Special Budget Meeting

Just finished our special budget meeting. We had lots of discussion on the 4 topics that were delayed until today. The 4 items were a 5% reduction to Building Budgets/ Department Budgets, Eliminate 4 IMC Paraprofessionals at CG, TP, GD and HS, Extend walk area to 2 miles and Reduce Elementary Related Arts instructional minutes.

The 2 mile walk zone impacts more students than first discussed. Due to this the board agreed not to institute the walk zone as proposed. The cut to reduce the elementary arts was also removed from the list of potential cuts on a 7-0 vote.

The board also voted 6-1 to remove the building budgets from the list of potential cuts. The department budgets will still be discussed in the coming months for potential savings.

The IMC paraprofessionals discussion was original going to ask for more information regarding how the staff would be utilized if we cut 1, 2, or 3 of the 4 positions in the original proposal. After more discussion I moved to eliminate only 2 of the IMC Paraprofessionals and this motion passed on a 6-1 vote. This will result in an additional $66K in savings and when added to the previous total of $745k we have cut about $811K. This is $189k short of our stated $1M deficit.

Some board members felt that this $811K amount is okay, because we still have a chance to save in departmental budgets or possibly in administrative costs or in increased open enrollment dollars. I will argue that not making the full $1M in cuts this year makes the task bigger next year, continues to use fund balance and violates board policy of keeping our fund balance above our stated goal of more than 15%, which negatively impacts our short term borrowing. I don't like any of the cuts we have made, but these are the tough decisions we have been elected to make and coming up short is a disservice to our district in my opinion. I am hopeful that we can close the gap thru the other options that we will discuss in the coming months.

On another note and this is just my opinion.......

A lot of tonights discussions centered on getting more specifics of what potential cuts would look like. While I understand the need for information, at some point the need for information becomes dangerously close to micro-management. I particularly thought we as a board (and I include myself in this statement) were doing this with regards to the building budgets and the IMC Paraprofessionals. If we want the building budgets cut by 5%, I don't think it really matters what those cuts are. We have to trust the administration to make the right decisions for their buildings. If we cut 2 paraprofessional we have to trust that Administration will utilize the remaining staff in the best manner possible. I don't feel I have the expertise to tell them where to make those cuts or which buildings to place staff in. They are the educational professionals and we have to respect their ability to make sound judgements. I will try to stay more cognizant of this in the future.

Lastly, next week is our regularly scheduled meeting and we will be discussing the topic of race relations. I know that with the press coverage we have received in the past 2 weeks this is a hot topic. I hope that we can have a thoughtful, informative and productive conversation. I don't think any single person has all the answers, but hopefully we can raise awareness, open the lines of communication and begin working on solutions. Our schools need to be a safe haven for the students and if 1 student feels it is not a safe place then we need to work to make it a safer place.