Declining enrollment over the last two years may force School District 55 to cut an estimated $800,000 and staff next year.
“We do not know the dollars we’re not going to have,” Supt. Bill Hampton said, but he believes it will be about $800,000.
Supt. Hampton asked administrators to come up with that much in budget cuts for next year and presented to the School Board Monday night what he stressed was a hypothetical set of cuts to show how that target could be met.
“It won’t be this list,” Supt. Hampton said of his list. “It’ll be the types of things you see…. Some of these cuts make sense because enrollment’s down.”
Among those cuts could be 9.5 classroom teachers, $475,500, to meet more than half of the cuts. Those teachers could come from each school and still leave classroom sizes under 25 students, except at the junior high, where class sizes would reach an average of 25.41.
Additional cuts in his example would include the reduction of the media specialist position, which is vacant; a special education position, a half-time alternative education position; a half-time administration position; two full-time equivalent assistant positions; and the construction house fund for another $210,500.
Through restrictions on spending, Supt. Hampton also suggested meeting some of the shortfall by carrying over $150,000 from this year’s budget.
Total, Supt. Hampton’s example would cover $788,000 of the shortfall.
“If we don’t make it (the carryover),” Supt. Hampton said. “We’re going to have to come back and make cuts because of that.”
Administrators talked about other options as well, such as closing Pleasant Valley Kindergarten, which would save $170,000; cutting a custodial position, $32,300; a maintenance position, $38,000; or all but transportation costs for extra-curricular activities, $250,000. Total, extra-curricular activities cost the District about another $150,000 for transportation.
Closing schools would be a “staff buyback,” Supt. Hampton told the Board, but the Board indicated it did not want to shut any schools down at this point.
As far as cutting maintenance, “right now, they’re pretty strapped,” Supt. Hampton said. “I’m not sure we could make that cut right now.”
Should the District’s proposed bond be approved by voters, the District would have fewer maintenance needs after projects are completed, Supt. Hampton said.
“I can tell you, $800,000 in our budget is really tight,” Supt. Hampton said. “Last year we cut a million dollars.”
Cuts last year included $400,000 at the start of the year and another $660,000 later on.
Supt. Hampton warned that the estimate for the shortfall could “be a million (dollars) by the time we talk in April.”