Kaneland board weighing cuts
Kaneland school board on Monday got its first look at a plan aimed at avoiding a projected $1 million deficit in the district’s operating budget for 2011-2012.
The trims proposed by Superintendent Jeff Schuler totaled $240,815 at the elementary schools, $127,911 at the middle school, $169,884 at the high school and $461,390 for administrative and districtwide services.
“We understand the cuts that we’ve made would be painful,” Schuler said.
Under the proposed budget cuts, intramural athletics at Kaneland High School and Harter Middle School would be eliminated, as would stipends for the Kaneland Fine Arts Festival, a social worker at the high school, and seven assistant high school sports coaches.
The elementary schools would have their 10-month secretarial positions reduced to nine months, and the equivalent of two full-time library directors would be eliminated. The remaining librarians would instead serve two elementary schools apiece.
Library resource director Gwen Carlson, who works at Kaneland McDole Elementary School, pleaded with the board to consider not cutting any more from that area of the budget, saying the LRC directors heard of the cuts “with great dismay.”
After cuts made to library services last year, including a reduction in support services and materials purchases “severely weakened” the program, Carlson said there is “no margin” left.
A plainer student handbook would be produced for the middle-school students; a retiring teacher’s job would not be filled; fewer library books would be bought; and some assistant coaches would be eliminated at the middle school under the proposed cuts.
Instead of buying two replacement school buses, the district would only get one, it would use less overtime for administrative support staff, and less would be spent on travel for the school board and human resources conferences.
Overall, it calls for eliminating the equivalent of 5.9 full-time certified positions, one-half noncertified positions, one-half district office position and 31 stipend positions.
The projections assume a 2.5 percent salary increase for those employees not represented by collective bargaining agreements or other contracts.
“We did our very best to propose a series of cuts that did not reduce staff positions,” Schuler said.
The proposal can be seen on the district’s website, kaneland.org. They will also be presented in a community forum at 7 p.m. at Harter Middle School in Sugar Grove, discussed again at the Feb. 28 school board meeting, and voted on at the March 14 meeting.