Dist.34 to cut jobs, programs to balance budget

SPRINGFIELD - Winfield Elementary District 34 is cutting jobs and programs to balance spending in the face of tightened local and state funding.

Two teaching assistants are being laid off along with a crossing guard. In addition, half a teaching position is being eliminated, a move accomplished by reducing the teaching duties of a certified teaching assistant.

"For a small district I know it doesn't sound like much, but it is," said Superintendent Diane Cody. Winfield had nearly 50 full- and part-time staff and enrollment of 360.

Other cuts include reducing supply budgets by 20 to 50 percent, eliminating after-school tutoring and summer activities.

Cody said the school is seeking grant money to pay for the crossing guard and if successful will reinstate the position.

The moves are designed to trim $70,000 from the district's roughly $4 million annual operating budget that, like many suburban school budgets, is being tested by newfound economic pressures under tax cap laws.

Those laws limit increases in district property tax levies to 5 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. Approved in the early 1990s, tax caps were considered a remedy for skyrocketing property tax bills.

This year, however, the effective rate of inflation is 0.1 percent, down from 4.1 percent. It has districts across the suburbs struggling to cover payroll increases required under binding union contracts, energy costs and other expenses.

Cody said the rate of inflation figure means the district will collect $4,000 more in local taxes and expects no significant increase in state or federal funding. She said 86 percent of the district's money comes from local property taxes.

The cuts recently were approved by the school board and are effective for the next school year.