Teachers safe for now in Huntley Dist. 158

While school districts across the area are reducing staff in order to make up decreased revenue from the state, the Huntley Unit District 158 school board shaved a further $2 million from its draft 2010-2011 budget without laying off teachers.

The school board voted Thursday to tap into the district's surplus, leave vacant positions unfilled and reduce other expenditures to make up the $2 million that board members said would be needed to stay in line with the 17 percent reduction in revenue that's expected from the state. The district will use $1 million from its surplus to move on projects this year that were slated for next year. The board will now amend its 2010 budget to reflect the reduced surplus.

Leaving 10 positions vacant would save $500,000, while eliminating or reducing other areas - such as the chief operations officer position and student supervision - would add another $536,000 to the district's coffers.

Superintendent John Burkey and Chief Finance Officer Mark Altmayer had included eliminating 20.4 elementary teaching positions and several middle school teachers, which would have saved the district about $1.45 million, but board members and the dozens of teachers in the audience opposed the idea.

"The mission of the district has been to keep class sizes down," board member Paul Troy said. "This approach keeps us in the lower realm."

But board members also warned that the district would need to consider a reduction in force should the state's financial situation worsen. Board members said $2 million may not be deep enough.

"That is the approach we have to take," board member Donald Drzal said. "I am not saying we need to make $4 million in cuts, $2 million is realistic. But we might have a situation similar to this one month from now."

The district was showing a $707,000 surplus but was later projected at a $627,000 deficit due to the state's proposal to slash education by $922 million, or 15 percent. The district has already included at $6.6 million in reductions - mostly deferrals - into the draft budget. The plan calls for the district to hold costs constant for technology, buses, building maintenance, textbooks and energy.