140,000 per year to run but only brings in $87,130 in revenue. The after school program will be open until the end of the school year and the city manager and Superintendent Delisle are looking at the issue of crossing guards to see if there are any reasonable alternatives.

Councilman Wilcox pointed out that by law, Cleveland Heights must have a balanced budget. Even though almost 50% of the city’s budget comes from police, EMS, and fire departments, the city is trying to spread out the impact of cuts as much as possible. Councilman Tumeo commented that the decision of what to cut was not made “in the dark of night”, but that council was trying to look at all options for making 2 million dollars in budget cuts during this fiscal year. He said that council looked at raising fees for the after school program but felt that would have made it unaffordable. Council is also looking at what services other cities provide for their residents. “Council is trying to minimize the impact as much as possible and is looking at creative solutions,” said Mr. Tumeo.

Councilwoman Caplan said that council did not tell citizens what cuts they might be facing if the income tax levy were to fail because “they were hopeful the community would see the importance of passing the income tax increase and that it would pass.” Some of the additional cuts the city is making include:

· Reducing the Focus Magazine to two issues a year

· Eliminating the Housing Service

· Cutting by attrition by not filling open positions

· Cuts to the Senior program and raising fees

· Eliminating Student Services

· Reducing the hours the community center is open

· Eliminating pay raises for city employees and eliminating overtime

· Cutting five police officers, three firefighters and one building department person.

Many of the parents though felt that cutting programs that impact the safety and wellbeing of our most vulnerable residents, the children, needed to be reconsidered. Tracy Adognravi pointed out as she left the meeting “cutting crossing guards jeopardizes the safety of all our community’s children regardless of where they live or what private, parochial, or public schools they attend.”

Lita Gonzalez, a long time community volunteer and an aspiring writer, artist and gardener, lives in Cleveland Heights with her husband Mark. Both her daughters are Heights High graduates.