District 300 board wades through details of cuts

The Community Unit District 300 school board is moving steadily toward a vote on 2010-11 budget reductions, scheduled for Feb. 22.

The board held a workshop on the reductions after Monday's stunningly short board meeting.

Physical education: Superintendent Ken Arndt said he has received a lot of correspondence from parents on this topic and had two elementary school principals address the issue.

The principals said kindergartners now have physical education for 20 minutes, twice a week. The district is proposing axing gym for kindergartners, which would presumably mean more time spent on essential subjects like math and reading.

"The increase in the core instruction would not be a bad thing for them," said Craig Zieleniewski, principal of Perry Elementary School, which as he noted is a Title I school where students are already at an academic disadvantage.

Building temperature: The district is proposing reducing the temperature range for buildings to save on heating and cooling costs. Currently, buildings are kept at 68 to 74 degrees; the district is considering changing that to 69 to 73 degrees.

As the discussion illustrated, everyone has a different idea of what is too hot or too cold. Board Secretary Anne Miller was bundled up in a coat during the workshop.

To bring some objectivity to the debate, board President Joe Stevens asked Supervisor of Facilities and Energy Management David Ulm to look at state guidelines on classroom temperature.

Voting procedure: Board members tried to clarify how the final list of reductions would be developed and voted on.

Chris Stanton suggested voting on some items individually; otherwise, he argued, board members who object to one or two proposals would be forced to vote against the whole package, potentially sabotaging the reductions.

Stevens reiterated his desire to have the board vote on the reductions as a whole package. Allowing individual votes, he said, could lead the district to fall short of its goal of cutting more than $6 million from its budget.

Instead, Stevens said Arndt will incorporate board member feedback into his final list of reductions.

While the reductions may put the district on sound financial footing next year, the district still has this year to worry about.

Officials this week detailed plans to borrow $11 million to cover expenses while the district waits on $6 million in past-due state funding.

This would mark the first time since before the successful tax increase in 2006 that the district has issued tax anticipation warrants.

While one issuance is not in itself cause for concern, repeated borrowings would be a sign of a long-term cash flow problem.