“Difficult choices will be discussed and decided upon in the upcoming months. ... The board and administration want to be fair and maintain services to students as much as possible,” he said.
The proposed budget reductions for the 2011-12 school year include:
- $992,600 in central office and administrative reductions, including the elimination of 4.5 administrative positions, reducing work days for all administrators and eliminating in-county administrative mileage reimbursement.
- $1,685,800 in operational savings, including 10 percent reductions in building expenses and 15 percent reductions in departmental budgets, reduction of janitorial and clerical staffing, closing buildings during the month of July except for summer school sites, and renegotiating copier leases.
- $316,000 in program reductions, including Gifted Services, electives and reduced testing.
- $1,178,350 in staff reductions, including reductions in non-core academic teaching staff, hiring costs, staff training and supplemental costs.
- Generate $23,250 in fee increases, including paying to participate and charging for AP tests.
Hancock said additional savings can be made during upcoming contract negotiations and with an early retirement severance package offering that is in the works.
“If we do all of these, there’s no doubt that our district is going to change,” said board president Larry Bowling. “We’ve been trying to do more with less for years, but there’s no doubt this is going to hurt.”
Hancock advised the board that it is past the deadline to get a levy on the May ballot, and that they would have to decide in July whether to put a levy issue on the November ballot. He said a 1-mill levy would raise about $880,000.
“So you’re looking at significant millage just to retain the loss,” he said.
Board member Glenn Stitsinger said, “We’ll make the reductions before we go for an operating levy.”
“In my 24 years on the board, this is probably the worst,” Bowling said. “This is not fun.”
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