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The Winona Area Public School (WAPS) board reexamined 21 proposed budget adjustments Thursday that would cut $500,000 from the 2013-2014 school year spending plan.
At the top of the list of recommendations is a proposed shift in classroom size that administrators have said could save the district $110,000 per year. However, increasing classroom targets by two students worried some board members.
“I think it is important to keep in mind that the class sizes of other, non-public schools have smaller elementary sizes than [we],” board member Jay Kohner said. “For many parents, the important thing is class size. If we are looking at increasing class sizes, I think we should try to keep early grades [class sizes] as low as possible.”
Board member Ben Baratto agreed and said smaller class sizes appeal to parents of children in lower grades.
After discussion turned to the possibility of redistricting, board chair Mohamed Elhindi said while increasing class sizes could potentially redraw district lines, it was not a given.
“We are hoping we won’t have to do that but we don’t really know until we start the staffing process in March,” WAPS Human Resources Director Pat Blaisdell said.
Superintendent Scott Hannon said earlier this month that current enrollment projections could require a change in boundaries, specifically at Rollingstone Elementary. He added Thursday that he was “confident” that increasing the class size targets by two would not have significant detrimental effects.
A specific revenue producer discussed was raising the high school student parking pass fee from $65 to $80 annually. The added $15, Winona Senior High School principal Kelly Halvorson said, would bring in funds and wasn’t a large enough increase to deter drivers from purchasing the passes.
Other cuts that top the list are a $50,000 reduction in the amount allocated to textbooks, a $40,000 collective reduction from clerical departments at both the middle school and high school, and a $28,000 reduction in instructional supplies for all departments in the district.
“I am confident that no teacher will go without supplies he or she needs,” Hannon said. “It’s one thing to buy appropriate things out of your own pocket, but it’s another to buy frilly things. We’re not going to be buying frilly things; we’re buying necessary instructional supplies.”
According to recent budget projections, the district must also cut $750,000 for 2014-2015, and $450,000 for 2015-216.
The board is expected to vote on the proposed budget cuts at its meeting later this month.
Full list of
budget reductions
• Restructure elementary
emotional behavioral
disorder programs and day
treatment services
- $38,000
• .6 reduction of Middle
School electives
(Family and Consumer
Sciences)*- $33,000
• Charge back human
resources and information
services to school
nutrition and community
services- $25,000
• Four-day work week for
eight weeks in the summer
- $26,312
• Restructure Middle School
in-school suspension
- $21,153
• Reduction of .2
administrator* - $20,000
• Restructure high school
and middle school safety
specialist schedules
- $16,000
• Reduce school nutrition,
maintenance position by .3
full-time equivalent*
- $15,000
• Reduce special education
lead teacher position at the
middle school by .4 full
time equivalent*- $15,000
• Move Greenhouse
Program to a different
location- $10,000
• Reduce elementary
consumable instructional
supplies- $10,000
• Replace Lotus Notes and
MS Office with Google
(G-Mail and apps)
- $10,000
• Change property insurance
parameters- $10,000
• Close middle school
pool early- $7,000
• Reduce copy usage- $6,000
*A full-time employee has a status of 1.0, while lower decimals represent a fraction of full-time status
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