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District 300 slashes budget $4.6 million

Even more cuts are coming next month

The state's budget crisis hit home in Community Unit District 300 on Monday, resulting in $4.6 million in reduced staff and programs for the 2010-11 school year.

The package of cuts the board approved was smaller than the initial $6.4 million administration proposed in early January. Among the most notable cuts are:

• Eliminating music and physical education for kindergarten students, $160,000 in savings.

• Narrowing the building temperature range by two degrees, $418,000 in savings.

• Reducing the long-term substitute teacher rate to $150 per day from the current daily rate of $218.

• Cutting five custodians, instead of the 11 reductions initially proposed.

"Cutting music is more painful to me than I can explain to most people," said board member Dave Alessio. "This will probably not be the last of the tough times.

Nine to 12 unpaid furlough days for administrators, an estimated $815,000 in savings, were among the cuts considered earlier, but they were taken off the table Monday night.

Before Monday's meeting, Superintendent Ken Arndt removed other items from the list of reductions in response to parent and staff feedback, including mental health support for employees, technology upgrades and counselors.

A full list of cuts is available at District 300's Web site, d300.org.

The cuts, officials say, will help bring the district's budget in line with more than $6 million in delayed state payments. District leaders already are looking toward next year, when the state may fall even further behind on its payments to the district.

Anticipating the reduced funding and to make up for the items removed from the initial list of cuts, the board is set to vote April 26 on another $1.2 million in reductions.

That set of reductions would cut busing services not required by the state, including transportation for students in preschool, the dual-language program, parochial schools and students who are part of the Elgin Community College Partnership.

Parents filled about three-quarters of a middle-school auditorium for Monday's meeting to protest the anticipated cuts to transportation for the dual language program.

District employees will learn their fate after March 8, when the board is scheduled to vote on which employees will be laid off as part of the 2010-11 budget cuts.