Another phase in developing the District budget for next year has taken
place. Preliminary results from a Dan Jones & Associates survey indicated preferences of patrons in meeting our budget deficits (watch for a more complete report of the results to be available in about two weeks).
Patrons rank-ordered their preferences for budget balancing. An increase in class size was clearly an area the patrons did not want used to balance the budget. Patrons also did not favor eliminating academic programs in the District. There was support for reducing non-teaching staff and administrative costs. Increasing taxes was the least acceptable option, although the public did express some support for a tax increase.
The Board spent considerable time discussing these results. As a result, they have chosen at this time to leave the student/teacher ratio unchanged for next year. They did authorize an additional $1.8 million in additional reduction in force from all employee groups in non-teaching capacities. That’s about 35 additional FTE positions. All items of the budget have not been finalized, but many things are beginning to take shape.
0 Responses to “More on the Budget”