Posted: 12/8/04
By Aaron Vehling
North Branch school board members and school administrators gathered Thursday night at the Main Street School for a work session and discussed the issue of budget cuts.
Finance director Randi Johnson presented a list of budget reductions that have been made or are being made for the 2004-2005 school year.
ěAt this point in the year there are very little discretionary expenditures,î she said.
The district cannot lay off teachers mid-year because of contracts and because it would be disruptive to the educational process, she said.
But the cuts they can make are all across the board, ranging from personnel to supply purchases, according to Johnsonís budget reduction report.
Where it can, the district is leaving new vacancies unfilled, though they do have to fill necessary classroom teacher positions. In the high school they are using interns to fill gaps.
They have reduced the amount of supervisors in the lunchroom, on the playground and in the halls of the Primary School building.
If a teacher needs to purchase supplies that person needs to acquire approval from the building principal, who carefully scrutinizes each request.
Teachers at the Primary School must now purchase their own grade books and lesson plan books, as they are no longer provided by the district. Planners that were provided for middle school students have been eliminated.
In addition, the Honors Breakfast and the Test-Ready Spaghetti event have been cancelled, after-school tutoring has been reduced and the district arranges fewer field trips and hires fewer guest speakers than in the past.
Johnson pointed out that many of the field trips are paid for by fund-raisers held in the individual schools, and to eliminate field trips completely would pose a policy issue.
ěThe fund-raising policy says that if you do fund-raising you must state a purpose,î she said. ěThe purpose of the fund-raising has been field trips. If we cut field trips we have no purpose for fund-raising.î
Michael Trok, principal of the high school, expressed concern, in a written statement, over the cutting of field trips.
ěThere is little to be gained by cutting field trips,î he said in the statement. ěCuts like that make a fair show for those who like theater but have little substance.î
Johnson also discussed with the school board and school administrators a tentative timeline for the planning of cuts for the 2004-2005 academic year.
Between December and February they will update the budget to reflect changes, such as changes in staff, contract settlements, new enrollments and projections and audit figures. A presentation to the board and public input are both planned for February.
March will see a development of cut recommendations and guidelines that will ensure that the cuts will be prioritized to protect class size, align with the districtís mission and vision and maintain the integrity of the site-budget process. Further presentation to the board and public meetings will take place.
Finally, the board is set to take action on the cuts at the regular board meeting on April 14.
In other business, superintendent Bob Stepaniak and assistant superintendent Rodney Reisnouer discussed the possibility of doing some ěstrategic planning.î
The district developed a strategic plan a few years ago, Reisnouer said, but ěwe didnít train people exactly on how to use that plan.î
A strategic plan, said Reisnouer in a phone interview, determines ěwhere we are as a school district and where we are going in the next one to three to five years.î
Board chair Mary Jo Ahlgren said she is looking forward to the philosophical part of strategic planning.
Stepaniak said that Reisnouer will look into refining and adding on to the strategic plan that was developed a few years ago.
Also, Stepaniak introduced the idea of remodeling sections of the Main Street School with the money leftover from the construction of the new Sunrise River School.
It is a district goal to have money leftover from the construction, Stepaniak said .
He added that the plan is to sit down with principals and administrators and take a look at what the districtís priorities should be for the money.
Legally, they can only use the money on building projects.
One suggestion Stepaniak had was to create more office space and a meeting room in Main Street School.
ěI just donít think that the office situation in this building should continue,î he said. ěSomething has to change because this office space is not adequate. We are not looking for anything lavish.î
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