Monday, April 28, 2008

OSD programs face the ax

A lot of cuts in the suggestions, with a few additions as well, so it's not quite accurate to describe this document [pdf] as solely a series of cuts. Still, the budget bleeds pretty red.

The four largest recommended changes:
  1. Cut transportation, $1 million saved.
  2. Eliminate 5.5 elementary positions, $429,000 saved.
  3. Reduce High School electives and increase class sizes by 2 on average, $409,500 saved.
  4. Eliminate MS Assistant Principal/Dean of Student positions at JMS, MMS and RMS, $270,000 saved.
On May 6 and 7, the Board will take public comments on the suggestions. Want to make sure Drill Team doesn't get the ax? Better show up.

(More on the overall process here.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jim--I was actually out searching for a copy of the OSD budget, but found your blog. Do you have a copy of the budget, or do you know how I can go about getting one?

Making cuts from the list the district provided seems like making a movie with only 4% of the script....there's quite a bit more to the plot.

Thanks.

Jim Anderson said...

Carla, I don't know of a Web-available copy, but I'll email Peter Rex about it. And you're right--there are certainly more options out there, some of which were considered this morning in a District / school admin meeting. This is just the start of what will probably be a quite involved process. We'll see more specific recommendations coming in the next few weeks.

Anonymous said...

Jim--
Thanks for the response. I also emailed Peter Rex and Jim Crawford. An interesting comment was made in the Olymian Editorial yesterday about WASL costing districts and the state millions more than expected. That raised an interesting question. Are there any district level WASL related expenses (particularly relating to math and science) that could be legally cut--especially given that those two tests are being phased out. Just a thought.

Jim Anderson said...

The "Promoting Academic Success" program is one that's already on the way out, it appears. There may be others as well. I've updated the spreadsheet and will continue to do so as new info comes in.