By:Karen Rice
The plan, shaved down from a 5.6 percent increase to a 4 percent hike, was one of three alternatives introduced by superintendent of Lawrence schools, Dr. Mark Rosenbaum, at a special June 4 school board meeting.
The plan, known as alternative three, would cut a number of school services, including privately-owned vending machines, school lunch subsidies, hall monitors and a number of buses. The plan could still be changed at a Tuesday, evening, June 11 budget work session, which is scheduled after presstime.
Rosenbaum said he preferred alternative three to adopting an austerity or contingency budget where all capital expenditures, except those for use in an emergency, and the school lunch program could be eliminated. The district could be forced into austerity, where $1.5 million in cuts would automatically be made, because the the original budget was voted down by District 15 residents on May 21.
I'm for option three, he said. It's really a matter of what fits the needs of the individual community better.
Alternative three suggests the withdrawal of funding for late buses and pre-K buses and possibly putting the students on fewer buses. A child may spend 10-15 more minutes on the bus but the child will still get home and the district can save money that way, according to the board.
I know that there are days that the buses are under-utilized, Rosenbaum said after explaining that residents are often paying to run empty buses.
Each bus costs $40,000 a year to run and the savings can go to the under-budgeted and over-used reserve fund, the board said.
Don't put them [pre-schoolers] on the bus, said one resident upon hearing the cost of buses. We can't afford it.
The board also suggested looking at retirees and people leaving school positions as opportunities to save money, such as turning a managerial janitor position into a hands-on position which could save $60,000 a year plus benefits and savings. The board promises to critically examine all retirements and accept that there may be no need to replace or fill every position. Administrative positions, such as assistant principal, may also go unfilled or take pay cuts. Same job for less money, said Kathy Raquet Barry, school board trustee.
Another position that may change drastically because of the new budget is hall monitor. Barry said she favored ousting hall monitors to save money. The counter-argument was that teachers' moral can be affected by having to pick up the slack and fill in. This could decrease their classroom performance and ultimately harm the children's learning.
We need to cut administrative positions before we start hurting the children, said Frank Parise, school board member.
However, despite the negative atmosphere surrounding the new budget and its series of cuts, the board tried to end the June 4 meeting on a positive note. The present budget will still allow us to end the year in the black, Rosenbaum said. Also, the school district is continuing with a 10.5-to-one student-to-teacher ratio, including special education teachers, according to Frank Argento, school board president. The board was also open to future discussions about the budget with teachers and comments from residents. Parise insisted that the board consider the community its top priority.
I urge that we forget about politics and think about the community, Parise said.
The school district has until July 1 to submit a new budget for a re-vote or be forced onto austerity. The Lawrence school board has been desperately seeking ways to slash a proposed $82.6 million budget.
The budget on the May 21 ballot was defeated 2,246 votes to 4,774, a more than two-to-one margin. The last time a budget was defeated occurred in 1995 when it failed by four votes, and it was passed on a re-vote.
