Decatur Central High School - Budget Cuts Target School Safety

The budget for the MSD Decatur Township has been rocked by the profligate debt amassed by Superintendent Don Stinson and Assistant Superintendent Jeff Baer, abetted by the rubber stamp school board members Dale Henson, Don Huffman, Cathy Wiseman, and Judy Collins (the jury is still out on the newest member, Doug Greenwald). Among the cuts made are not the salaries of the uber-rich Administrators, nor have there been cutbacks to the plans to move the Central Office staff to the extravagant confines of the Concentra Building.

Cuts have been and continue to be inflicted upon the School District Security Staff. For months now, contracted, minimum wage, mall cops have been hired for Decatur Central High School. Highly trained Decatur School Deputies have been let go and plans continue to whittle the force to one or even zero.

The cheap hires are not trained in any school emergency situations. Should there be a natural or man-made disaster to occur on campus, there will be no Security personnel who are trained to deal with the initial moments of crisis until reinforcements from Homeland Security and/or IMPD can arrive. This is an intolerable situation for Decatur's students and should be raising alarms all over the Township about the quality of decisions coming from Stinson, Baer, and the rubber stamping members of the School Board.

The School Board should grow a spine and say enough is enough. They must insist that the trained staff of the Districts Security Department be returned to our schools and find other ways to balance the budget.