By: Robin Kline

Last Thursday, April 14^th, the last board meeting to determine the 2011-2012 school year budget was held in the high school auditorium. It was the last of a series of special meetings held by the board to listen to what the public had to say about the proposed budget for next year. Many of these meetings have had a high number of members of the community in attendance, but this one didn’t have quite as many. With such drastic cuts being proposed, this was the last chance for people to ask members of the board questions and make comments on how these cuts will affect them. The purpose of this meeting was to adopt a budget by the end.

In the beginning of the meeting, Mrs. LaBelle mentioned that the Board of Education is there to focus on the students and that they must remember that that’s their purpose. She went on to say in her superintendent’s report that the budget they were there to adopt that night was the same as the one that was shown to the public in the meeting the week before, which was $17,24,857 with about a 4.6% tax increase. There were no changes and no additional cuts, and the board voted to adopt the budget later in the meeting. This will be the budget that will be voted on by the voters in the district on May 17^th. If this budget gets voted down by the voters, the board has the choice to come up with a second budget to be voted on or go directly to the contingency budget, which is much lower and will most likely require even more cuts. If voters don’t vote yes on this budget, things could get much worse.

Mrs. Labelle also went on to say that the board would definitely not be supporting such large cuts if they weren’t put in such a hard financial position. They will be working for awhile still on exactly how things will be changed, such as the bus runs and what teachers may lose their jobs. She said negotiations with the GTA are still going on, which means that it may or may not allow teaching positions to be kept depending on how things are worked out. Exact details won’t be worked out for a long time still, but the board is working on it.

Mr. Sutton later said that the board may be able to reinstate a .5 mechanic position, and are still looking at technology classes and Project Lead the Way. They are also still investigating the possibility of two bus runs that are just condensed, instead of the single K-12 bus run that has been proposed. The cuts to sports programs may also be changed, but as of now there will be no JV sports next year. Mr. Sutton also proposed that the board takes advantage of all the community members who have offered to volunteer their time and be involved in decision making of the Board of Education by forming a “stakeholder council.” This will be a board of people from the community who will look at things like interscholastic sports, transportation, etc. to see how money can be best spent and see how the efforts to save money impact the school, the community, and the students. “As we go on,” Mr. Sutton said, “The help of everybody will be more and more important.”

There are also other things that may be investigated by the board, such as the possibility of advanced science classes that start in middle school, just like advanced math. They are making an effort to keep college track classes such as elective social studies classes and physics. Everything else is pretty set in stone, as Mr. Sutton said.

This budget vote is a very important decision for the school’s future, so don’t forget to tell your parents to vote! The best way to make sure your education is what you want it to be is to be involved in these decisions. Make your opinion known, attend board meetings, write letters to the board members, whatever you have to do. The student rally was a good example of community members showing their support for school programs. There’s not much time left before the budget is decided, but that doesn’t mean nothing can be done. And don’t forget about the vote on May 17^th!