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Schools

District 89 Schools Facing More Cuts, Hard Decisions

Despite large crowd, only a handful take the opportunity to ask the school board about $1 million in cuts.

A chance for parents in Community Consolidated School District 89 to sound off about more than $1 million in proposed budget cuts had the potential for explosive fireworks, yet ended with a sound more like that of a pop gun.

More than 50 people packed the small library at Glen Crest Middle School Wednesday night, yet only a handful took the opportunity to discuss any of the proposed cost cutting measures, which include reducing the number of secretaries, some aides, elimination of differentiation support services and the elimination of field trips. Some fees are also expected to increase, including increasing milk prices by $5 a year, increasing outdoor education costs by $10, among others.

These cuts come on top of cuts in 2010 that included freezing Perdue’s salary and restructured some positions. Secretaries were also reduced to working fewer hours per day and some positions, including a library aid at Glen Crest Middle School were cut.

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Pam McDermott, the Glen Crest librarian, told the school board the loss of that aide was a tough blow to her department.

The school district is facing a budget deficit of $2.2 million over the next two years.

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Superintendent John Perdue said the school has been hampered by cuts in state funding as well as state mandates that are unfunded. He said without the allocated resources to fund school programs tough decisions must be made, meaning hefty cuts in the budget as well as a possible early release schedule.

Several audience members wanted a back-and-forth dialogue with the board, but Perdue said that was not the purpose of the meeting. He said it was a chance for the community to air any concerns before the board votes on the new budget on March 21. Perdue told the assembled crowd that cuts had to be made and Wednesday night’s meeting was their chance to speak out—yet few took him up on the opportunity, despite repeated requests for audience members to address the board.

Martha Pfefferman was one of the few who addressed the board. She said she was concerned over the cuts to the secretary position in her child’s elementary school. She said the secretary is responsible for taking attendance and asked the board who would be responsible if the secretary was not there. She said her child walks to school and she wants to be notified if her child is not on the attendance rolls.

Jill Denardo was also concerned about the cuts to the secretaries. She worried about confidentiality issues if parents were asked to handle some of the secretarial responsibilities.

Out of the few who addressed the board there was little hard criticism of the board’s proposed budget cuts. School Board President Lori Gaspar said she believes that was a result of a “good job of informing parents and teachers that cuts were on the horizon.”

Perdue said the school system tapped reserve funds to make up deficits in previous years, but that is no longer an option. He said the funds will be depleted within three years if no new revenues are found, or the cuts are made. Several residents, including Beth Powers, asked about the possibility of a tax referendum in the future to restore some funding.

“And if we do have a referendum will some of the programs and positions that are being cut be restored,” asked Powers.

Perdue said District 89 has the lowest overall tax rate in the Glenbard feeder system. He said they have not asked for a tax increase since 1986, while other districts in the area have done so on more than one occasion in the past 10 years. Any tax referendum though could not occur until some time in 2012, Gaspar said.

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