Belt Tightening in One School District
posted 2/3/10


The following is one school district’s explanation of how it has been affected by budget cuts.

Based on the current budget cut of 8.2% our district will be reducing our budget in the following areas:

We have not filled the following positions that have become open due to illness, retirement, death, etc.:  middle school math (1), elementary teacher assistant (1), central office administrator (1), and middle school nurse (1).

We have reduced the number of field trips and are now charging for drivers and mileage.

We have announced to our administrators that we will charge mileage for all travel to competitions and athletic events for the 2010-2011 school year.

We are cutting our 2010-2011 athletic budgets by 15%.

We will raise our 2010-2011 football tickets prices by $1.00.

We will cut (hopefully due to attrition): one part-time high school teacher, one high school assistant, one middle school teacher position and one middle school gifted teacher, one full time and one part-time 3-5 teacher position one k-2 teacher position. All of these are in addition to the cuts referenced above.

We will NOT be using any district, EEF or MAEP dollars to purchase buses. NOTE: Over half of our fleet is already over ten years of age.

We will freeze all step increases that we have control of.

We will be increasing our student teacher ratios.

We will be asking for a district-wide furlough if the legislature allows it.

We will only purchase fill-in textbooks for the 2010-2011 school year.

Professional development will be cut; any professional development offered will be funded through federal and grant dollars.

Our facilities maintenance budget will be cut by 15%.

We are currently working on a plan to help us reduce our energy costs.