With a little more than two months until the Falls School Board makes decisions on what positions and programs it must cut to save the district money, few members of the public seized the opportunity Wednesday to provide input.

The meeting was an open forum format to allow for the public to discuss with the board proposals to offset the roughly $500,000 the district is losing in state funding with the loss of about 70 students since last spring.

Only a few people, however, took the floor.

Jennifer Windels, president of International Falls Partners in Education and mother of two elementary students, said all the information presented by different groups at a Jan. 29 special meeting is valuable and important to the school.

“I don't think there are one or two places you should put your effort,” she told board members. “I hope you will look at really thinking about what the school's major priorities are.”

Windels said keeping class sizes smaller, especially at the elementary level, is important.

“When my daughter was in first grade, her class had about 17 (students),” she said. “Then her second grade class went from four sections to three sections... with about 27 kids.”

She said she volunteered a few hours a week both years and noticed a “significant” difference in the chaos in the room and the difficult time teachers had dividing their time equally among students. 

“They had to stick with kids with a little more behavior issues,” she said.

Windels also stressed the need for the Falls to focus on its special education program. In fact, she said she believes the strength of similar programs in neighboring districts is what has sent some families down the road.

“It's important to look at serving those (special needs) children well,” she said. “We need to have enough special education staff to meet the needs of those kids.”

Last month, Falls and West End Elementary Principal Melissa Tate said the district should focus on investing in young grades to ensure future success of students. One area in particular need of restructuring, she said, is the district's preschool program.

Audience members Wednesday night agreed.

Rotary President Mike Ward encouraged board members to call on Rotarians for assistance.

“We have a focus and a main mission on literacy,” he said of the service organization. “There are projects we get involved in at an international level...We help other countries and school districts where kids might not have any books to read...We realized there is some of this going on in our own community. Some of our kids aren't getting the chance for early childhood education that leads to a better education in general.”

Following Ward's comments, Rotarian Jeff Hardwig said investing in preschool is the answer to successful education. 

“If you have a program that starts in preschool, that's going to be a long-term investment for a child,” he said. “It's going to multiply over the years.”

He added that difficult home situations may pose as education barriers for some young children and a strong preschool program is needed as an investment for those kids.

“Preschool is more bang for your buck,” he said.

Superintendent Nordy Nelson Thursday told The Journal he was surprised there wasn't more input from the public Wednesday night, but said people could still have a chance to speak - just not in quite the same format.

“The neext meeting on March 11, the board will do more discussing of the different options and maybe throw some options out,” Nelson said. “There will be an open forum, but it won't be the entire meeting like (Wednesday).”

Final decisions are expected to be made when the board meets April 28.